11/9 Versus 9/11

“The flattening of the world, as I have tried to demonstrate in this book, has presented us with new opportunities, new challenges, new partners, but also, alas, new dangers, particularly as Americans” (p. 570). Thomas Friedman goes to extreme links in the final pages of his book to express his concerns for the “flattening of the world.” One of his greatest concerns is the dichotomy of two distinct dates. Friedman states that “these two dates represent the two competing forms of imagination at work in the world of today: the creative imagination of 11/9 and the destructive imagination of 9/11” (p. 540). Each of which he discusses thoroughly in the chapter 11/9 Versus 9/11.

What comes to pass in these last thirty pages is a distinct admiration for the 11/9 innovations that have come to pass. Friedman focuses on one of his points being that virtual communities, like the one associated with e-bay, are helping develop positive relationships and a strong global community. Once again declaring that the flattening of the world is a great and wonderful thing.

Finally what was interesting to me was that Friedman chose to express how disappointing it was to acknowledge the fear and dread associated with dropping his daughter off at college. “I felt like I could still promise my daughter her bedroom back, but I couldn’t promise her the world—not in the carefree way that I had explored it when I was her age. That really bothered me. Still does” (p. 570). Finally, Friedman acknowledges that the rapid technological changes occurring in our world are not driving an interlinked community based on security and sustainability, but rather a system governed by exploitation and greed.

Each generation in America has presented the question of what do we do next? The values we administer in our youth will govern them to adult hood, but they will not ensure their moral commitment to a global society. In regard to the generational question of what comes next I think Thomas Friedman summed it up well when he stated “the world is being flattened. I didn’t start it and you can’t stop it, except at great cost to human development and your own future. But we can mange it, for better or for worse. If it is to be for better, not for worse, then you and your generation must not live in fear of either terrorists or of tomorrow. . . you can flourish in this flat world, but it does take the right imagination and the right motivation” (p. 271).