The Trunk

Isolation

Did you read about the primitive tribe in Brazil that aimed their bows and arrows at a passing airplane?  Here’s the picture.

It’s shocking, isn’t it, that a small group of people are 2000 years or more behind the rest of the world in terms of development?  How did this happen?

It happened because of isolation.

Human advancement results from engagement with others.  The sharing of ideas.  Mutual cooperation.  Collaboration.  Competition.

But if you wall yourself off from the rest of the world, you fall behind.  Sometimes way behind.  

Sometimes thousands of years behind.

There are those on the left that want to wall us off from the rest of the world by stopping or restricting trade with other countries.  For some, it’s to protect the unions.  For others, it’s to protect the environment.  Some people insist on eating only locally grown food and shopping at local, independent stores.  This is a form of isolation.

There are those on the right that want to keep immigrants out of our country.  For some, it’s to protect jobs.  For others, it’s to protect the culture from change or influence.  Some people even want us to build a wall around our border.  This is a form of isolation.

There is a brilliant kid in China that is going to develop a vaccine that cures the common cold.  We could let him into our country and develop it here, or we could let him develop it in China.  I’d rather have him do it here.  There’s a kid in India that is going to start the next Google or Microsoft.  I’d rather have him do it here. 

There’s a farm in Israel that grows the best Clementines.  We could tax it, and make it so expensive that I can’t afford them.  I have other alternatives.  I could eat some lousy Clementines from California.  Or I could eat some local fruits.  We sometimes have berries, and we have apples in the fall.  I guess I could eat a lot of berries and apples.  But I want a good Clementine.  And it might be good to make friends with someone in Israel.  And China.  And South Africa.  And France.  And Japan.  And Iran.  You have to be friendly when you trade, and being friendly makes friends.  Friends generally don’t go to war.

There’s a headline in today’s New York Post.  It reads:  ”CHRYSLER BUILDING ON THE BLOCK:  SOVEREIGN ARAB FUND TO PAY $800M.”  This scares a lot of people—it makes them want to put up walls and keep people away.  But they’re wrong to worry.  When people have an ownership stake in something, they want it to succeed.  We want Arabs to have a stake in America, because we want them to want America to succeed.

The Taliban are like the isolated tribe in the picture above.  And then there’s this in Dubai:

This is the opposite of the Taliban.  When it’s done, it will be the tallest building in the world.  

Bin Laden lives in a cave.  He represents isolation.

We don’t live in a cave.  We’re America.  We take people from all over the world, make things and sell them, and buy things too.  We build big buildings.

Thomas Friedman once wrote:  ”“No two countries that both had McDonald’s had fought a war against each other since each got its McDonald’s.”  China got its first McDonald’s in 1990.  Look how much China has changed since then.  You’ll find McDonald’s in South Korea, but not North Korea.  Here’s Korea at night:

There’s not much going on in North Korea.  Here’s an explanation:

North and South Korea have been separated at the 38th parallel ever since the Korean War (1950-1953), which has never officially ended. In the ensuing ‘ceasefire’, North Korea developed into a communist dictatorship with a centrally planned economy, while South Korea became a capitalist democracy with a free market economy.

Economic hardship in the officially ‘self-reliant’ North has led to mass starvation, while the South has a vibrant economy able to compete with the best of the world. In 1996, the per capita GNP in the North was $920, while it was $11.270 in the South. A 1999 estimate of per capita GNPs put the South’s at 13 times that of the North. More recent figures will probably show an even wider gap.

Some people, like our President, might argue that North Korea is primitive because it isn’t democratic.  China isn’t democratic, but it’s growing and expanding.  Autocracy isn’t North Korea’s real problem.  

North Korea’s problem is isolation.

And yet, in today’s news, we choose to isolate, rather than engage, our enemies:

Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany joined President Bush on Wednesday in calling for further sanctions against Iran if it does not suspend its uranium enrichment program.

When Obama launches into a tirade against NAFTA, or McCain reluctantly gives in to right-wing fears about immigration, we’re choosing to act like North Korea.  Like the Taliban.  Like the primitive tribe in Brazil that aims their bows and arrows up at an airplane they can’t build and don’t understand.  

We don’t want to be on the ground, firing arrows at the plane flying above.  We want to be in that plane, flying past the primitives on our way to something better.