Expansionist-Isolationism: My Personal And Political Philosophy

The left-wing parties are out of the running in France. The choice is down to Emmanuel Macron, a non-politician centrist, and Marine Le Pen, a legacy politician from the extreme right.

Should Marine Le Pen win, she’s vowed to pull France out of the EU and shut the borders for immigration.

Macron promises to reduce corporate taxes, red tape (good luck with that one in France), and to make it easier to hire and fire employees.

So one candidate wants to solve France’s problems by closing off the country and pulling out of Europe… and the other wants to improve France’s economy by making it easier to run a business in this country.

I know who I’d vote for, but, as is good practice when it comes to the politics of any country where one is an outsider, I keep my opinions to myself. How the French want to run France isn’t really any of my business.

Besides, I avoid politics in general and on principle.

I’m more of an expansionist-isolationist.

I own property in Paris… and, come July, Kathleen and I will be spending a fair amount of our time in that city again… so I do pay attention to news coming out of France. The shooting on the Champs-Élysées earlier this month caught my attention, but it’s not something one can worry about too much. You can’t live your day to day based on specific past events… and nobody can predict the future…

So I expand my options and keep to myself… expansionist-isolationism.

Wherever I’m spending time, I don’t go out looking for protests or demonstrations. I don’t go looking for illicit activities. Random acts like the one on the Champs-Élysées last week can happen anytime anywhere… whether it’s a restaurant blowing up (as one did in Madrid years ago less than an hour after I’d eaten in it) or a tsunami wiping out your resort (I was supposed to have been in Phuket that Christmas, but we changed our plans at the last minute).

Should the personal comfort levels wherever I happen to be deteriorate to a level that is no longer comfortable, then I can remove my family and myself to another jurisdiction where we already have a foothold. That foothold could be legal residency or it could be a second home or an investment property.

In today’s world, you don’t know what tomorrow will bring.

The answer is not to restrict or limit your overseas activities.

A terrorist could do his thing as easily in Omaha as in Paris.

The answer is to expand your personal options… to diversify as fully as possible… and then, when out and about, keep to yourself and mind your own business.

Happy travels.

Lief Simon