Up against the wall
by Bob on February 6, 2008
Policemen, government agents, officials, and many law enforcers say this to suspected perpertrators: "Up against the wall !".
But in life in general we seem to be facing this demand in many other situations. Not only that, but we might feel that we are, in fact, up against a wall in many ways.
Talking to wall is no fun. Banging one's head against a wall is no fun. Kicking a wall with your toe is no fun when you get bruised.
But we seem, especially with modern technology, to be up against the wall if only symbolically. It may even be a electronic firewall supposed to protect our computer from danger.
As a result we get closed into a world that only exists in a small way in relation to reality.
We have enclosed ourselves in a cocoon and may not quite emerge into a thing of beauty in chrysalis as a butterfly does.
So we can be told in one form or another "Up Against the Wall !" or in fact be butting our proverbial heads against a wall, or be esconced in a walled forttress protecting ourselves in some fashion from the world.
Dr. R.D. Laing had one controversial theory about Psychosis as being one's way of protecting one's self against an overwhelming and harsh and painful world.
Perhaps when we hide ourselves in a room with a big screen TV, or on the internet, we are retreating from reality as we know it, which isn't a bad thing in moderation. But in excess, which seems to be the norm oddly these days, it is akin to a psychosis as Laing predicted.
In-person communication and interaction cannot be allowed to be eliminated in favour of so called virtual interactions, despite it all.
The telegraph and telephone may have started it all. But it wasn't as widespread as the internet. Or even recordings of music or speech as Thomas A. Edison invented.
Writing itself may have millenia earlier contributed to it by allowing a book or stone tablet to tell us a story rather than a human in-person live storyteller.
Dionysus is thought of as being the god of wine and merriment. But that wasn't his real charter from Olympus. He was also the patron of the theatre and tragedy and comedy and the performing arts because these performances allow us to escape everyday perhaps harsh reality and be lifted in spirit. Hence, there were altars to Dionysus in the early ancient Greek theatres, and the chorus may have come from a ritual religious dance to the god.
But what happens when it gets inverted: where most everything is an escape and the real life happenings are fewer and fewer ? We have a world of illusion.
Ignoring philosophical Solipsism, which puts all in doubt except ourselves, solitary, this is a dangerous road to go down. For escapism as a doctrine is too slippery and rules out other people usually.
The rock band Pink Floyd made an album in 1979 which is relevant called "The Wall" and wherein there is a lyric saying "All in all, we're just another brick in the wall". That's a huge and actionable realisation. Who wants to just simply be another brick in the wall after all ?
And walls can be really nice things, too. For posters, for art for leaning against casually, etc.. But we're talking about the other use of them.
So "Up Against the Wall !" is a wake-up call. It stops escapism. We should pay heed to this admonition. And listen to William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell":
"If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thru' narrow chinks of his cavern."
Yes, indeed. Keep your eyes open to the real world, and not eyes wide shut to paraphrase Stanley Kubrick and his film title.
And if all one's friends are only on MySpace and not in-person, or if Tom from MySpace is one's only friend, it is time to reconsider one's social life. For surely at that point one is up against the wall. With all due respect to Tom Anderson.