Why whas the Berlin Wall a bad thing?

Question

It was a way to prevent people from easily breaking some laws enforced in those times, preventing the necessary punishment that would ensue, encouraging them to seek the "formal path" instead.

Many "Berlin Walls" are still standing today, and more are being build. Would you want the walls of a prison to be built of 2 meter tall wire fence? Or are concrete and guards better suited?

And do you think the security enforcement at airports is exaggerated? Would a couple of old policemen intimidate you enough not to bring dangerous objects with you?

If you ran a music store, would you trust your customers enough not to have a magnetic detector installed at the exit?

Berlin Walls are just realistic ways to simplifies things for everyone.

Of course it's spelled "simplify".

Answer 1

I kind of see where you're going with this, I think. If the Berlin Wall was bad, why would the US putting up a wall on the Mexican border be a good thing? But yeah, the Berlin Wall was built to keep people in. The US would be building a wall to keep people (illegals) OUT. Some people will argue that, a wall on the Mexican border will seperate families the same way the Berlin Wall did, but I'm totally in favor of a wall along the Mexican border. We're not going to STOP people from coming into the US, we're just trying to insure they do it legally. That's the big difference. Our wall will (hopefully) serve as a security measure, not a complete stoppage of travel between the US and Mexico. The Berlin Wall was built for the soul purpose of stoppage.

Answer 2

I appreciate the point you're trying to make, but you're oversimplifying the Berlin Wall. It was more than just a "guidepost", as you say; it was the ultimate symbol of separatism between the communist bloc and the free democratic West.

German family members stood and gazed at one another as the wall went up, knowing they might never see each other again. The Berlin Wall served to keep the West out, and to keep the Soviet subjects in.
Don't you remember the blood-curdling cheer those Berliners let out when Ronald Reagan urged Mikail Gorbachev to "tear down this wall!"?
Don't you remember the urgent vigor with which those people hammered at that wall when the Soviet Union fell? They screamed like they'd just won the World Cup, Super Bowl and World Series all in the same night. Tears in their eyes. Tearing at the wall with their bare hands or whatever they had handy.

And you're going to compare the Berlin Wall to magnetic tabs in a record store? Maybe if those magnetic tabs led to you being dragged into the street and shot in the head as an example to all those who dared stray from the "formal path", THEN we can talk.

And you're going to compare the Berlin Wall to the borders around a prison? The Berlin Wall certainly represented a prison; that of an entire collection of nations trapped indefinitely behind impermeable concrete. Those on either side of a prison wall have chosen to live their lives in such a manner as to "earn" their placement there. Most of us live a law-abiding life; some of us do not. That was never an option available to those being separated in Berlin.

As far as airport security, yes it could be a lot more "intimidating". But it's not like it's punk teenage kids who are trying to see what they can get with. It's Islamic terrorists, unswayed by the threat of death, who harbor the intention of destroying our planes and people.

Thanks to America, there are fewer Berlin Walls standing today, both literally and figuratively.

Answer 3

The Berlin Wall was built to keep Germans in Communist East Germany from escaping the "Workers Paradise". If any one got near the wall on the Communist side, they were shot. Communism in Eastern Europe and the former USSR was a giant prison.
Most other walls/fences that countries build are built to keep people out.

The US needs a "Berlin Wall" on our southern border, not to keep people from escaping, but to keep people out. Everyone screams and rants about what a horrible country this is, but it is one of the only countries that people risk their lives to get into..

Answer 4

The Berlin wall was devised to keep the Soviet citizens from having a glimpse of the prosperity of the West Germans living in western Berlin. It was a tool of oppression and genocide. The whole point was not to keep people in western Berlin in but to keep the people in eastern Berlin and East Germany from knowing what a raw deal they had gotten.

Answer 5

You obviously never went there and looked over to the other side.
In all the time that it was there, I don't recall a news story about anybody trying to get over the wall to get IN to E. Berlin. That should give you a clue as to why it was a bad thing.

Answer 6

The laws you speak of were Communist laws, and tore a country apart for almost 60 years, separating families and was in no way comparable to what you are hiding in your question...the fence needed across the US-Mexican Border. Mexico needs to be cleaned up by a government not so intent on solving its problems by pushing them off on us. Security enforcement must be both high-tech and personal for it to be effective to stop illegals from draining our resources

Answer 7

The berlin wall also split many families and friends.
Imagine waking up one day and being told you can't visit relatives across town.

Answer 8

The Berlin Zoo is one of the nicest in world.Perhaps you should drop by and see for yourself the accommodation's.Caged or walled in you decide.

Answer 9

How old are you?
It was absolutely a bad thing - and the so-called laws it was put in place to preserve were abhorrent strictures of freedom. The Wall itself represented just how rotten the Soviet Union was. And it fell down. OOPS!!
Read your history. Prior to 1980 of course.

Answer 10

The Berlin wall was not built to keep people out. It was built to keep people in.