Where does this come from?

[james_davis_nicoll]

Two books written the better part of a century apart (For Us The Living and an upcoming book that I won't mention by name) have a similar plot development: after the old world [1] suffers a terrible calamity, the regions that were unaffected by the calamity cut off all trade to the affected region until such time as it recovers.

Why would this been seen as the right thing to do?

1: In the regional sense in the Heinlein and a more literal sense in the upcoming book.

Comments

[carloshasanax.livejournal.com]

Sinclair's EPIC was pretty socialist, though you could argue that Sinclair had shifted somewhat to the right since his younger days (when he was a capital-S Socialist), and that Heinlein was on the rightwards edge of the movement. Still, by current standards, far to the left of (say) Kucinich.