Get ready for a special tour of a renowned outlook, conjured from the
writings of syndicated New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. As the
leading media advocate of “free trade” and “globalization,” he is expertly
proficient at explaining the world to the world. If we could synthesize
Friedman’s brain waves, the essential messages would go something like
this:
Silicon chips are the holy wafers of opportunity. From Bangalore to
Bob’s Big Boy Burgers, those who understand the Internet will leave behind
those who do not.
I want to tell you about Rajiv/Mohammed/George, now doing awesome
business in Madras/Amman/Durham. Only a few years ago, this visionary man
started from scratch with just a vision -- a vision that he, like me, has
been wise enough to comprehend.
So, Rajiv/Mohammed/George built a business on the digital backbone of
the new global economy. Now, the employees fill orders on a varying shift
schedule, and time zones are always covered. Don’t ask what they’re
selling -- that hardly matters. They’re working in a high-tech industry,
and the profits are auspicious. This is the Future. And it is good.
Fabulous, actually.
Traveling the world as I do, I understand that the world is best
understood by people who travel the world as I do.
The future is innovation across borders. The entrepreneur who finds a
good Web designer on another continent really impresses me. Have I
mentioned yet that the Internet really impresses me? It really does. Those
who aren’t suitably impressed by IT will be left behind.
As a journalist who visits one country after another, I feel
intoxicated by the Internet. And why shouldn’t I be upbeat? I’m not one of
the dead-end-job workers who can look forward to mind-glazing drudgery in
front of computer screens as far as the eye can see.
For me, and for investors and managers who take me around, what’s not
to like? Commerce is about selling things, providing services, expanding
markets. All that is so good.
Let’s face it -- at this point I’m a rich guy, and I work for a
newspaper run by guys who are even richer than I am. They’re gaga about
what we like to call globalization. So am I. We’re a perfect match.
As a matter of fact, just about any big media outlet in the USA is run
by managers who work for owners who’re gaga for globalization. We don’t
mention that there are significant limits on our enthusiasm. Of course we
don’t want to globalize labor unions! We don’t want to globalize powerful
movements for environmental protection! We don’t want to globalize
movements against war!
Speaking of war: I cheered the invasion of Iraq and kept applauding
for a long time afterward. I lauded the war effort as glorious and noble --
and, on the last day of November 2003, I even likened the U.S. occupation
of Iraq to the magnanimity of the Marshall Plan.
And if U.S. troops had been able to kill enough Iraqi troublemakers
early enough to quell the resistance, I would have remained an avid booster
of the war. There’s no business like war business -- that’s why I recycled
my clever slogan “Give war a chance” from the 1999 air war on Yugoslavia to
the 2001 military assault on Afghanistan.
But I like winning. That’s why I kept praising Defense Secretary
Donald Rumsfeld when he looked like a winner, and now I keep deploring him
because he looks like a loser.
Overall, I get to boil down the world to metaphors of my own choosing.
If I were one of the anti-corporate-globalization people and I used the
same kind of simplistic metaphors, I’d be the object of derision and scorn.
But I’m not -- so get used to it!
Never let it be said that leading U.S. pundit Thomas Friedman has to
live with the consequences of his punditry. I think great thoughts, and I’m
seriously glib about them, and that should be more than enough if the world
is smart enough to grasp the opportunities that are low-hanging fruit of
the digital age. I can’t expect everyone to get it, but at the very least
they should try.
______________________________
The paperback edition of Norman Solomon’s latest book, “War Made Easy: How
Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death,” was published this
summer. For information, go to:
www.warmadeeasy.com
