http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2386/is_2_114/ai_1069...This is true for the proverb "Good fences make good neighbours" in literary works, legal briefs, mass media, advertisements, and oral communication on a personal or socio-political level. The inherent ambiguity of the proverb is that its metaphor contains both the phenomenon of fencing someone or something in while at the same time fencing that person or thing out. So it is natural to ask: when and why do good fences make good neighbours? when and why should we build a fence or wall in the first place? when and why should we tear such a structure down? The proverb contains, to quote Caroline Westerhoff, the************** "irresolvable tension between boundary and hospitality,"************ between demarcation and common space, between individuality and collectivity, and between other conflicting attitudes that separate people from each other, be it as neighbours in a village or as nations (Westerhoff 1999, 157). Much is at stake when erecting a fence or a wall, no matter whether the structure is meant for protection or separation, to wit the Great Wall of China, the Berlin Wall, the walls that separate Americans
peer agreement (net): +7
