The others are a supreme being. Joe is a simple man. There is nothing Joe can do as the others are born only after joe was destroyed. And there are a tonne of them outthere for him to tackle. So the odds are clear.

Based on this premise, it yet is a war between man and the others. There is no politics even, there is no head count, only becoming the others for him. That’s what joe endures throughout his life. These people are sophisticated deadly and working at a scale unimaginable for joe or even mankind.

So joe does nothing in life he just follows the stream as it leads him and others into the dome periodically. The world is post apocalyptic with patches of the matrix here and there really isolated cases though. Joe is not super human just a man. The others do stuff that is unreal for him, so he evades them, and stays social, which is their ground reality positioning.

The others keep him limited to the space they provide him, all they want from him, he gives through the dome.