I try my best to listen to voices I have ideological differences with. While I like the general idea of globalization and its potential, it’s current implementation is one sided and unfair. In the past, I have tried to find something good in Thomas Friedman’s rosy colored view of this global phenomena. It’s been hard, but he does provide some insight that I can buy in to. Case in point, the general ideas I skimmed in his latest book, Hot Flat and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution and How it Can Help America.
Yesterday on Meet the Press however, it wasn’t hard to get annoyed with the guy. His fear mongering was full frontal when he exclaimed that if there’s another major terrorist attack on American soil, we can kiss good-bye all of these themes of privacy and transparency being promoted by the Obama administration.
What upset me the most was less the matter of fact fear mongering and more towards the fact that he is probably right. It saddens me that this is one aspect of our culture that appears to have not changed with a new president in the White House. Perhaps the most damage perpetrated by Bush administration was the perception that we have to trade one thing for another. Freedom and privacy must be sacrificed in the name of national security. This is certainly not a new concept, but to hear it expressed so bluntly by the Sunday morning talking heads post-Bush is depressing.
Watch it:
