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For Thomas L. Friedman, it’s not a fancy turn of phrase to declare “The world is flat.” It’s unvarnished fact.That said, if his updated version of The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century is, indeed, an accurate warning of the life ahead, it is a volume worthy of every American’s attention.
In a nutshell, Friedman contends a convergence of historical and technological advancements has provided millions upon millions of everyday people worldwide access to economic, political, material, educational, and social attainment never before possible in an American-dominated world.
Starting with the fall of the Berlin Wall – which Friedman says showed the citizens of formerly Communist nations the treasures of free enterprise — and continuing with the field-leveling development of the Internet and related technology – affording people across the planet a chance to carve their own niche in the marketplace – the latest stage of globalization has changed the world faster than any period in human history.
The days ahead will not be the same for people of this world, Friedman says. Americans, specifically — already rocked by the loss of manufacturing jobs and slipping economically in relation to their world counterparts — will need to re-gear themselves by way of education and imagination to lead the world in new and creative directions or lose grip to people who have quietly educated themselves to at least our level and are willing to work harder for less.
World governance and politics, too, will be affected by the ever-more-entwined relationships of nations; the sharing of information and mutual global and economic concerns will change the dynamics of these relationships. The downside: The technology that bonds more nations will also provide terrorism new opportunities and targets.
Friedman does offer hope to people of special skills – for example, synthesizers of information and communicators, people of adaptive skill and those of environmental concern and imagination – who may open the way to innovations that keep the nation and its people thriving. America cannot afford to lose its middle class, Friedman says; political and economic stability depend on it, and new “middle jobs” must grow into ever-evolving American innovations.
In a word, Americans will have to make themselves “untouchable” – develop skills and niches that will make them special in the world economy.
Also hopeful is Friedman’s theory that as long as countries are engaged in common “supply chains” and economic concerns, they are not as likely to fight each other. This does not erase the possibility of conflict, but in a flat world, those conflicts are likely to be much different from geographical conflicts involving powerful haves and desperate have-nots.
The World is Flat is not a book that dallies in engaging the imagination. By the end of 50 pages, the reader can easily see the empowerment offered by the Internet and rapidly changing technology to individuals, economies and nations wishing to reboot themselves on the world stage. The flip side may be quite sobering to those who see the curtain falling on the world as they’ve known it.
The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
By Thomas L. Friedman
616 pages (hardcover edition)
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; Expanded and Updated edition (April 18, 2006)
ISBN-10: 0374292795
