I thought how Friedman contrasted 11/9 (Fall of the Berlin Wall) and 9/11 (Twin Towers) was quite interesting. He took two different forms on imagination and showed us the differences behind them. 11/9 was a more open world, why 9/11 showed how evil thoughts cold stop the flattening of the world. His example is of the two airlines he uses to demonstrate his point is quite ironic and clever. The first airline was JetBlue, they began selling paperless tickets and provided jobs to house wives. They wanted to be innovative and embrace the new world. The second was the airline made by Osama bin Laden, that was determined to crash into the World Trade Center trying to slow us down. One made flying more efficient, the other made chaos and flying horrific. But I believe that 9/11 woke us up and increase our global presence, not stop flattening the world.
I also respected Friedman's thought when he said technology alone will not keep us safe, that we have to affect the imaginations of those who are trying to hurt us. Because we are the world's most powerful country we are suppose to lead by example, and help other countries prosper in this flattening world. Hopefully we can change more peoples imaginations towards 11/9 ideas rather then 9/11 ideas. I remember that day like the back of my hand. After watching all the madness on TV and hearing it all over the news, anger struck across this nation. It's sad, but it was an event that brought this split nation together. The first Dolphins football game that happened after that tragic day was my best because after the anthem the entire stadium was chanting U.S.A. It was told that you could hear it from miles away.
2 comments:
I believe that 9/11 was definately a force that slowed the flattening of the world. Friedman talked about how trust is required to maintain global collaboration and a global marketplaces. When that trust is gone the potential to flatten the world disappears. Just think what would happen if a similar event was to happen today. Fear would cause us to put up those walls we wroked so hard to tear down.
Fear is definately a major flattening stopper. We have done so well in making the freedom movement more global. Sadly, the few "evil" people are trying to ruin it for all of us. We need to encourage our nation along with others to not be afraid (or at least not be afraid to continue to prosper through freedom and globalization.) If we were to stop doing what we're doing, that is what the terrorists want. If we keep doing what we're doing, the "evil" people are not going to be satisfied. And that was a touching thing you mentioned about the Dolphins game. That time period was very patriotic, and I think American citizens should be encouraged more to remember the "united we stand" saying. While it is inevitable we will have differening opinions and tempers may flare at times, we have to remember what we all (hopefully) stand for is freedom.
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