Historical precedent: the Ming dynasty turned inwards and built the great wall of China. Just a few centuries later China was now a bit behind the west and was defeated in the opium wars.
> The Ming dynasty turned inwards and built the great wall of China. Just a few centuries later China was now a bit behind the west and was defeated in the opium wars.
Their problem wasn't that they built a wall, but rather they stopped looking past it because of beliefs in their own superiority.
