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The World is Flat (1) In todays world, when the traditional political and economical terminology can hardly be used to effectively define the realities of post-industrial living, it becomes the matter of foremost importance for just about anybody, to understand how the rapid development of informational technologies might affect worlds socio-political dynamics in near future. The process of Globalization has resulted in creation of situation when the spiral of history is being twisted ever tighter, as we speak, which means that the social processes, which used to take hundreds of years to reveal their actual essence, now take 10 - 20 years, at the most. Even though that the majority of ordinary people have a hard time, while recognizing the effects of Globalization as having an immediate effect of their lives, it is no longer going to be the case, during the course of next decade. Therefore, Thomas Friedman's book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, can be discussed as such that provides us with the insight onto things to come, which in its turn, corresponds to its value as literary piece, despite the fact that in this book, author strives to promote neo-Liberal agenda as his foremost goal. The reason why I have chosen particularly this book to analyze, within a context of my current academic assignment, is because the practical effects of Globalization relate to my life in clear and immediate manner. The fact that my sister works as Radiologist MD in one of Bostons hospitals, had brought in me touch with post-industrial reality to much larger extent, as compared to other people.
As I was being told, this particular hospital allows patients x-ray photographs to be processed outside of U. S. , during the night hours, with foreign doctors actually being put in position to diagnose American patients. Such practice was only made possible by the fact that the notion of geographical distance no longer undermines the effectiveness of international communication, to the extent it used to, even as recent as twenty years ago, due to the rise of Internet. Apparently, peoples ability to transfer large amounts of information from one corner of the globe to the other, does not only increase the effectiveness of international trade it results in virtual reality, associated with Internet, to gradually acquire the subtleties of something absolutely real, despite its digital essence. In this paper, we will aim at substantiating this thesis even further, while utilizing Friedman's book as the source of factual information, in regards to Globalization, during the course of the process. (2) The name of Friedman's book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century is an allegory to the fact that, nowadays, more and more people grow to perceive world as having been shrunk in size, due to Internets ability to negate the concept of national borders: Globalization is not simply about how governments, business, and people communicate, not just about how organizations interact, but is about the emergence of completely new social, political, and business models (Friedman, p. 20). The book is divided in three parts 1) How the World Became Flat, 2) America and the Flat World and 3) Developing Countries and the Flat World.
In Part 1, author discusses the technological, cultural and economical factors, closely associated with the process of Globalization, to which Friedman refers to as flattener's. In this part of his book, Friedman outlines his theory of flat world in terms of history. According to him, we live in period of Globalization 3. 0, which had begun in 2000. The Globalization 1. 0 had started in 1492, with the discovery of New World by Christopher Columbus, as it triggered the process of geographical exploration, which is now being often referred to as the Age of Discoveries. The Globalization 2. 0 had begun in 1800 and can be loosely attributed to the initial stages of Industrial Revolution, which in its turn, had made the world even flatter, as the result of steam engines invention. In the second part of his book, Friedman discusses the effects of Globalization on America.
He goes a great length, while analyzing the Free Trade agreement, the process of outsourcing and the concept of supply-chaining, as such that define a socio-political reality in todays America. While doing it, author clearly positions himself as ardent supporter of Globalization: We have way too many politicians in America today who go out of their way actually to make their constituents stupid encouraging them to believe that certain jobs are "American jobs" and can be protected from foreign competition, or that because America has always dominated economically in our lifetimes it always will, or that compassion should be equated with protectionism (Friedman, p. 230). This betrays Friedman as someone who has a personal interest in seeing America becoming the part of flat world, even though that in preface to World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century, author claims that he would stick to the principle of objectiveness, while writing it. In the third part of his book, Friedman talks about the effects of Globalization on the countries of Third World, while coming to conclusion that if there is anybody to benefit from worlds flattening, it would be workers in sweatshops. Authors twisted sense of logic prompts him to suggest that people in Third World countries often do not understand the fact that process of Globalization provides them with numerous advantages. In this part of his book, Friedman also subjects Anti-Globalists to a severe criticism, as he thinks that these people are not being genuinely concerned about the fate of underprivileged in countries of the Third World.
According to Friedman, it is only a few rich moneybags, who are interested in seeing world being flattened more then anybody else, that poor people in Third World countries should rely upon, within a context of striving to improve their living standards: This movement (Anti-Globalism) had a lot of energy and a lot of mobilizing capacity. What it lacked was a coherent agenda for assisting the poor by collaborating with them in a way that could actually help them You don't help the world's poor by dressing up in a turtle outfit and throwing a stone through McDonald's window. You help them by getting them the tools and institutions to help themselves (Friedman, p. 323). In this part of his book, Friedman also talks volumes about security, tolerance and human rights, which he somehow manages to relate to rich peoples ability to move huge amounts of money from one country to another, without regard to the local laws. He implies that flat world automatically means tolerant world, although he does not bother to logically substantiate such point of view. (3) One does not have to be a genius to understand that Friedman's book was written on order and therefore, can hardly be referred to as the product of authors intellectual integrity. Just as any typical representative of chosen people, Friedman considers himself as being expert on everything.
This is the reason why he strived to make his book scientifically sounding (Globalization), despite the fact that The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century has nothing to do with the notions of hard science: Globalization 2. 0, lasted roughly from 1800 to 2000, interrupted by the Great Depression and World Wars I and II. This era shrank the world from a size medium to a size small (Friedman, p. 10). After having enlightened readers with such valuable observation, Friedman moves on to discuss the size of todays world as being even smaller (A Cup), with the thought that his obsession with discussion of different sizes betrays him as Freudian individual, never occurring to the author. While providing readers with the insight onto metaphysical essence of informational technologies as such that are capable of reducing the amount of worlds entropy, he discusses these technologies as laying at the very core of Globalization, as socio-economic phenomenon. Such suggestion could not be further from the truth.
Globalization is nothing but a result of Earth becoming overpopulated there is simply not enough room under the Sun for all. This process will eventually lead to creation of situation when only populations of selected countries will be able to enjoy economic prosperity, at the expense of people in the countries of Third and Second world being reduced to the stratus of working robots. Despite the fact, that Friedman's book is filled with such sophistically sounding but meaningless terms. such as consensus, participative leadership, and transition decision making, author fails to even mention the problem of Earth being overpopulated, as such that directly relates to the concept of Globalization. In its turn, this significantly undermines the value of his book.
We can say that the main fallacy of Friedman's arguments corresponds to authors inability to recognize the process of world being flattened, only in financial sense of this word. It is only large amounts of money that can travel from one part of world to another with apparent ease, whereas ordinary people enjoy even less traveling freedom then they used to as recent as ten years ago. For example, nowadays, no foreigner can be allowed to U. S. , without being fingerprinted as potential suspect. Therefore, for such people, the world has actually become more rounded then flat. If Friedman's book was to be stripped of irrelevant information, with which it is being filled rather generously, its actual message would sound as follows: since there is much of economic inequality among worlds nations, a some kind of world government needs to be set up, which will regulate nations access to natural resources.
Friedman suggests that the establishment of multicultural paradise Earth is easily achievable, for as long as nations would be willing to surrender their national sovereignty to cosmo political experts in the field of economy. Earths resources are the pie, which simply needs to be cut into fair pieces. Author does not specify who is going to be in charge of cutting, but it can be easily figured out, given Friedman's ethnic affiliation. In other words, despite books pretentiousness to contain fresh ideas, it actually promotes an old Communist worldview in the wrapper of neo-Liberalism. In his book, Friedman discusses cases of global cooperation between countries, as being mutually beneficial, thus increasing these countries economic and political power. The books chapter America and the Flat World, begins with the following statement: American individuals will be better off if we don't erect barriers to outsourcing, supply-chaining, and off shoring than if we do.
The simple message of this chapter is that even as the world gets flat, America as a whole will benefit more by sticking to the basic principles of free trade than by trying to erect walls (Friedman, p. 225). Is it really so? There are many reasons to believe that Americas economic interdependence actually undermines this countrys geopolitical influence. For example, In August of 2008, when Russia invaded Georgia, George Bush had threatened Russia with economic sanctions. In their turn, Russians were quick to remind George Bush that the whole Americas space exploration program, for the duration of next 10 years, relies on exploitation of Russian rocket launchers.
Before new American space shuttles are being designed, Russians are going to remain in charge of launching America astronauts into the space. Thus, there can be no doubt that the economic interdependence had significantly lessened the extent of Americas sovereignty, as well as it heightened national security concerns. What would happen when Saudi Arabia finally decides to pull off the mask of Americas friend and refuses to sell oil to America at dirt cheep prices? What would happen when China doubles taxes on American manufacturers that operate in this country, or orders them to move their production lines back into America, where workers are being paid more money as compensation for employers racism, sexism and male chauvinism, then from executing their professional duties? Therefore, the fact that Friedman regards the process of world becoming flat as beneficial to the future of America as the only worlds super-power, cannot be explained in terms of logic. The problem with Globalization is that, despite its proclaimed objectives of creating a more effective worlds economy, this process has no other purpose then concentrating the bulk of worlds resources in the hands of financial elite.
In its turn, such elite could not care less about maintaining the pace of cultural and technological progress, associated with Western civilization. This is the reason why promoters of Globalization are strongly in favour of legalizing 12 million of illegal Mexicans in this country, while understanding perfectly well that it will only speed up the process of America turning into Third World country itself. Thus, we can say that, even though Friedman's book contains valuable information, in regards to how the rise of new digital technologies affect worlds economy, we cannot agree with authors conclusions as to the process of Globalization as such that is being beneficial to all. Bibliography: Friedman, Thomas The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 2005. Abstract: This paper discusses Thomas Friedman's book The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century and exposes the conceptual inconsistency of ideas expressed in it.
Outline: Introduction Outline and Summary Critical Analysis and Discussion
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Research essay sample on Twenty First Century Third World Countries
