Comments on: The World is Flat Breakfast http://itredux.com/2006/04/18/the-world-is-flat-breakfast/ New Rules for a New IT World Wed, 25 Aug 2010 01:35:21 -0400 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Ray Tapajna http://itredux.com/2006/04/18/the-world-is-flat-breakfast/comment-page-1/#comment-5662 Ray Tapajna Mon, 17 Jul 2006 18:55:57 +0000 http://itredux.com/blog/2006/04/18/the-world-is-flat-breakfast/#comment-5662 I reviewed Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat <a href="http://tapsearch.com/flatworld/">here</a>. Thomas Friedman uses history as an art form rather than a science. He takes things out of his imagination and calls them important times in history that caused or will cause imbalances in globalization and free trade. He uses statistics that do not compute with the past. Reporting of statistics have changed over the years, especially with the reporting of unemployment rates. The unemployment reporting of the 1970s was very different from the one used in present times. In other comparisons, he uses what he calls "flatteners" and this is when he makes history an art form rather than a science. History usually is both art and science. However there are checks and balances to curtail someone's imagination getting out of control. Things existing only in Friedman's imagination are presented as realities. See Examples <a href="http://tapsearch.com/flatworld/">here</a>, <a href="http://tapsearch.com/flatworld/id1.html">here</a>, <a href="http://tapsearch.com/flatworld/id2.html">here</a>, and <a href="http://tapsearch.com/flatworld/id3.html">there</a>, and note an overview of author Brian Alger about "communication by rank" where people like Friedman ignore many things, including the fact that workers have no voice in the process of globalization and free trade, even though they are the root, core and heart of it all. I reviewed Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat here. Thomas Friedman uses history as an art form rather than a science. He takes things out of his imagination and calls them important times in history that caused or will cause imbalances in globalization and free trade. He uses statistics that do not compute with the past. Reporting of statistics have changed over the years, especially with the reporting of unemployment rates. The unemployment reporting of the 1970s was very different from the one used in present times.

In other comparisons, he uses what he calls “flatteners” and this is when he makes history an art form rather than a science. History usually is both art and science. However there are checks and balances to curtail someone’s imagination getting out of control. Things existing only in Friedman’s imagination are presented as realities. See Examples here, here, here, and there, and note an overview of author Brian Alger about “communication by rank” where people like Friedman ignore many things, including the fact that workers have no voice in the process of globalization and free trade, even though they are the root, core and heart of it all.

]]> By: Oxyfish http://itredux.com/2006/04/18/the-world-is-flat-breakfast/comment-page-1/#comment-1438 Oxyfish Tue, 02 May 2006 05:54:13 +0000 http://itredux.com/blog/2006/04/18/the-world-is-flat-breakfast/#comment-1438 [...] I had a good time at Ismael Ghalimi’s World Is Flat Breakfast the other day.  Other folks have done a better job of blogging the whole event than I can.  However, I did get a couple tidbits worth repeating. [...] […] I had a good time at Ismael Ghalimi’s World Is Flat Breakfast the other day.  Other folks have done a better job of blogging the whole event than I can.  However, I did get a couple tidbits worth repeating. […]

]]> By: Sanjay Kalra http://itredux.com/2006/04/18/the-world-is-flat-breakfast/comment-page-1/#comment-1340 Sanjay Kalra Mon, 24 Apr 2006 22:26:03 +0000 http://itredux.com/blog/2006/04/18/the-world-is-flat-breakfast/#comment-1340 <b>Tom Friedman on Lou Dobbs</b> I don't know if you've noticed, but Friedman and Lou Dobbs have been trading blows on national cable television and in other public forums for some time. In fact, in a recent lecture at Yale University, Friedman called Dobbs "a blithering idiot...". Here's an excerpt: "And then you have a blithering idiot like Lou Dobbs, in my view, who's using the platform of CNN in...the frame of a news show. This is not news. And so we have a political class not making sense of the world for people and that's why the public...is so agitated." You can see the whole video <a href="http://www.law.yale.edu/outside/html/Public_Affairs/709/yls_article.htm">here</a>. Also, Dobbs is countering Friedman on his show on CNN tonight (3:00 PM PST). Tom Friedman on Lou Dobbs

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Friedman and Lou Dobbs have been trading blows on national cable television and in other public forums for some time. In fact, in a recent lecture at Yale University, Friedman called Dobbs “a blithering idiot…”. Here’s an excerpt:

“And then you have a blithering idiot like Lou Dobbs, in my view, who’s using the platform of CNN in…the frame of a news show. This is not news. And so we have a political class not making sense of the world for people and that’s why the public…is so agitated.”

You can see the whole video here.

Also, Dobbs is countering Friedman on his show on CNN tonight (3:00 PM PST).

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