The Tao of Isolationism

Rich Rubino rectifies some names — Non-Interventionism is Not Isolationism. The former holds "that the U.S. should not intercede in conflicts between other nations or conflicts within nations" and "supports commercial relations." The latter "dictates that a country should have no relations with the rest of the world" and is called by the author "an impracticable worldview."

But is it necessarily? Isolationism, it must be admitted, holds a certain appeal, and never was it better articulated than by Lao Tzu in the LXXX^th chapter of the Tao Te Ching:

In a little state with a small population, I would so order it,
that, though there were individuals with the abilities of ten or a
hundred men, there should be no employment of them; I would make the
people, while looking on death as a grievous thing, yet not remove
elsewhere (to avoid it).

Though they had boats and carriages, they should have no occasion
to ride in them; though they had buff coats and sharp weapons, they
should have no occasion to don or use them.

I would make the people return to the use of knotted cords (instead
of the written characters).

They should think their (coarse) food sweet; their (plain) clothes
beautiful; their (poor) dwellings places of rest; and their common
(simple) ways sources of enjoyment.

There should be a neighbouring state within sight, and the voices
of the fowls and dogs should be heard all the way from it to us, but I
would make the people to old age, even to death, not have any
intercourse with it.