Thomas L. Friedman is a writer that I respect greatly. He is one of the top foreign affairs writers for the NY Times and has also written quite a few analytic books. I've been reading Longitudes and Attitudes: The World in the Age of Terrorism, and I really like his ideas. He has a no-nonsense approach to looking at the world post-9/11, and I like him for hs logical, neither left or right-wing outlook on things. I would highly suggest anyone read his writing.
At any rate, in Longitudes and Attitudes, Friedman made this statement: "At its best the Internet can educate more people than any media tool we've ever had. At its worst, it can make people dumber than any media tool we've ever had."
In context Friedman is talking about Arabic countries that seem to have greatly failed to globalize, modernize, and communicate. While the internet is a powerful tool that has allowed millions of people all over the world to trade and communicate, it has also been a dangerous thing to many, especially the youth, in Arab states. Why? Because too many take everything on the internet to be fact. The internet is a great tool for the communication of ideas, but there are many who abuse it, and it is for that reason that many young people in Palestine, Iran, Iraq, Indonesia, etc, believe that Bush is responsible for 9/11, or that it was completley organized by Jews.
The internet has succeded in bringing people together technologically, but not socially, politically or culturally.
it is a big danger in fact that is whay caused so many deaths on 9/11
For a good overview of Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat fiction go to Tapsearch Com at http://tapsearch.com/flatworld/ Ray Tapajna, editor and artist of Tapart News and Art that Talks explores the upside down Flat World of Friedman and finds if what he says is true relating to his so called flatteners, the world may be flat but there are millions falling off it edges into oblivion. There is a underclass and a silent depression in the USA as exposed by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The same story can be repeated throughout the USA. There is not only an underclass but a vast class missing in action from any kind of statistics. And Friedman uses statistics that do not match up with the past but uses thes stats to compare the past.
Only 38% of all workers in the USA qualify for unemployment insurance. This demonstrates that there is a vast limbo in a lost world in Friedman's Flat World. Friedman also ignores the most essential point of all. Workers have no voice in the process of Globalization even though they are the heart and soul of any economy. There is only "communications by rank" and if you do not belong to any network in this ranking, you do not exist have you have no voice. Friedman's Flat World is imploding with human bombs beating a military with all kinds of high tech weapons.
For a long period of time in Rome, it was better to be a slave than a free man. This is where the Flat World is taking us. For more information, see http://tapsearch.com/flatworld http://tapsearch.com/tapartnews featuring the art that talks by Ray Tapajna http://www.experiencedesignernetwork/archives/000636.html