A wall with Canada? The idea came up during a Republican presidential debate, from a candidate insisting his party's border policies aren't tough enough.
All this irrational fear and hatred of others - where does it end. Why do we need to “wall off” Canada or any other country? America was never meant to be an isolationist, walled off country - in fact, just the opposite. I can see why some border security is sometimes important - but we do not need more walls, barbed wire, and dobermans at the border waiting to chew up immigrant kids. I say we welcome Canada and we open our doors to Mexico - thousands of people flock there every day across the border to work and to shop - why not just get rid of the walls? We do not need them.
To people who feel deprived of a clear social identity, Ur-Fascism says that their only privilege is the most common one, to be born in the same country. This is the origin of nationalism. Besides, the only ones who can provide an identity to the nation are its enemies. Thus at the root of the Ur-Fascist psychology there is the obsession with a plot, possibly an international one. The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia. But the plot must also come from the inside: Jews are usually the best target because they have the advantage of being at the same time inside and outside. In the U.S., a prominent instance of the plot obsession is to be found in Pat Robertson’s The New World Order, but, as we have recently seen, there are many others.
All this irrational fear and hatred of others - where does it end. Why do we need to “wall off” Canada or any other country? America was never meant to be an isolationist, walled off country - in fact, just the opposite. I can see why some border security is sometimes important - but we do not need more walls, barbed wire, and dobermans at the border waiting to chew up immigrant kids. I say we welcome Canada and we open our doors to Mexico - thousands of people flock there every day across the border to work and to shop - why not just get rid of the walls? We do not need them.
Umberto Eco, “Ur-Fascism”