The Great "Sorting Out"

Thomas Friedman focus a great amount of energy in connecting the “sorting out” period that is coming to pass with his ten original flatteners. “The triple convergence” chapter helps interlink his first chapters with the “sorting out” stage. Each “convergence” is underlined as a necessity for how changing technology is able to transform a society.

Friedman marvels at capitalism, its process, its place in the global market economy, and produces the perspective that capitalism will break down “walls” or the distinct social divides of the nation-state. This is an idealistic presumption at best. The reason I state this is because Friedman himself acknowledged the possible negative impacts of the flattening world when he had a discussion with political theorist Michael J. Sandel. According to Sandel the flattening of the world “may, as you suggest, be good for global business. Or it may, as Marx believed, augur well for proletarian revolution” (Friedman, 237).

As the “sorting out” continues, Friedman begins to focus America’s role, or the diminishing role, associated with business and economic superiority. The hardest part will be the distinction between were business, communities and the individual’s “start and stop.” Friedman states the following: “in a flat world, the tensions among our identities as consumers, employees, citizens, taxpayers, and shareholders are going to come into sharper and sharper conflict.” The word conflict fits the tension that is growing in the world perfectly.

In Friedman’s book so far he seems to be under the presumption that majority of the world is ready for such rapid changes. However, if you acknowledge the great political divide in our own country you must come to the realization that unity requires interconnectedness. That interconnectedness may come from “the flattening of the world,” but I tend to agree with Karl Marx’s notion that “the flattening of the world” is setting the stage for a “proletarian revolution.” Friedman discusses how outsourcing will transform the working population in the United States and that adaptable educated American workers will overcome and change career fields to fit the expanding needs the global society.

This notion does not take into consideration the individual that is not willing to reform. Poverty often produces a very angry and powerful voice. Throughout history individuals with the ability to mobilize and organize an angry mob have great influence in changing society. If the “flattening of the world” does not keep pace with the demands of society we may see a division from the business perspective of “trimming all the fat.” As a society we must be ready for the changes to come, but the pace must be governed for what the majority of the population is ready for. Often Friedman talks about the rapid advancements in China and India because of technology. What he tends to neglect is the various nations that technology has had a negative affect on. Various nation-states in Africa and South America are perfect examples of how citizens were not prepared for the technologies they received and it has resulted in civil war, depletion of resources, mass hunger, and a variety of problems associated with the downfall of their society.