Thursday, September 1, 2016

The Greatest Wall of Them All

Lo Siento, Mexico! The Great Big Wall seems to be Trump's go-to. (read about it here.) It's not exactly original, there have been other walls in other times. Maybe it would benefit us to look at the greatest wall of them all; The Great Wall of China.
This wall goes back as far as 7th century (BCE) China, built to stop raids of  "various nomadic groups", there were actually several walls that were eventually joined together. The wall was also used for Silk Road regulation, as well as border control. The Great Wall would be used again and again. At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the wall was used to stop the Manchu invasions, began about 1600, it took 44 years for the Manchus to successfully overtake the Great Wall, as they had been busting through portions of it for quite some time. By the time the Manchu's established their own dynasty, they had appropriated the Great Wall, for migration control.
The Great Wall didn't really work in the long run. It is curious that these are ancient problems and building a wall is so basic, here we are in 2016, with a politician telling us he'll build a wall and Mexico will pay for it, only they won't really know they are. The Art of the Wall Deal? Is that how it works?

There was another wall, Hadrian's Wall, that Rome built, like Rome, it wasn't built in a day! The purpose of this wall? To separate the Romans from the "Barbarians" (read indigenous people) some reasons speculated for this wall seem to be much like China's Great Wall. it was for regulation and taxation, After Hadrian's death, there was a new Emperor, Antonius Pius who, decided he needed a new (you guessed it) wall! This would be the Antonine Wall in Scotland, why would he need another
wall? What could possibly go wrong? After all, Hadrian's Wall worked out so well. This was no ordinary stone fortified wall, this was made out of turf. Seems that building materials were under some kind of austerity budget, however, this wall and it's many forts, could not conquer the northern tribes and so was abandoned. Marcus Aurelius thought to go back to Hadrian's Wall and start over. The back and forth from wall to wall happened again, with Septimius Sevarus who tried to use the old Antonine Wall which was a disaster made from sod. The Roman Military Industrial Complex clearly was running out of cash, by the 4th century Roman rule was all but over in Britain owing to many conflicts and foreign debacles that helped the fall of Rome, fall even more and the walls were eventually abandoned.
It seems that Donald Trump is not much of a student of history. Walls have been built all over the world, they start out as some sort of method of defense, but really end up as a way to regulate and tax the flow of goods and people who are moving through countries. Notice, there's no mention of a "Great Wall" to be built between Canada and the US. Canadians don't want any parts of immigrating, legally or illegally. It's economic refugees coming into our country after we have fiddled around and caused coups to happen in so many Central and South Americans governments, I have lost track. The insane Drug War causing gang activity, money laundering and violence. In 2015, Trump called for the legalization of all drugs, as far as I could read in Trumps speech yesterday, he didn't mention legalizing drugs. Just build a  Great Wall and that will solve all your problems, history teaches us, that people who are determined enough, find a way to get around or get over walls or the maintenance of them will bankrupt a country already stretched too thin. This is nothing new, it is a retrograde of an idea and once again shows a serious lack of creativity, which is what I look for in a leader and why I won't be voting. Make America great again, with a wall. No thanks.


4 comments:

  1. I wonder if the Ming Dynasty made the Manchus pay for the Great Wall.

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    1. I think the Manchu's took it and set up a toll system from the Silk Road, I doubt anything ended up maintaining it. Probably ended up in someone's pocket.

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  2. Thanx for the Wall history read Patricia! Let me talk about Trump's wall though ... Trump is a hustler, period ... he buyz, buildz, sellz, etc ... the wall he proposes first of all, wont do much of a damn thing as far as stopping border jumping, I know several border jumpers, and they already have plans for any wall he or the U.S. can build ... too me, it's a waste of tax money, and it would on go to Trump's credit historically which he wants, as much as wanting his name on clothing merchandise or hotels ... it's bullshit. This SOB wouldnt even propose building such a wall if he had to shell out the money, (that shit would be in the trash quick if he had to spend) ... this is a cash cow for people that he knows, they milk the U.S. government to put up the front money, the government lets his enterprise do the sub contracting, they mark up the invoices/ charges (like they do on everything else we over- pay for), and he tells us that he is working with Mexico to negotiate them paying, which Mexico aint gonna do anywayz, they look at this dude as a goofball to even ask ... this is a suckers game ... and the victims are the taxpayers, they pull the same contracting games in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq ... because we're stupid enough to get soaked/ milked.

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    1. Yeah it amazes me how many supporters he has he after his bankrupt casino shut down. then he cut a deal with Christie for $5 mill instead of $35, talk about the art of the deal. Yes, you are right the wall will be a cash cow for someone and we will pay. like now we will pay his debt that's already in the budget. Did anyone think that they wouldn't get the ful;l amount from him? This is why Atlantic City is bankrupt and probably Jersey to. We need a wall to keep Trump out. http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2016/08/report_did_christie_cut_trumps_atlantic_city_casin.html

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