WE, not me

The "you-and-me-against-the-world" motif seems quite understandable at times. But the truth is that we always live in the context of a bigger world. Burying our heads won't make the rest of the world go away. Actually, not embracing the world and living as if the rest of the world is a "them" will likely lessen the quality of our lives, not improve them. Jesus says that if we want real life we have to die to ourselves, die to our tendency to collapse the world onto ourselves, die to the natural instinct to turn inward. Of course, we have to care for our own. But caring for our own does not mean leaving others out. Most classical economists will tell us that tariffs represent bad economic policy. (You and I will pay more for goods.) But more than that, they often represent an approach to the world that otherizes others. It's us versus them. And then pretty soon it's them versus us, which then causes us to be against them. And then we all suffer. Life lived best is life that realizes that, truthfully, we all are us.