I just finished The World is Flat, thenoted New York Times journalist’s enthralling commentary on worldaffairs in every dimension from technology to terrorism. At 455pages, completing it is no mean feat, but well worth the effort.
It’s clear that Friedman is Jewish:besides implying so in the last page before the book’s conclusion,the imprint of the Jewish message of hope for and from humanityemerges strongly.
The entire work takes a fairly simpleform. It first describes the author’s discovery of some facts aboutthe state of the world and where the world’s headed. Then itbacktracks a bit to describe the background behind said facts. Allof this was clarifying and enlightening for me. The end of the bookdiscusses force that threaten to undermine some of the really neattechno-economic progress humanity’s attained. These forces includesickness, poverty, and humiliation (and the terrorism that results). Terrorism and the despair and lack of hope that give rise to it aretreated especially heavily near the end of the book. Sprinkledliberally throughout are recommendations for making the world abetter place. These include personal skills for Americans hoping tocompete in the global job market, solutions for feeding the hungryand saving the environment, ideas for eliminating terrorism andpromoting religious tolerance, and notions related to fosteringcontinued technological innovation. These recommendations were loftybut realistic for about the first three-quarters of the book. By theend, I began to feel that Friedman was offering the answer to everyproblem that plagues humanity. The enormity of this task alone jadesme to the possibility that Friedman may indeed have some goodanswers.
Despite this, the book is well worthreading, both for people who want to seek jobs in this brave new(flat) world or for those who direly need to think about how best toconduct American affairs in it. If you have a stake in either,you’re welcome to borrow my copy of the book and read it.
technorati tags: book report, Flat World, world affairs, globalization, terrorism, technology