This TedTalk was given by Alexandra Auer, discussing the effects of physical borders and barriers between nations and their effects on relations.  She claims that walls and fences only provide a feeling of security – they establish a division amongst people, instead.  Auer asserts that physical empower mental walls and mental walls empower physical walls, showing that this recent increase of building borders has increased mental disposition against “others”.  She also speaks of gated communities, serving as models of small-scale countries.  This point was made as an explanation that although these living conditions are made by choice, they have serious mental effects on the individuals who live there who do not open themselves up to interacting with those outside their gates.

Auer tells of her field experiment at an elementary school that had put up a gate between the two groups of kids who were of different ethnicities.  She explored idea of how to influence individuals to find the commonality amongst them.  In this, she begins to break the mental wall and challenges the us-versus-them mentality.  We have had discussions like these in our class, but I have always wondered how exactly you get people to realize the things they have in common.  Auer was able to answer this with a small sample group of children, and I realized that the answer is different depending on the individuals.  Especially when considering how people put up their own walls against others for various reasons, there cannot be one single way to resolve the division amongst a multicultural society.  Auer concludes that walls do not solve the root of our issues; rather it only divides a group of people on culture and geography that has large intergenerational implications.  I think this was a great point to leave on, as our international community has become a lot more vulnerable to security issues.  Officials’ solutions are to ensure the safety of their citizens through a defense, but this only perpetuates a difference principle that never will foster a united force.

https://www.ted.com/talks/alexandra_auer_the_intangible_effects_of_walls_apr_2020/up-next#t-691218