essay on men build too many walls but not enough bridges
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Human beings’ first instinct is to protect ourselves. For centuries, we built walls in the belief that that this was the best, more effective way of staying safe. When Isaac Newton pronounced the famous words that are the title of this article, borders were basic elements of the nascent Nation-States, and a means for their rulers to assert their power and territorial dominance. Admittedly, at that time, people were willing to relinquish their freedom to the State in exchange for protection. However, in a world devoid of globalisation, why would one of the leading figures of the Enlightenment suggest such an idea? How relevant is it today?
Since those times, the world has become more open, interconnected, and globalised to an extent that few thinkers from centuries gone by could have imagined, and it has all happened extremely quickly. Managing this change has been a challenge to every state and government in the world. Modernising certain traditions, which are manifestations of different degrees of conservatism in different parts of the world, and some mindsets, is a difficult problem.
However, at the beginning of the 21st century, it is clear that walls no longer afford protection. They may be high, strong and supposedly invincible, but you are mistaken if you believe that any border is unbreachable. At best, they are for honest citizens who are affected by all these barriers, but they are an illusion for organised crime groups who, for a long time, have learnt to overcome obstacles, even the most sophisticated ones. New technologies that enables money to go around the world several times in no more than a second and the considerable increase in movements of people and goods have shifted the meaning of borders.