Abstract
A world without walls is unthinkable. (This paper was first delivered at the international conference A World Without Walls 2010: Peacebuilding, Reconciliation and Globalization in an Interdependent World (6–10 November 2010), Berlin.) Some people or communities find them necessary and useful. In Robert Frost’s poem Mending Walls, a neighbour even reiterates that “Good fences make good neighbours”. Walls can give a feeling of safety and protect what one does not want to share. This conference, however, focuses on fences or walls which are generally considered bad and would be better dismantled. The fall of the Berlin Wall allowed the unification of a country, the widening of the European Community and détente within greater Europe.
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Notes
- 1.
This paper was first delivered at the international conference A World Without Walls 2010: Peacebuilding, Reconciliation and Globalization in an Interdependent World (6–10 November 2010), Berlin.
- 2.
Political, economic and social exclusion; psychological violence; cultural violence; epistemic violence; bad governance; and environmental deterioration.
- 3.
Such as education, the judiciary, health-care, and environmental protection.
- 4.
“Eighty percent of all scientific research is devoted to the war industry and is frankly aimed at large-scale violence” (Shiva n.d.), at: http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu05se/uu05se0i.htm.
- 5.
Gramsci (prison notebooks, n.d), and Gitlin (2003) define hegemony as the ruling class’s domination through ideology and through the shaping, engineering or manufacturing of consent.
- 6.
‘Intellectual’ is not a synonym for intelligence. Many intelligent people may not have an interest in ideas or controversies, or their interests and mindsets could be too narrow to engage in a broader discussion. Public intellectuals may or may not be affiliated with universities. They may be full-time or part-time academics; journalists or publishers; writers or artists; politicians or officials; or they may work for think thanks or hold ordinary jobs.
- 7.
Ignatieff (2006) stresses that they should stick to the knowledge and know-how that they genuinely claim to have mastered, because all-purpose experts quickly become clowns and entertainers. Smart asses are not necessarily the intellectuals that are needed.
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Reychler, L., Langer, A. (2020). Intellectual Solidarity, Peace and Psychological Walls. In: Reychler, L., Langer, A. (eds) Luc Reychler: A Pioneer in Sustainable Peacebuilding Architecture. Pioneers in Arts, Humanities, Science, Engineering, Practice, vol 24. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40208-2_12
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