The barbed wire
For over a century, the barbed wire has become a universal symbol of oppression,
tyranny and violence. It was invented by a landowner from Illinois in the US, J.
Glidden, and it was originally used to restrict herds in an enclosed space. Later, it
was massively used in the trenches during the First World War, between 1914 and
1918, and then it was found in the concentration camps that existed all around the
world during the 20th century. The wire mesh, because of the maximum efficiency
and the minimum cost, occupies a prominent place among the inventions that have
marked the history of the 20th century.
Despite all the technological advances, the wire has not changed considerably since
its invention. This is probably because it remains quite effective for the purpose it
serves, namely the delimitation of an area and the demarcation of the boundaries.
The wire is everywhere, from the moment of its conception, it was used widely and
with different purposes. That is why the story seems apparently dispersed and its
presentation potentially chaotic. The variety of methods that it can be used for
reveal one of the most well-kept secrets of the modern bio-political economy.
Anything that is applied in flocks, it can be equally applicable to humans. As
psychiatry has been used as a means of power, so the occupation of a specific space
has made easy to control the animals and the people who live in it. The enclosure
divides the place in private or public domain. In both cases vanity has led to this
violation of human existence.
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