Thomas Friedman, author of The World if Flat and the guru of globalisation is now calling for an American green revolution in to combat climate change, and Starmag journalist Martin Vengadesan interviews him over the phone.What I found especially interesting about the article is Farish Noor's take on Friedman’s work. Farish is now Senior Fellow at the Rajaretnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and feels that Friedman is too concerned with America’s and not the world’s interests :
He is one of the most important American thinkers today because his anxieties reflect the anxieties of the intelligentsia. The problem is that while not being a blatant apologist for America’s actions, he adopts liberal positions yet remains partisan to American interests. People like Friedman and Gore Vidal straddle an unsafe boundary in which they seem to espouse liberalism and democracy, yet send an alarmist message to get America to re-energise and reassert its hegemony.Friedman's latest book Hot, Flat and Crowded is reviewed by Elizabeth Tai.
3 comments:
Thomas Friedman is among the most successful spinmeisters Wall Street has ever produced. No doubt the guy has a sharp mind and writes eloquently, which makes him all the more effective/dangerous (depending on how you earn your money). Can't say I've read much of him but a friend passed me a copy of 'Lexus & The Olive Tree' and I forced myself to read it all the way through (in the loo, where I do most of my offline reading these days). I found myself grudgingly admiring his savvy and savoir-faire, but I was repulsed by his smug, typically American worldview and crypto-Zionist political agenda (damn, am I sounding like Mahathir Mohamad?). I'd say influential thinkers like Friedman are no better than archdruids of advertising - their books are extended brochures for American-style supercapitalist hegemony. But all that is now academic, as the entire mendacious edifice is in the process of self- destructing. Judging by his well-fed face, Friedman has done exceedingly well playing apologist to the last days of New Rome.
Sharon, my nose has been buried in the political muck for months, nice to drop by here for a blast of concentrated booklust. Have missed hugging you! :-)
really have missed you too Antares. please come and read for us again at Seksan's when we have slots again after christmas.
Antares,
I think reports of America's demise are greatly exaggereated. Rome never would have elected a black man.
Anyway, say hi to TLL for me. Haven't seen her for ages.
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