Barbed Wire

I had heard about this book Barbed Wire--An Ecology of Modernity by Reviel Netz over the past year. I wanted to read it and reading it turned out to become more and more apropos as the summer wore on through insane Trump border wall rhetoric, Charlottesville, Confederate Statues, and more.  Barbed Wire was invented in 1874 as a way of helping to fence the American West in the expansion after the Civil War.

What Netz brings to light is how modern life is built on three kinds of lines.  The closed line, or circle, that keeps others out (the property boundary), the closed line that keeps things in (the prison), and the open line that prevents movement in either direction (the border).  Barbed Wire, originally intended to affect the behavior and awareness of cattle, makes these lines permanent in a very inexpensive way.  Moreover, barbed does its work by way of education: the animal presses against it, experiences physical pain, even some level of trauma, and learns not to press against it.  Before long, the animals know not to touch the wire in order to avoid pain.

Barbed wire controls movement by the threat of pain.  It was invented in1874 for use on animals, but by 1899 it was used to control the movements of people.  And now, you can recognize a prison, first and formost by the presence of a fences topped with concertina wire, designed to shred anyone who touches it to ribbons.

Netz lays out how barbed wire has come to have its place, not only in the world, but in our minds: reemphasizing how protecting property by the control of bodies has become a given in the west.  He draws the line between the Soviet Gulag, the German Concentration camp, and how each and everyone of us sees property and its protection today.  It is nothing short of horrifying to see how the same operations at work in the holocaust have seeped into everyday western life.  From the development of neighborhoods, to the planning of gated communities, to gentrification and ghettoization, these attitudes and sensibilities that are so grotesquely made concrete by barbed wire are active in much more subtle ways.

And it explains a lot.  Charlottesville is no accident or anomaly.   It's helped me to think about the evolution of Swissvale and the demographic realities surrounding our church.  Understanding how these forces operate will give PMC a better chance to find the most creative life-giving work to do in our community.