Bibles Printed in China Will be Pricy


Apparently, a lot of Bibles are printed in China and if you buy one you will have to pay the tariff. Trump seems to be no friend of Christianity. If things follow their usual course, Trump will exempt Bibles but charge everything else. 

Like all of you, I'm wondering what will eventually happen in all of this tariff war. Since no license is required to speculate about the eventual outcome, I'll be one of the millions who do it. 

Because of a people I know where I live, I've been reading up on what is called "narcissism." As every reader knows, it is called a "personality disorder," not a mental illness. It is said by pundits who claim to know the disorder that one trait of those who have it is the inability to correctly discern the consequences of their behavior. That is to say, the narcissist's preoccupation with his/her own standing is so important calculation about the consequences or price of winning a particular competition is never made. 

It takes some intellectual talents to understand other cultures and I fear Trump and his circle may miscalculate because they lack this ability. Let's consider a humiliating defeat of a famous person who is one of us in our Western culture. Mostly, being humiliated is no fun but the response is to brush off the dust and try to move on. 

But humiliation is a bigger thing in some other societies. We've all read of the general who kills himself because his army lost the battle. Losing face is bigger in some cultures than it is in ours. 

Trump is saying to the leader of China, "I am going to force you to back down and lose face." Trump might be thinking like any Westerner, if Chinese losses are large enough the lost revenue and unemployment will be a price higher than the Chinse dictator is willing to stomach. This discounts, possibly, the price of losing face. Losing face and backing down may be a higher price than any level of unemployment and poverty. Trump and his party have to face voters. Chinese leaders do not. It may be China is in a stronger position than Trump. 

Dramatically higher prices of Bibles, most of the goods in every dollar store and a good share of the goods at Amazon will give Trump a lot of angry people. He may be competing with leaders of China that have more resolve and fewer consequences from standing firm than he has. 


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