We stand on the walls of civilization and look out at the barbarians outside the wall and wonder why they have come. Do they want our riches? Do they come to destroy and devastate us or carry away our women and children into bondage? Are they jealous of our success? They are strong and hungry. We are soft and sated.

Maybe they are the barometer to our worthiness to exist. Are we too weak to stand on our own? Have we, as a society moved so far into indolence and complacency that we are no longer worthy of our position of safety? I believe so. When we denigrate our own barbarians, our protectors and are no longer strong enough to defend our own society, the barbarians come to prove it. It happens in every underfunded Fire Department, every chant to defund the police, every disrespected or ignored serviceman or woman.

More weakness comes from assuming that everyone else, all other societies, agree with us, that they have progressed to a point where force is no longer needed to achieve goals. Somehow, the enlightenment we assume is universal, is in fact a hope. We also think everyone needs to recognize and accept our views. If we ignore the facts of the difficult lives of others, who have not reached our own level of comfort and security, we call the barbarians to the gate.

It’s the barbarians who remind us that not everyone agrees and our own barbarians who protect us. The barbarians at the gates force us to change or defeat us and take what they want.

Hail the barbarians!

Edited notes

I was told that my point is a little obscure, please let me try to clarify. We still have and need barbarians, those men and women who are still willing to do rude and violent things on our behalf. They become our protectors. The barbarians inside the walls are our home-grown antibodies against invaders. Our police, soldiers, and fire fighters protect us. Yet, they are attacked and degraded for doing exactly that. If our police use force to protect us, there are protests against them. The riots that rocked us are an extreme example. The example made worse by people and politicians chanting to defund them. Those protests black out the fact that a police officer is nearly 20 times more likely than a black male to be shot during an encounter. I wonder how much longer they will tolerate the abuse before they abandon us. I quit nearly 3 years ago.

The barbarians outside are the ones trying to destroy us. There are terrorists who attack us personally or through proxies. We are surrendering to them, bringing them inside and financing their invasion. Yeah, us! We can now feel morally superior.

I seriously wonder if we deserve to continue as a Republic.