Thomas Friedman attempts to explain in The Lexus and the Olive Tree, the conflicts and benefits involved in globalisation and how technology has moved us into a global setting.
The Lexus is representative of technology and how it allows for us to get more don faster and for less - efficiency. The olive tree represents tradition, culture and identity.
Friedman says that globalisation involves the integration of individuals, market and nation states which enables these entities to reach farther and deeper into the world at a very low cost. The view is that free-market trade and competition is the key to a flourishing and more efficient economy. Friedman is of the view that the more one opens themselves up to globalisation and the spread of free-market capitalism, having its own set of economic rules, the more one allows themselves to be driven by the market, is the more successful or better off they will be.
Well, if one were so gullible as to accept that the solution to all the world's economic problems is free-market capitalism then...
While it might bee good for some, like the United States, it cannot be that all the world will be able to fit into this golden straight jacket. Why? We are all different, we have different needs, we have different resources, our output and intake capabilities all differ.
Free-market capitalism could work in an ideal world with no national barriers, where nationality doesn't count, where there are no racial division, no religious factions; if we were all just one bug happy human family...but we're not.
So what does free-market capitalism mean? That only the strong survives; dog eat dog; who cares if you are struggling - pick yourself up or get trampled on; economic slavery. It is easy to buy into Friedman's flowery ideology because he speaks so beautifully but what is actually being seen is an oasis; it is not real.
On the other hand, technology does make things a whole lot easier, faster and much less expensive. Technology has shrunk the world in that everyone is in within reach or can find means by which they can be within reach of practically the whole world. Technology has made it easier for individuals, corporations and nations to compete in the market, to find market, improve their products and so much more. But there is the risk of changing so much to suit a market, or opening up one's market so much that it becomes flooded with much foreign goods that one looses their identity.
Friedman quotes Surowiecki saying, "Innovation replaces tradition. The present -- or perhaps the future -- replaces the past. Nothing matters so much as what will come next, and what will come next can only arrive if what is here now gets over turned." All that has as much meaning as saying "cocka-doodle-doo." It means nothing! First of all, innovations needs a foundation upon which to build - innovation isn't created out of thin air, it emerges (more than likely out of tradition). Secondly, the present does not "replace" the past. What this suggest is that the present is put in place of the past like a glass sitting on a coaster would be taken up and replaces with another glass. But the past is fixed, therefore it cannot be changed or replaced by anything; the present is a moment and the future does not exist. And thirdly, there is no way that what will come next (something that does not exist) can mean more than what was already experienced (no longer exists) and what is currently being experienced (what is real). And finally, if one wants a new dwelling place, the old house does not have to be destroyed. Isn't it possible to build upon what already exists given that it is built on a strong foundation?
It is very important to not just gobble up what is presented without first properly examining it. We wear imported clothing, eat imported food, use imported technology, practice imparted rituals and religions and studying imported education. While there are many benefits to be found in all of the aforementioned, we do have the responsibility of filtering the things we choose to allow inside our personal and public being.
* * *
No comments:
Post a Comment