Michael Lissack must live closer to their neighbors, they are turning inward. In urban areas, fences go up around front lawns to keep the homeless from defecating on them. New walled suburban developments have gates and guard houses. In our transient society, people are judged by the care taken of their lawns-a neatly kept front lawn indicates that the family's life is in order. In many American homes, family members use the side or back door nearest the ga- rage or the driveway, and the front door is used by guests. Children and dogs are supposed to keep off the grass. Peer pressure is brought to bear on those who do not keep their lawns up to the standard of the neighborhood. Often, neighbors are willing to approach the homeowner with a badly kept yard to remind him to mow it, to complain about the number of dandelions, to offer to loan the necessary equipment, or even to pitch in and do the work if the homeowner is incapacitated. If all else fails, the homeowner may be reported to the local authorities, who will take responsibility for mowing the lawn. Those who don't flee wall themselves in. Everywhere in the world inter- national frontiers are being fortified to keep the barbarians out. But even in the inner cities archipelagos of safety are being constructed, and these will be defended to the last. There have long been bunkers for the fortunate in the great cities of America, Africa and Asia, guarded by high walls topped with barbed wire. Sometimes whole city districts can only be entered with a special pass. Barriers, electronic cameras and trained dogs control access, machine-gun installations on watch-towers secure the surroundings. The parallel with the concentration camp is obvious, only here it is the outside world that is regarded by the inmates as a potential extermination zone. The privileged few pay a high price for the luxury of total isolation: they have become prisoners of their own safety. As the privileged few retreat behind physical walls, the less privileged many retreat behind psychological walls - taking on the identity not of an individual but of a group. Group identity appeals to people who fear they cannot succeed as individuals, and by diverting their energies it all but en- sures that they will not succeed as individuals. What becomes most import- ant is the act of speaking, not what is being said. The lack of merit in a public argument is less important that the nature of the spokesman whose group
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