The World Is Flat

The thing I find most interesting about Thomas Friedman's new bestseller isn't that the world is going flat - people here in the Silicon Valley have known that for years. No, what I find most interesting is that even as businesses and economies around the world are being fundamentally changed by the rapid advance of new technologies, political institutions, at least here in the U.S., seem to be headed in the opposite direction. Technology is pushing us towards new economic freedoms, while politics seems to be pushing us towards medievalism. The new economy empowers the individual, while under the new politics the government becomes a tool of evangelicals bent on crushing individual freedoms under the weight of official church doctrine.

I think they call that a paradox, and my bet is that the world will continue to modernize despite our politcal leader's predilictions towards running back to the past. Let's face it - in the end it all comes down to money and jobs, and while it's true that money and politics are inextricably intertwined, if forced to choose one over the other I think most people would choose money and jobs over moral absolutism. Then again, you never know about the growing power of these social conservatives. They've won the Congress, they've won the White House, and I wouldn't be too suprised to see Thomas de Torquemada appointed as William Rehnquist's replacement on the Supreme Court. Now that would be an interesting Republican convention. Speeches, balloons, confetti and a little Auto da fe to round out the evenings entertainment. Ahhh..., and I bet it would get good ratings too.

Anyways, I'm reading this book about the flattening of the world and I should probably mention that I haven't finished it yet. In fact I'm only about a third of the way through it but it's one of those provocative type books that gets your mind going in all different directions and thinking "what about this" and "what about that". The style is little off-putting, what I'd call "Zig Ziglar", and at times it reads more like a sales pitch than a piece of non-fiction. But it's full of facts and details and the author, being a famous talking head seen regularly on TV news shows and roundtable discussions, is very adept at hammering home his talking points and keeping the viewer (er, reader) entertained and disinclined to reach for the remote.

If you haven't read the book yet then I'd go ahead and pick up a copy. The basic premise is that the combination of powerful hardware, sophisticated software and high-speed networks are creating a new digital economy which is breaking down the traditional borders between nations and corporations and flattening the world. We see this effect primarily in the outsourcing of jobs and the offshoring of companies, and the new economy is in fact becoming a kind of global meritocracy wherein the best talent at the best price wins the job regardless of where they might be situated geographically.

No arguement with that, although not much of a shock to anyone who has followed the goings on in the world.

In what I've read so far Friedman gives a history of how these technological changes came to pass, and it's a pretty entertaining post-1989 romp through the history of high tech. I might argue a few points here and there but it's still remarkable to reflect back on it all and wonder at how fast it all seemed to happen. It seems like only yesterday that I was writing a Trumpet Winsock script to get my little 28kbs PPP connection going, and now here I am blogging over an always-on connection with over 100 times the bandwidth.

Pretty amazing.

So, anyways, that's all I have for tonight. I'm kinda in my "read" mode right now and digging into all these books and magazines I've had stacked up and never got around to reading. I started that Guns, Germs and Steel book by Jared Diamond that everyone's been so hyped up about but I only made it about 2/5 of the way through. I think Jared Diamond must have learned to write books at the same place that Richard Wagner learned to write operas, although not acquiring Wagner's sense of brevity and pace. Everytime I pick it up and start reading I get about halfway through a chapter and think "didn't he already say all of this a few chapters ago?" Oh well, I'll finish it - just not all at once.

Of course I've got the trashy stuff too. Yes, my first (and last) Nora Roberts book, and I didn't even know she wrote it because the the book cover said the author was J.D. Robb who, it turns out, is really Ms. Roberts in disguise. Anyways, what a read, huh? I thought it was a mystery when I downloaded it, but it's not really what I'd call a true, Agatha Christie type mystery. Basically, the plot is as follows: A horrific crime is comitted, the heroine investigates, goes home to rich, handsome husband, passionate lovemaking ensues, next day she investigates some more, goes home to rich, handome husband, passionate lovemaking ensues, next day another horrific crime occurs, heroine investigates, goes home to rich, handsome husband, passionate lovemaking ensues, etc, etc, etc...

Yep. Turns out that this "mystery" is really nothing more than a romance novel with corpses. As you might have guessed I don't read many romance novels but it was nice to see what the other side is reading for a change. You know, take a little peek at every woman's secret fantasy. Hmmm., very interesting stuff ladies, but, I gotta tell ya'. Even though this may be your secret fantasy, personally, I think the woman's husband is biologically impossible. I mean he's this amorous every night? Hot, passionate and not stopping until he's satisfied his savage desire? Every night? EVERY NIGHT?

C'mon. If that was real life he'd be dead by Chapter 10.