I happened to catch that Charlie Rose show the M.I.T person introducing Tom Friedman was talking about and found what he had to say about the flattening world interesting (then, as well as in the clip you pointed to).
Oddly enough, Tom F. and I grew up within 10 miles of each other (me on the edge of "the city proper" - Minneapolis, Minnesota; he in an adjacent suburb - St. Louis Park), and while I think I'm something like three or five years older than him, it's funny how "geographical proximity and history" like that seems to color my impression of him (in general).
That is to say, knowing what I know about the area, the people and times we grew up in, I find it peculiar indeed to see that he is now considered some kind of near-saint luminary on the world scene. It's probably a "personal thing" (as in, "What? Hey. Wait a minute. I know where that bozo grew up, I know what everyone was like and how it all went and there's no way that runt has anything intellectual or perceptual on me or a couple dozen other people I could list. What's going ON here?!"), but that general impression of him I have is not favorable (when it comes to most things I've heard him blab about, with the exception of the flat world, which I give him a lot of credit for recognizing, researching and articulating very well).
There are two things that make me say that. The first is the "aire" with which he communicates whatever it is he's communicating. There's just something in it that always makes words/phrases like "cock-sure," "pontificating," "self-satisfied blowhard gasbag," "a touch too melodramatic," and (a big one), "sorry, but Not Correct."
I've been thoroughly convinced of that last point (which only makes the other points stand out in bolder relief to me when I see him "lecturing" we, the "less geo-politically enlightened" masses), ever since the night I caught him on the tube just before (or just after?) the USA invaded Iraq when he was explaining why he was, "at bottom," in favor of the invasion, and how it most likely would, "in the end," prove "profoundly helpful" in bringing about a resolution to the broader problems in the middle-east (see "The Cypress Tree and the Olive Sandwich," and 50,000 or 60,000 columns he's written on THAT endless situation, etc.).
I mean, there he was, explaining how the "action in Iraq" fit into his worldwide geo-political take on things with that "aire" mentioned above, and how it was, "ultimately, the right thing to do."
Whoops.
But hey... We should all just sort of not pay any attention to little lapses in judgement like those... After all, he's just a (highly paid, well-respected, nearly-revered, much sought-after) columnist for the New York Times who makes time to pump out the occasional book that all world leaders (and as many of the unenlightened masses that can read and be reached) should read and glean what they can from ASAP so the world will not disintegrate into a cratered (as opposed to flat) place.
Or maybe it's the broader dislike I seem to have been developing recently for all these people ("journalists," politicians and domestic and geo-political political prognosticators, mainly) who've been just milking and milking and milking the "situation in Iraq and the middle-east" for years and years and years and never saying - let alone doing - anything new or, to some of us, anyway, "Real." All these people getting paid large sums of money and "respect" to say the same ("non-committal," "non-biased," and, of course, "safe") things about what may or may not be going on "in Washington," or Baghdad or Palestine or Lebanon or "the heartland of America," blah blah blah while hundreds of thousands of people's lives are being aborted, and millions and millions of other still living) people's lives are being atomised by all kinds of exploding containers that, just before they exploded, had the words, "Made in Jesusland," stenciled on their sides.
And not to rant (too much), but sometimes the volume, or blatancy, knob on the hypocrisy system is just set and locked four or five notches too high. We all know about the (missing) weapons of mass destruction reason for the endless shock and awe which morphed into the cruel tyrant removal rationale which morphed into the shining beacon of democracy on the hill thing which seems to have morphed (or devolved?) into whatever the current marketing headline is now ("Keeping America safe for Democracy and a repeat of Nine-Eleven while we Support or Heroic Troops"????).
But, near as can be figured, according to the Head Killers, their underlings and supporters, it (the broadcast rationale) seems that now it's all about something that's SUPPOSED to have something to do with helping make it possible for as many as possible of the world's inhabitants to enjoy their God-given right to live in a free and democratic environment, in which the most basic building block something to do with the idea of "government by the people, of the people and for the people."
So what just happened in the exemplary democratic "Home of the Free" and the "Land of the Brave"?
Let's see...
Those who constitute "the people" in that bedrock concept did their civic duty by "going out to the poles" and, in a voice more unified than any for the past 40 years, said,
"CUT IT THE FUCK OUT! STOP IT! WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO DO WHAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING ANYMORE! WE THE PEOPLE REPEAT: FUCK YOU AND YOUR TOTALLY FUCKED UP WAY OF DOING THINGS! HAVE WE BEEN CLEAR ENOUGH, BITCH?!"
And how do the most staunch believers in the spread of democracy throughout the planet respond?
"Well. Fuck you too! We don't HAVE to do ANYthing we don't want to you the people voted us in and, as a result, the Constitution and all our attorneys say that WE are in control and if you don't like what we're doing you can just go down in the basement, tap into your sewer pipe and EAT A LITTLE SHIT!"
And what do those people I was just complaining about do (the politicians, the journalists, the pontificators and political explainers)?
Same thing they've been doing since the obviously stupid start:
They just keep right on milking the same old cow.
They put on their straight-faces (again and again) and (under the tables and desks) continue to massage the Golden Teat while pretending to be saying important things that make some kind of rare sense.
They start explaining and re-explaining what it all might or might not mean in terms of whatever they can think of to fill in the blanks, fill up the air-time and columns-inches that fuel the gravy train.
"The democratic caucus, as well as some republicans, may be signaling their dislike for the administration's apparent attitude while the administration seems to be signaling they would take great offense to that were it prove to be the case."
"The government of country A may have been signaling that they are willing to consider the possibility of pre-discussion pre-discussions with countries B, C, and D, IF they could be assured that that unspecified parties of the fourth, and possibly firth, parts would be involved, but the administration has signaled they are not open to any such framework."
"My Lexus broke down last week, I haven't gotten it back from the shop yet, and getting to the studio has REALLY been a pain in the ass. I not sure if my mechanic is trying to signal something to me or not, but I'll definitely be digging deeper into the story because I do not like rented Fords."
Or, of course, "70-percent of the American people may have been sending the administration a signal in November, but it seems it's still too soon to tell what the real meaning of the vote was."
Hello?
Meanwhile, millions and millions and millions of those that fit into that "we the people" category are steaming and wondering, "Why are these assholes making this so complicated? Why is it so hard for people like Tom Friedman and all his journalistic brothers and sisters?.. Why is it so hard for these people we just elected?.. Why is it so hard for ANYONE to understand that what 'we the people' were saying was: "we want this bullshit to stop!"?.. Why don't they just SAY that and not stop saying that? Why do they all keep acting like there was some big question, or something mysterious involved in what we the people had to say? Why aren't they all just coming out and saying, 'The people of which the democracy of the United States of America consists have sent a clear-as-a-bell message that the president and his minions are simply ignoring,' and, 'It's more than Obvious the American people want him stopped?' What? Are they, deaf, blind, stupid, mentally ill or retarded or what? Hello? Is anyone there?"
And meanwhile, another mortar goes off and another C-160 "gunship" is called in, and, 10 minutes later, 50 or 60 more homes have been rubblized, along with many of the young mothers and little sons and daughters and scared husbands who were hunkered in the corner of the kitchen with their arms around each other, wishing it would all just stop so they could go over to the market and - if they didn't get blown up by one of those insane car bombers (doing it for Allah) - pick up a couple fish so they could boil up some potatoes and eat a little lunch.
Whoops... Too bad their lives had to be aborted in the hunt for, and ongoing struggle against, the enemies of freedom and democracy, but that's the way it goes sometimes... "War is hell," and, apparently, America in its current form would have no qualms whatsoever about delivering it to a neighbourhood near you, IF you don't do what America knows is best when it comes to getting a democracy going in your country.
"In tonight's top story, Secretary of the Office of Puzzle Redefinition, Benovanna Speerpuhl, is saying there may be new signals emanating from points not clearly known that could influence the upcoming pre-discussion discussions among the Parties of the First through Fourth Parts."
"And later in the broadcast Tom Friedman will be talking with Dom Fenster and giving us his interpretation of these development's potential impact on the Flattening of Many Many Lives. Stay tuned. We'll be right back after this word from your local mental healthcare insurance provider."
Love,
Uncle Wigley
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