There is all this talk about nations turning inward, people turning inward, in light of the current banking and debt problems. Here's my opinion. We cannot turn inward! The last time we did was in the nineteen twenties--the interwar years--turning inward meant fascism outward. A crude romanticism of own; a brutal killing of other. It ended in a dreadful disaster as we all know. -- We can't turn inward because neither evolution nor a personal God made us that way. Our ears listen to what is outside, our eyes look at what is outside, our senses are stimulated by the world, by its crudeness, but also by its nuances of wisdom and beauty. In short, let us do what democrats do. Encourage our and other governments, our and other citizens to live within our means, stop excesses, and help the world get out of the mess we allowed ourselves to drift into.
