The Evil Barbarians

Passage from page 120:

"The barbarians come out at night. Before darkness falls the last goat must be brought in, the gates barred, a watch set in every lookout to call the hours. All night it is said, the barbarians prowl about bent on murder and rapine. Children in their dreams see the shutters part and fierce barbarian faces leer through. 'The barbarians are here!' the children scream, and cannot be comforted. Clothing disappears from washing-lines, food from larders, however tightly locked. The barbarians have dug a tunnel under the walls, people say; they come and go as they please, take what they like; no one is safe any longer."

This passage shows how there is a constant fear of the barbarians in the civilization that Waiting For the Barbarians takes place in. This passage goes beyond normal paranoia, as it is mentioned that the barbarians have dug a tunnel under the walls. This is an extremely unrealistic idea, and just serves as a symbol of the people's constant fear of the barbarians. The barbarians are not completely understood by the people in this civilization, and they hear many different stories about what is going on in the war against the barbarians, so a certain amount of fear is understandable. The majority of people in this novel takes its fear of the barbarians too far, and just considers them to be ugly, non-human creatures. The old magistrate seems to understand the barbarians better than every body else does in the civilization (partially because of his involvement with the barbarian girl). At one point in section five, he even makes the soldiers sound barbaric in the way that they steal things from stores, set brush-fires, and enact their violent imperialistic attitude in ways of war. After the magistrate's downfall, he sees more clearly than before that the barbarians are not that bad, and the soldiers are unneccesarily violent.

Would a life changing event need to occur for people in this civilization to change their view of the barbarians?