My husband has decided to attend the local church’s sessions on whether or not this particular church should become a congregation that welcomes gay marriage.  There is a long and complicated history within his denomination on the subject of gay marriage, gay pastors, pastors officiating gay marriage, and similar things.  It is an issue which has been predicted to eventually split the denomination for over a decade now.  I don’t attend church, mostly because it is really hard to keep a straight face with all of that Egyptian/Roman Empire symbolism.

The story goes, that Sodom and Gomorrah were these two cities, who, when strangers appeared in their midst, decided they wanted to “know” them.  Apparently, “know” in the old language means have sex with them.  So Lot, being very righteous, offers his daughters to be raped to death instead of the strangers.  I’m sorry, but what?  You don’t offer your daughters to the neighbors to be raped and still call yourself righteous and godly!  (sigh)  I got sidetracked, didn’t I?

According to theory, the reason that you don’t rape strangers, is that hospitality to the stranger and alien among you is a very important quality for a civilization to possess.  When a civilization no longer is hospitable to aliens, it is doomed.  This is because who would want to trade with people who are going to kill you?  Just move on to the next city which decides to put you up with five star hotel accommodations and free coffee and breakfast instead.  If you don’t trade with your neighbors, then you don’t get access to the resources which your neighboring cities will come to possess, like, you know, uranium and IV bags and ecstasy.  Wait, I was talking about the ancient past.  So any city would need to trade in iron, wood, gold, medicinal plants, obsidian, copper, cloth, and the like.

You can not shut the doors of your city and expect to live.  That’s basic Derrick Jensen 101.  Cities require a constant stream of food, water, shelter, clothing, weapons, building materials, and medicine to survive.  They MUST trade, even if what they trade in is violence.  The same is true on other scales as well.  Families must trade.  Oh sure, isolated mountain men in the wilderness make it years and years on what they grow and make.  However, they really like shovels, knives, and axes.

Nations must trade or they will fail.  It takes time to fail, but fail they will.  That’s why embargoes tend to work, after all.  Nobody wants to be the neighbor of a failed nation.  It’s bad for business to take care of the stream of displaced refugees.  That is why China will step in to aid North Korea against the US’s meddling.  That is why the inflow of capital into the US, and the move towards a more isolationist military stance is not necessarily a good thing for the empire in the long run.

Ah, but did I want the empire to fall?  What kind of long game could I play?  I’m having a bit of trouble detangling isolationism from decentralization.  They’re not the same thing.