Mr. Friedman's take on nature and the Middle East is too mild. With the combination droughts, increasing temperatures and over-population (If the US had the same rate of population increase as Lebanon for the last 50 years the US population would be over 600 million.) nature is going to make the Middle East unsustainable, ungovernable and eventually uninhabitable.
1
Success is the mother of failure.
2
For what it's worth, everyone in the media and others as well should present Netanyahu with this basic question; "Do you see any point in the future when the Palestinians could have East Jerusalem as their capital, or sovereign area as it was once considered in a secret proposal? After all, there are supposed to be no preconditions in the talks you ask for.
2
Of the three you mentioned, it is Mother Nature that will prevail.
3
Thank you. I needed some big picture perspective more than ever.
4
There is an example of going all the way that Friedman did not mention. In 2005, Israel went all the way and withdrew unilaterally from Gaza. Israeli settlers were carried out kicking and screaming. Israel, in effect, created an independent Palestinian state--albeit a mini-state.
The residents of Gaza elected Hamas two years later. It was their way of teaching Israel not to be generous.
7
And the rich get richer as inequality soars with no end in site.
We are moving inexorably to a state of real "Altered Carbon" where the rich will reign like the cruel demented immortals depicted in that Netflix drama over mother nature markets and human nature
The walls are getting higher everyday and AI is going to meld with them to create a hellish utopia surrounded by rabble sheep; that 30% becoming the 90% of earth's last gasp of humanity.
AND they deserve it!
3
Same as it ever was.
4
To me, the deep question is how much longer the American people are going to tolerate or ignore Israel's ceaseless efforts to ensnare us in Zionist schemes. At some point, they are going to ask how much we pay for this misnomered "alliance" in blood and money. At some point, too, the foolish Evangelicals are going to realize that no serious Christian eschatology is involved in radical Zionism, which in Israel is not really religion but a preposterous ethnocracy. At least Mr. Friedman sees the poison in the spear-point of this dubious nonsense. God Bless him.
7
Agree there are powerful forces to counter the excesses of rulers or would be autocrats. Then again Hitler shows up to remind separating people from reality remains a threat. Nearly 75% of Republicans have lost confidence in the FBI and Justice Department. I suspect the Intelligence Community falls into a similar category for mistrust. The shift in opinion happened by design. The strains on the system reveal a few cracks. Unchecked and unrestrained Mueller may need a rubber nose and glasses to sneak out of Washington undiscovered. It can't happen here ignores some pretty basic facts. Mother Nature and human nature may lock arms to overcome what we see with something of value in its place. Meanwhile, vigilance may be required in the short term.
No, this is not a question of greed, fair, freedom and dignity, or even of truth, justice and the American way. This is a question of survival. Israelis have long since realized that a one state solution in which they gave Palestinians full voting rights (which they would, being Jews) would mean that they would no longer be a Jewish state. They remember how many Jews died because there was no Jewish state. They suspect that they would no longer be able to accep Jewish refugees from all over this sorry world if they were not a majority Jewish state. The only solution for Israel is a two state solution with Israel in charge of security matters on the West Bank. This is unacceptable to the present West Bank government, much less Hamas. Therefore, =things will stay the same. Why don't you personally work on an address to the Palestinians, urging them to consider reality and the idea that they could probably convince Israel to provide clean water to Gaza in a couple of years (when the UN says they probably will run out it) if they could bring themselves to stop killing Israelis?
10
There’s a recurring theme in Israel, Washington and many other hot spots, that the whole world is getting better. So, Tom, stop complaining.
1
My father used to tell me: revere Jacob Javits. He was a Republican moderate, a consensus builder and deal maker, one who actually governed, and who lauded the skills of the diplomat and the adroit aplomb of a true politician. He, like Scoop Jackson, went "all the way" over the 50-yard line, to broker a deal and enhance our country. They knew that they were caretakers of this republic, and they needed to hand it over to the next generation better.
Such people have vanished from the scene, and all we have left are the neanderthal reactionaries.
5
Maybe the esteemed Mr. Friedman should step back and recognize Israel's right to exist. There are a number of countries and organizations who don't and would rather destroy Israel than live in peace with them.
5
What is depressing to me is seemingly good people cheer Trump for what he has made this country become. Are they gullible, uninformed, foolish, partisanly blind, or are they just like Trump?
I say seemingly good people because it seems, and it's said that, for the sake of future conciliation, we should not demonize our political opponents. But I truly is at a loss on how to persuade them to simply see facts as they are. If they cannot even see facts, how can they ever to be persuaded to my point of view?
While it is a solace of sort to know destructive deeds "going all the way" will be constrained by its own destruction, but in Friedman's telling, the end results are lose-lose situations. We ended up with more chaos and sufferings all round.
10
Ah, but you do demonize us (i.e. the people who end up with opposing conclusions using the same facts as you). I, like you presumably, am distraught at Trump's impulsive unpresidential style and would agree that his approach is corrosive and lowers the bar of civility for us all. I also am incredulous that the left is unable to see or admit its own hypocrisy, hysteria and bigotry (the last simply defined as intolerance of those who hold different opinions). I read the NYTimes daily, and daily I am dismayed at how its editors have abandoned even a pretense of objectivity when it comes to Trump. So, anyway, just seeing "facts" as you insist, is not the solution. To wit: the facts as I see them clearly point to policies that support the Dakota Access pipeline; that combine a path to citizenship for Dreamers and create a strong border; that give parents control of education dollars; that drastically streamline federal regulations; that push our NATO and UN partners to pay their fair share; etc etc etc. You, I'm guessing, would disagree. But it is not my (or your) failure to see facts that lead us to different conclusions. It is our values and our views of human nature. Jefferson and Hamilton had the same facts.
1
Brilliant but bleak analysis of the current mood of cynical self-interest on this earth. Thank you for voicing our concern that the world is watching what Trump is trying to do to this country, and their "leaders" are deciding they can get away with whatever they want in the name of 'populism'.
4
One cannot help but to think, with so many controlling so many aspects of the markets, and with population increases going ever onward, among so many other dynamics, that capitalism itself and its mother ship America, with her destabilizing world influence and her malevolent military machinations, will be one day seen as part and parcel the chief problem facing a better future for all and not just some, or maybe better put "sum". Everything seems to change, yet we seem to be worse and worse at the same ol' same old.
2
Thank you NYTs for this. Often it takes very strong and honest words to stop bad deeds 'before' they happen. Truth needs to win and gain respect again so that turmoil slinks away, avoided, unnecessary, shunned.
3
It's another chapter in the age of excess. Everyone is pushing the envelope. You see it the ARTs and Entertainment industry, you see it in sports, you see it in the markets, you see it in the media, you see it just about everywhere. It knows no boundaries.
What was previously thought as radical behavior now goes unchecked. Look at Trump's behavior as he set new lows in politics with both his Presidential campaign and his Presidency.
Where will this end? I wouldn't count on the Financial Markets or Mother Nature to save us. There are so many similarities to the late 1920's when Fascism was on the rise. A market crash didn't stop the rise in Fascism. It in fact refueled it. It took a World War to stop it.
2
Off topic perhaps, but perhaps not. Was anyone else struck by the horrifying casualness captured in the photograph?
1
What a pretentious, overlong transcription of Roman wisdom: sic semper tyrannis.
Of course, the Romans are said to have said this as they killed the dictator, shortly before they anointed an emperor. Sometimes such ends take centuries. Small comfort to the oppressed in the moment.
Overall great column. But please stop with the Saudis and the Crown Prince are reforming Saudi version of Islam. How low does the bar have to be to celebrate that women will get the right to drive (still not there yet) as some revolutionary breakthrough? Saudi Arabia remains an absolute monarchy and is a total theocracy in the 21st century - that’s simply not acceptable. I get that Saudi Arabia has a lot of oil (lots of American companies profit; also killing the planet with man-made climate change), buys a lot of American weapons (one of the largest military budgets in the world; also killing Yemeni civilians, committing war crimes regularly), and allied with Netanyahu and right-wing Israeli government. So we will support Saudi Arabia even though its Wahhabism is the foundation for Al Qaeda, Bin Landen, 15 of the 19 9/11 terrorists and mass-murderers, ISIS (none of that comes from Iran, whose theocratic Ayatollah thugs are a problem, but are in fact mortal enemies of Al Qaeda and ISIS), and destroys all moderate and modernizing forces in Islam. Get rid of the Saudi royal family - crime family. Get rid of Wahhabism (10% of Saudis are Shia; 30-40% non-Wahhabi; before 1920’s, Saudi family and Wahhabism were a small minority from the backwards Najd region). Plenty of decent, pro-democracy Saudi Arabians and true reformers - put them in charge. Then let’s talk about reforming Saudi version of Islam. Enough of the Saudi propaganda about moderating Islam lies.
4
I thought the article’s title was in reference to the Times articles about pornography and teens. But I see it’s about another favorite pastime, “do unto others before they do it unto you”.
In recent interviews Elon Musk has pointed out his concerns about the dangers of AI. Zuckerberg and perhaps Gates oppose Musk’s view. It’s a tough call as to whether we should “go all the way” with AI, and risk ruining the present “going all the way” machinations of world leaders. Maybe Skynet really wouldn’t “go all the way”?
Another great column Mr. Friedman! If I may, I just would like to add that the red carpet is being rolled for China to Go All the Way!!!
1
From which of the gods do we choose?
The problems are real but they are all based on an imaginary shape shifting creature, an invention devised by men, not patented and as a result claimed by any and every person who has "seen the light".
Why don't editors. columnists, philosophers, government officials, religion's ministers or anyone in the list of people who claim to represent some god or other stand and demand their god is the one god, institute a bloodbath, kill all the infidels and be done with it?
It has become difficult to accept writing which is apparently scribed by an intelligent person as having actual value when the words chosen tacitly accept the unreality of religious belief. The basis of any religious belief is to empower and solidify the social grasp of those who seek to control and not coincidently it is men who are and have always been church leaders
As any reasonablely thoughtful person will concur "... the eternal human quest for for freedom and dignity" will not be solved by exhorting fictional deities for assistance.
It is time we in the United States actually followed the separation of church and state.
1
I sure hope all the three forces - market, Mother Nature, and human nature - work the way Mr. Friedman describes, and deep in my heart, I believe these forces would surely come into play. However, it's the time gap between the free hand that the authors of folly - that is those determined to go all the way - their way - would have to do their stuff before corrective forces step in.
But then I guess that's the way humanity progresses, sometimes one step forward, and two backward, while other times, two forward, one backward. For sure, a bumpy road lies ahead. That's the way it always has been, and that's the way it's going to be. No clean or clearcut paths for the error-prone human mind.
To me, one of the most admirable postures an individual or organization or state can take is resisting the impulse to overstep accepted bounds to take advantage of a disparity of resources. It usually goes along with a respect for boundaries, personal or physical, and a recognition of the integrity of other people individually or collectively to have certain "inalienable" rights.
Perhaps what is so disconcerting in the case of Trump's reign here and the right wing ascension in Israel is that both states are democracies with a plethora of advantages in regard to education, wealth and access, but rather than choosing to be thankful and generous in spirit towards the less fortunate, it appears to encourage some, particularly in positions of leadership, to yes, want to "go all the way" grabbing as much as they can get away with taking no matter how many times they are cautioned regarding consequences.
I'm sure that Mr. Friedman is right about natural corrections, but in this sped up universe, it's still frightening to watch this level of excess, greed and punitive behavior and not feel they can't come soon enough.
1
Article suggests that if we sit back and watch and the three forces will check the excesses of all parties. Of the three, only Mother Nature acts independently. Human Nature is both Good and Evil, living side by side. Markets are just human creation. In the long run, we all believe that good will triumph over evil, truth will prevail and Mother Nature will act. But in the interim, many lives will be lost and millions could suffer. Evil empires can last decades, if not centuries which is more than enough time to ruin entire lives and generations. So, we can not just sit back and watch. In the real world, leaders and nations must act to stop the slide. Second rule of thermodynamics also applies to real life, that all systems naturally trend towards decay/disorder without application of external force.
1
Thomas Friedman, I have loved your thoughtful knowledgeable articles about the Middle East, Africa, the environment and politics ever since I lived in Egypt for 17 years. You have a much more indepth idea of what is going on than anyone else and this column today explains it all very clearly and what we are facing at this moment which is very scary indeed and how little the general public really know or understand. Thank you very much for your great writing, critical thinking and insight. Keep it up please.
1
Thomas L. Friedman is delusional if he thinks that Mother Nature, human nature and markets will ensure the status quo or that these passive forces can rein in extreme malevolent movements. Mr. Friedman conveniently forgets the extinction of dinosaurs (Mother Nature), World Wars I & II (human nature), and The Great Depression (markets), as just a few examples of these same passive forces tearing at the fabric of established norms.
2
Although I do applaud Thomas Friedman for understanding what has really been going on in the Mid East especially with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I still feel that he doesn't understand why these conflicts are still going on even today. The real reason is that there are those such as the Palestinians who continue to live in the past and believe that they would rather all die than live with a Jewish state. Until they start changing that nature, there will never be peace. Let's not forget that there were a couple occasions to end that so-called occupation, but the Palestinians kept on refusing it even despite that mainly because they would feel it would be more of a surrender to them. As for many of the other problems going on in the region, they would be occurring whether or not Israel existed considering that their problems are internal yet I know many who will gladly scapegoat Israel for this. Ironically, I don't hear that many calling out Saudi Arabia for using airstrikes to stop Houthi rebels in Yemen as they do whenever Israel does this to stop Hamas. Then again, it's probably because Saudi Arabia isn't Israel and others will claim that such actions are justified. Meanwhile the mention of what's going on at Israel's desalination plant makes me feel that Hamas was doing that on purpose and not by accident. Overall, Israel will agree to make peace with the Palestinians when they know that the Palestinians will no longer want to kill them.
4
Thank you for your article on Feb 7th, 2018.
Yes. I happened to be reading Chernow’s “Grant” yesterday about his distain for his father wanting to sell contracts to the South during the Civil War. Also his father wanting a military contract for harnesses. “I cannot take an active part in securing contracts” “It is necessary both to my efficiency for the public good and my own reputation...”
Page 161-162.
Thinking back to the 70’s when the phrase “America right or wrong” was popular among those defending the Vietnam War.
There is no excuse for President Trump. Why would he impede Russians in helping him come to power? He seems to have no problem disenfranchising voters through gerrymandering or the Electoral College.
This is not about Communism, this is about a minority in Germany during the 1930’s detaining, labeling and attacking
minority Jews, gypsies, intellectuals, history, books, homosexuals and any rule of law.
God help us.
3
We first need to help ourselves:Get out and vote AND insist that our votes are done
on paper ballots (not electronically); that they can be seen by every citizen, and
preserved for future reference. Vote for candidates at every level: local, state, and
national. Tell friends about books like "Dark Money" and similar exposes.
Telephone your Congressmen and tell them how you feel -- urge they take action. Then -- maybe God will help us.
1
I think you missed the mark this time Mr. Friedman. The problem and the solution does not lie in political institutions, nor treaties, nor NAFTA, Climate or other agreements such as you mention in the article. Sickness in the modern world is born of moral confusion, intellectual anarchy and spiritual despair. Reinhold Niebuhr preached this and show us in the 1950's that liberalism and socialism ignore with fatal consequence...."evil" is something real and the name for it is sin. Its locus is not in institutions, which are but a reflection of human purposes, but in human nature itself..." Please no high horse sentiments about POTUS while the biggest 4th Amendment scandal in American history is going on over in the DOJ/FBI. NY Times, ALCU and most of the 4th Estate is strangely silent. No, outrageously silent. We this scandal to implicate Republicans, it would be above the fold in every newspaper in the country. AS it stands against democrats.....crickets.
Well Mother Nature has sure visited the United States a lot in the last year.
All kinds of natural disasters in the form of Hurricanes, mud slides, wild fires, snow storms and ocean wild waves. Now all we need is "irrepressible" human nature. I hope we have that at the poles in November of this year.
1
What a hopeful piece! I hope Mr. Friedman is correct. Trump will not own a stock market crash, but he can't escape other economic realities.
One problem is that "going all the way" in a democracy means undermining our democratic principles, which Trump is eager to do. He has already turned many cabinet-level departments on their heads, charging them to do the opposite of their previous goals. So we have or will have more pollution, more corruption, less regulation and, eventually, another large recession.
Meanwhile, as many Israelis cheer both Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as its capital and Netanyahu's attempts to annex the West Bank, Israel is dealing with the consequences of its own boldness.
While it would be good after 60-plus years to finalize some sort of solution to the Palestinian claims, on the other hand, a unilateral approach may make the situation worse. I hope everyone is prepared for that.
In the past 30 years, Israel has annexed ZERO territory.
True, so far, but there is talk of doing it now. David Ben-Gurion talked Israel out of annexing the West Bank in 1967 in an effort to maintain peace with Arab states, which refused to take Arab refugees from that war, creating some of today's problems.
I agree with Mr. Friedman that things are moving to the extreme and, sooner than later, there will be a reckoning. I, however, beg to differ with him on what is behind all that extremism.
Let's put it this way. In every continent and every capital, there are those who are sufficiently close to the seat of power to see how "the big money" is running the show. Some of them are power-hungry and badly want one day to be running the show themselves. They realize that it takes money; a lot of it. So, they are setting the stage for "blood running in the streets", because history tells them that is how the big money is made.
1
I object to this picture. The New York Times should have another one, side by side, of the harm done by the "Palestinians" (who did not exist before the 1967 war, but were really part of Jordan).
3
Well Hitler went all the way and caused the second world war. De Gaulle went all the way and France gave up Algeria. Kennedy went almost all the way and invited a nuclear Armageddon. All of these leaders used democratic norms to wreak havoc at home and abroad. Our current president doesn't even have to use democratic norms because the Republican party is his great enabler.
7
Nice article.
I wish the author mentioned many other countries, mainly India under Modi and China under Xi in the same context. Lack of leadership or wrong leadership by US (as by Reagan and Trump) can cause far more damage to the world.
2
This is the very best kind of op-ed journalism: It gives context to confusing situations affecting us. It stimulates thought and conversation without imposing somy party's doctrine. And it encourages some hopefulness: Trump et al will not "go all the way. " Mother nature bats last. Thanks, Mr. Friedman.
11
You mean the world doesn’t end at our borders—shocking
Nature is dominant and all decisive. As the human population climbs and resources dwindle - human differences will be exacerbated. It matters not how many improvements in science or medicine or technology are created - especially in light of the fact that religious extremists who are least likely to support science, medicine and technology - are the ones driving the population explosion. At some point we will be past the sustainability of Earth's resources, in fact we may have already past that point. It is all downhill from there. Rapa Nui writ large.
6
What "population explosion"? In the last decade, birthrates have been going down on every continent, even in countries where population was increasing rapidly 20 years ago. If in doubt, verify these statements with UN published statistics.
Yes, the nature will eventually heals the earth; but chances are that by that time there will not be humans around. And I sincerely doubt that the catalyst for that eventuality will be "population explosion"!
1
Overall, one of Friedman’s better columns. The ends justifies the means, the scorched earth winner takes all crowd is definitely in ascendency around the world. There is no better example than Trump: lie, cheat, steal, rig the system, short the system, destroy the system, always declare victory, falsely take credit, always deny failure, deny the most obvious facts, keep lying, cheating, destroying the system until you win. That’s how Trump became a billionaire (yes, he lies about his wealth and yes he inherited a lot of his wealth), a reality TV star, and what still remains mind boggling to me, the POTUS. Trump always goes all the way, no matter how ruthless, how vulgar, how hateful, how disgusting his actions - as long as he wins (and he takes credit for anything and everything) and lies continuously about the damage and destruction he causes, that’s all that matters. It is very difficult to take him on without getting into the mud where he naturally lives. And Trump’s supporters are not only not repulsed by his inherent character, they celebrate it; they see him as a champion for their causes, their self-created victimhood - they are the Real Americans led by leader who tells the truth (one who happens to be a pathological liar), who want their country back from all the Un-American, Treasonous opposition and threats from the Other. As Friedman points out, it never ends well when the going all the way crowd are in charge. It can get very, very ugly.
14
Powerful and worthy of deep contemplation, but I see a few things missing. I see a Saudi Arabia that enabled 9/11, was never held accountable, now a nod and wink ally of Israel and largest purchaser of American arms, brutally corral its Sunni brothers in Syria to perpetuate its proxy war. I see an emboldened orthodox movement in Israel and America hell-bent on settlements not just covered by Addelson, but funded by him, embrace a quasi-White Nationalist sentiment which leaves me with a dumbfounded queasy feeling. I see a once mighty champion of democracy and liberalism that stood boldly in the face of overwhelming evil throughout the Muslim world become the thing that is the exact opposite of the lessons learned from 3 millennia of tragic injustice. As an American Reform and Progressive Jew, I for the first time in my life, have felt a sense of shame that not only regrets Israels maneuvering for a 1-state solution based on a religious orthodoxy while Rabbis play ball with our synagogues biggest funders but recognize many of the same maneuverings are true for my America that has completely derailed. Welcome to the era of perversion and complicity at every turn. Truly an art form.
5
And welcome to the world of Ayan Rand capitalism.
What ever happened to that Age of Aquarius we were promised 50 years ago?
We have entered the age of the tyrant, the mob boss as president, the age of take it all; the future be damned.
The republican party has turned the United States into Dumnassistan and we can now join the rest of the Nations under the thumb of reactionaries and idiots.
4
I hope to see less and less about the personal visits of Times writers to this South Africa of the North, and more about affordable housing in NYC. Israel didn't pay for the education and socialization of the op ed writers at the Times. NYC did all that, and much, much more.
4
"look at Gaza. Due largely to Hamas's malevolence and incompetence, but also some Israeli restrictions, Gaza has limited hours of electricity each day."
I can't think of a more uninformed read on Gaza. It was Israel that purposefully bombed Gaza's power only power plant multiple times, a clear violation of international law which bans the bombing of key infrastructure. it was Israel that destroyed electrical infrastructure throughout Gaza during its attacks and that continues to block the import of materials needed for repairs. it is Israel that, through its comprehensive blockade, restricts the import of all materials needed to upgrade electrical infrastructure. it is Israel which has limited the import of fuel and gas needed to maintain electrical supplies. It is Israel which has limited how much electricity is supplied to Gaza from outside. While Hamas may not be playing a helpful role in Gaza, its positions and "incompetence" have virtually nothing to do with the power crisis in Gaza. What Gaza shows is that if you treat people like crap, that crap may end up washing back on your own doorstep. So treat people with respect and grant them their rights. Then there might be change.
10
Meriot
The Palestinians used cement for attack tunnels instead of for electric power plants.
Khaled Mashaal, head of Hamas’s political wing. “Global estimates say Mashaal is worth $2.6 billion. Mashaal could buy 24 hours/day electricity from Israel, but he'd rather his people suffer so he can blame Israel for their suffering.
1
Existential hope!
Let us remember that the Palestinians were given a country in 1947. Let us not forget that the Romans committed genocide when the Jewish people revolted against worshiping the gods on Roman coins and that perhaps 100,000 Jewish people were crucified. Others were expelled.
So the Palestinians claim it is their country when in fact it is a country from which the Jews were the victim of ethnic cleansing.
So the Palestinians pile up with the Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians and Iraqis and try to obliterate Israel. They lost. In the past the losers of wars were simply killed, their women raped and their children sold into slavery. Of course Israel did not do that.
France and Germany used to hate each other enough for the Germans to start two world wars. The Americans and British defeated the Nazi regime and allowed the democratic forces in Germany to create a state where the border between France and Germany is just a line on a map.
When will the Palestinians become a democratic state? When will their leaders stop killing the democratic opposition? When the world community stops supporting dictators and tyrants in the United Nations and the mid east creates the equivalent of the European Union.
4
The Mustache has descended from Olympus to tell you that violence is bad, but maybe it's also good because bad people will get bad things done to them by good people who are tired of bad people being bad. That's literally it.
Remember last week when he said that killing children was okay because the Middle East isn't Scandinavia? If you take anything he says seriously, you're putting yourself at an immense disadvantage -- and I say that as someone who's read the NYT religiously for 15 years.
2
I'm hopeful, but unsure that irrepressible human nature will prevail against this darkness. It's really up to G-d, whose Spirit will guide us in its own way.
1
“Lebanon today formally canceled its troop withdrawal accord with Israel,” marking “the end of the so-called ‘Israeli era’ in Lebanese politics and to shift Lebanon solidly back into the Syrian-Arab fold.”
It was nice while it lasted."
So... as long as Lebanon is being controlled by forces YOU find welcome, it's all right?
Lebanon has been a shadow govt of the Syrian regime for decades. And yet, get your surprise face ready, it is ALWAYS Israel that gets blamed for Lebanon's problems.
I'm sure Friedman is looking forward to the day he can say about my country of birth "It was nice while it lasted."
Another brilliant piece! Thanks
1
Call it balance, if you like. When things get too far out of balance, something kicks in to create it anew. What is that something? It has many names. In secular terms, we could call it paradox. Whatever you call it, the bad news is that renewed balance doesn't come easy. Often -- indeed, usually -- it requires wiping the slate clean (i.e., a whole lot of destruction and loss). My sense is that the imbalances to which this piece refers are far from over, and that the destruction and loss is just beginning. The innocent will suffer -- mightily. But, keeping in mind that evil triumphs when good people do nothing, I suppose we should be asking, Is anyone really innocent?
1
When real moral leaders have abdicated their roles in the most important challenges of the modern world (a fair and peaceful middle east, climate change, revamping globalization to benefit more people), I guess all we have left to put our hopes on is Mother Nature, human nature and markets! An imperfect answer indeed!
We the People ought to decide that we wanted world at peace and elect people who will make it happen.
We get the governments we deserve.
2
A very optimistic piece. In fact so optimistic as to be panglossian. Mother nature will surely correct any unreasonable excesses of human cupidity and greed. But that doesn't mean humanity will survive the correction.
2
Sadly, Mr. Friedman can't be counted on to give the complete story. He does not mention the Taylor Force Act in The Senate. The Palestinian Authority for years have been using American funds (money is fungible) to pay stipends to the terrorists and their families, including the families of successful suicide bombers. The act stops American funding until the Palestinians stop rewarding terror.
The Palestinians were supposed to have elections in 2010. It is very clear that unelected governments that reward and incentivize terrorism are incapable of negotiating a peace agreement.
Until the Palestinians elect a government that denounces instead of rewarding terror, there cannot possibly be any peace.
It is heartening to see that Israeli Arab enrollment has increased 60% in the last 7 years to 47,000. They know they have to move on with their lives. The rest of the world, including NYT and Mr. Frieden should recognize it will be a very long time before the Palestinians stop rewarding terror and desire a real peace with Israel.
3
If it is another way of saying that imbalance in all these spheres - the market, nature and human nature , tries to find equilibrium, balance or homeostasis - in physiological terms - then it makes sense.
If, for example, the worst were to happen - as is talked about these days and not without good reason, and all these destabilizing forces led to nuclear catastrophe, then the planet would restore balance - but it may take a millenium . And who knows if humans would be around at all in the end.
2
Really out of touch with Middle East mentality of needing to go all the way or get crushed. The May 17 1983 Pact with Israel which Lebanon originally endorsed under a government of all Christian and Moslem elected factions and later cancelled is another example why Israel can't trust any "peace agreement" with Arab countries. The so called Palestinians who are really Arabs disguised as a fake dispossessed people want a slaughter not a state as the West misleadingly propagates. Embrace your Torah true Judaism over Western liberal immorality of kind to the cruelty and savagery among the Arabs.
Middle East professor and former Foreign Service officer, American Embassy Tel Aviv.
2
The Lebanese government this praises was put in place mid way through the Lebanese Civil War, 1975-1990. It was a symptom of the civil war, in that it was an Israeli puppet set up to try to run Lebanon for the benefit of outside interests while allowing continued occupation of Lebanon and constant bombing of Lebanon. The Civil War did not end until Israel left and the government it left behind also was gone.
5
That, "Over Western liberal immorality," really took the fruitcake, especially given just how Israel was actually founded back here on the planet.
1
Overpopulation will only make us more interconnected. And hateful of each other. Without some meaningful post patriarchal leadership Humanity's end will be a pathetic mess.
4
Empires rise and fall. They generally overreach with their power and become overly extended and can't maintain their hegemony. Just like the Hebrews were delivered from bondage from a much stronger Egyptian Pharaoh, the Palestinians will also be delivered from bondage. Will deliverance come in the form of "palecaust" or a common humanity from their oppressors, only history will tell. Yes, the Palestinians have been occupied their entire history from the Ottomans to the English and now the colonist Zionist. They will have freedom in their home on their land. That's the self evident truth. one cannot cover the sun with the palm of their hands. No amount of Hollywood propaganda will shade the truth that these people are occupied and we are not in the 17th century where you can wipe them of the map in silence.
3
Palestinians have been oppressing Jews for centuries.
In 1839, the British consul, William Young, said that the poor Jew in Jerusalem...lives from day to day in terror of his life....Young attributed the plight of the Jew in Jerusalem to “the blind hatred and ignorant prejudice of a fanatical populace,”
JEWS IN JERUSALEM.
New York Times December 29, 1878
Crowded together in the worst lodgings, or in the dark cellars under a synagogue building, without food, fuel, or water –even water at Jerusalem being a commodity of price – numbers died of starvation and various diseases, while others went raving mad. Those who could labor were denied employment by the bigotry of the Mussulmans and of the Oriental Christians.
Notice the date. This was before the first Zionists arrived in Palestine. Notice the word bigotry.
Jews had lived for centuries in Hebron & Gaza until they were ethnically cleansed from those areas in 1929.
During the week of riots from 23 to 29 August, 133 Jews were killed by Arabs and 339 others were injured,
and now Palestinians oppress Israelis
Running over Israelis is oppression.
Stabbing Israelis is oppression.
Shooting Israelis is oppression.
Firing rockets at Israelis is oppression.
Blowing up Israelis is oppression.
Throwing rocks at Israelis is oppression.
Its an arrogant half-true boast..."Jerusalem is the center of the world"....but you hafta admit....its half- TRUE.......
Jerusalem and the middle east that surrounds it, is indeed at the center of mass for three continental masses that contain most of the planet's human population.
The tribal comings and goings in the area have led to a confusing mish-mash of allegiences and calls for multi-generational wars of blood vengeance. Its enough to make even the star-bellied sneeches join the plain-bellied sneeches in saying, "dayum!"
With the fading away of the old Communist World Revolution theology.....the new global ideology, Islam, re-emerges...........but Islam has a big problem.........Arabs vs Iranians vs Turks vs Levantines vs Kurds vs Egyptians vs Berbers vs Pakistanis vs Indonesians so forth and so on ad nauseum..............tribal rivalries for domination of the Caliphate and Mecca and both.
Using the Christian timeline as a template.......expect the turmoil in Islam to continue another 100 years as Islam develops a "protestant" mindset that allows separation of religion from state politics, free will, and independent thought.
Mecca will cease to be important in islamic theology. The Five Pillars will be "reformed".
Informative and a thoughtful warning. Go Friedman.
3
Friedman: Pollyanna or Pangloss? Take your pick.
1
"Iranians back home start protesting against Suleimani’s overreach; they’re tired of seeing their money spent on Gaza and Syria — not on Iranians"
So say us.
But.
Let's throw a billion dollar Miliarty parade.
4
You suggest Hamas building schools for "Palestinian society". I would argue that without a piece of land to defend, to stride upon freely, to call their own, there is no Palestinian society. There are only stories to be told by ghosts to a deaf world.
Either fish or cut bait Mr. Friedman. Don't pretend there's anything left to salvage from the wreckage. Palestine fell a long time ago and nothing's going to bring it back. It's gone.
Anything they built was methodically blown up. Anything the EU built for them went the same way. What does that encourage?
5
Ever since Israel agreed to a unilateral withdraw of the Gaza Strip, it has been completely under Palestinian control. However, Hamas has just used that as a way to launch more rockets than to have any peace talks. That is what lead to places being destroyed. BTW, many of those said places were found to be military bases or for storage of rockets ready for launch, which shows how little innocence Hamas really has. It doesn't surprise me that world turns a blind eye whenever Hamas does this yet always condemns Israel for fighting back.
3
Sue
There was Jewish society even though Jews had no state for thousands of years.
Friedman says --
Watch out for the market, Mother Nature and human nature. Because, noted Israeli political theorist Yaron Ezrahi, the first two are “uncontrollable and the
other is irrepressible.”
This is muddled thinking. Markets can easily be controlled with legislation. The physical transformation of the planet is proof that Mother Nature can be controlled. We wouldn't have Psychology unless it were possible to repress human nature.
Markets and Mother Nature have little effect on current action. Republicans just ignored the reality that sending more $$ to billionaires doesn't stimulate the economy. The Market responded, but it certainly didn't lead. Nor is Mother Nature doing very well on her own as all the coral reefs on the planet die and we enter the Holocene period of rapid extinction.
Our only hope is understanding that human nature is a specific form of nature that lives in harmony with Mother Nature.
And the Green Party and Progressive Democrats most definitely *should* go "all the way" -- stopping perpetual wars, creating clean energy jobs, legislating medicare for all, $15/hour minimum wage, federally subsidized maternal leave so infants can feel save and secure in the world.
The Republicans should stop "going all the way" before they go over the cliff.
2
Markets can be shaped, as with honest weights and measures and honest courts to enforce fair rules. They can be taxed to shape the payoffs.
However, markets cannot be "controlled." The whole idea of a market mechanism is that is the collective outcome of a vast number of uncontrolled decisions made by individuals who know their own interests. It is that which makes it "free" and more effective than a collectivist system which simply cannot process that much information that fast.
We must aim to shape fair markets, and to tax them to shape interests, as with tiny transaction fees on the stock market to make certain forms of trading less profitable.
5
I admire the taut description you provide about the efficiency of markets. What also should be added here is that the big decision is not the polarized rhetoric between the forces of free markets and controlled markets, but rather who gets to decide which markets will be (more of less) free and which markets will be more regulated.
For instance, the market for the national defense of the United States is a heavily controlled and regulated market. It has permanent budget status, a vast array of entities involved in bidding for contracts in this market with an octopus-like tentacles reaching into every crevice of the landscape of structures in U.S. society, buttressed by a philosophical advocacy system.
Contrast this, for instance, with assisted living facilities for elders which take Medicare for payment. Such facilities are regulated lightly on a state by state basis, and much more resemble they hypothetical free market.
An honest moral investigation begins with exactly the question of why the government gets involved in, as you say, "shaping and taxing" some markets, and in others where it does not.
Which is exactly why no one should ever be uncritically for or against so-called "free markets." The so-called "creative destruction" of free markets can be either good or bad, depending on the exact industry it affects, and whether the benefit to the victors and pain to the victims of business turmoil is worth allowing change to proceed unfettered by regulation.
Mr. Friedman we see now the words "power corrupts", and distorts their egos. This madman who is running Turkey's people into the same psychological down that the American people are experiencing. HBO's political writers for Homeland can't keep up with the distortion that's happening at home.
The scariest part of this whole scenario is that people see this as the norm. Trumps cronies are slowly dismantling the laws of this country, and the press is trying to pull his pants up around his ankles just to follow this madman around. Millennium's, the black vote and women in America have the ability to change this on November 6. Please write about this American dream.
Thomas,
"I see Republicans trashing two of our most sacred institutions — the F.B.I. and the Justice Department — because these agencies won’t bend to Trump’s will."
I see you as a biased liberal blind individual who has no ability to see reality. Duh 5 FBI agents resigned or removed. No need to go further as logic is not your strong suit.
Disrespectfully,
Michael Grosshandler
1
MG: Evidence has not been presented that their politics corrupted the integrity of their work product? This is the same trumpian "logic" as the claim that a Judge born to Mexican immigrants cannot possibly be professionally objective in a case involving an American bigot. Would you suspect that a Democrat physician would mistreat you were you to need service in an emergency room? Most professionals put principle above ideology.
3
Maybe the NYT will finally print one of my comments on Friedman?
Tom, let me start off by noting you are amazing, insightful, explanatory and understanding of the Middle East in ways no mortal should be expected to be. Thank you guy! (Hopefully plaudits sufficiently satisfactory to appease NYT gatekeepers?)
Let me just focus on Gaza. Are you aware of the Israeli embargo on Gaza? Are you aware that Israel makes an ever changing list of the, is it about a dozen items, that are permitted in to Gaza? Children's toys? They've had their time on the impermissible list! Maybe now it's more than a dozen items permitted in to Gaza, but you get my point. And that electricity situation in Gaza? What did Israeli targeting of Palestinian infrastructure and habitat during its most recent pulverization of Gaza, have to do with that?
You really are right Tom, these are "some Israeli restrictions!!!!!!!" Unlike you, I'd put a lot (a lot!) of emphasis on the "SOME."
Does your utter distortion of the reality of Israeli policy and actions on Gaza percolate through the rest of your "analysis?" Good question!
6
Are you aware that Hamas has pledged to slaughter every man woman and child in Israel? How’s that for reality?
1
AJ, you should go easy on Friedman. This is the most critical he's ever been of Israel.
I know, it's not a high bar for him to clear. More like he's stepping over a limbo bar instead of going under it.
Have you ever tried looking at the causes rather than the effects for once? The reason why Israel restricts a lot on the ports of the Gaza Strip is mainly because supporters of Hamas have been known to be giving them weapons. Could you imagine if this was being done for ISIS or any other terrorist groups. This is one of the ways to stop terrorist groups by not letting them get any of their hands on weapons. Also, this is part of an action known as counter-terrorism in which you try to stop terrorist groups before they can make any attacks. Doing this saves a lot more lives on their side. Unfortunately, Hamas does have a history of putting their own people into harm's way by placing their bases in densely populated areas so that those as gullible as yourself will think that they are the victims even though they really aren't. Another thing is that putting their own people into harm's way is a violation of international laws according to the Geneva Convention. Speaking of that group, they found that the IDF didn't violate any laws when they stopped flotillas trying to get over to the Gaza Strop especially when they attacked them when being told to sail away not to mention clubbing them with lead long before any of the soldiers were forced to fire at them.
2
Don’t forget the irony of Israel’s arrogant bds laws to squelch dissent about its mistreatment of non Jews, while at the same time denouncing Poland for adopting the same line of thought to squelch the truth amount antisemiism in Poland. Oops, I may just have violated both laws!
6
Yes! Of course any self respecting country should tolerate those who want to it destroy it.
How about the fact that BDS is know for having selective outrage towards Israel while ignoring everywhere else? I can name a lot of countries that commit far worse human rights violations than what Israel does, but I don't hear them calling for a boycott of those countries. Also, they have never called out Hamas at any point in time, which shows how selective they really are. As for what you mentioned about Israel's reaction to what Poland just did, this was about denying the Holocaust, which is very insulting tho those who lost someone on that day. Keep in mind that most of those killed in the Holocaust were Jews, so trying to deny it does feel like anti-Semitism as does the BDS call to only go after Israel being that it's the only Jewish state in the world.
1
This article itself is an example of 'going all the way' (I don't disagree with the main point about Israel using this moment in time to finally to find a 'solution to the occupation problem'.) As is the very fact there is a high possibility this comment will not even get past the 'moderators' in a so called news organization 'dedicated to telling the truth' while acting as a mere mouthpiece for one side of the present 'clash of the oligarchs' (RNC vs DNC) just as FOX does, is a sign of these democracy killing times.'
What is my philosophy that is SO disliked here? A 56 year old lifelong 'liberal' (Although I don't call myself that anymore as the word now means something very un liberal and very 'politically correct', intolerant and hypocritical) I left the UK in 1979 to come to the USA for the LIBERTY here, the chance to live as I want and the cultural mix of humanity making an example to the world.
I have ALWAYS voted Democrat and I love Sanders/Warren for being true Democrats, as I knew them, good honest men/women who care also for the poor and can't abide 'wars of choice' (evil).
The NYT's Libya article today fails to even acknowledge the clear truth that even Obama admits and regrets; WE destroyed a functioning non jihadi nation with yet another 'non regime change' regime change'. The horrors of this are acknowledged (14,000+ Africans drowned attempting escape last year) but NOT OUR culpability.
No honesty, no attempt at objective truth, just vile McCarthyism!
2
It was possible to create something worse than Gaddafi, and we did. We can say that without defending Gaddafi.
2
The world is going to hell in a handbasket, and all we can do is watch. It is reality TV world, where everyone is now part of the spectacle. The reality TV star-in-chief does not have to tell the truth. He wants a narrative, action, camera, and the world is following at his heels. Have to say, I saw signs along the way but did not connect the dots. We are in passengers in a car with a wild, unsafe driver, careening down a slippery slope, Hoping we make it out alive. Trump seems to be even more popular now, as we cringe and groan.
1
Nick Kristoff reported months ago that male sperm, where the sperm does not have two heads, one facing one direction the other the other is becoming a rare event. It appears worldwide human reproduction is going down.
Mother Nature won't be satisfied until there are only a couple thousand people worldwide. Hey! Your children are not having children.
Michael S Levinson
We live an interconnected web of existence. Woe be it to the fool or fools that try ignore those connections
Thomas Friedman is right about the dangers of those who favor going all the way. It should be a reminder to Donald Trump and his morally corrupt alter ego, John Kelly. Unfortunately, one of them is too dumb or crazy to see the danger, and the other is too bigoted and stubborn.
The operative word in America for the Republican leaders is “hubris.”
South Africa did the right thing (reluctantly), ended apartheid, created a more or less politically democratic society for all, opened the doors of business power to those who had been locked out, and is now slowly falling apart due to corruption, mismanagement and cronyism. Israel did the wrong thing, instituted apartheid, denied all political and civil rights to more than half the people under its control, turned the nation in to a politically corrupt semi-fascist military/corporate machine but with world-leading freedom for its chosen minority, and it is prospering.
So just when does the magic that Tom relies on take over?
1
There has never been proof that Israel is an apartheid state. Minorities living in Israel itself have the same rights the Jews have, which is lot more than what the Muslim counties give to their minorities. If Israel was really an apartheid state, then there wouldn't be any Arabs or Druze having seats in the Knesset or being appointed to either their courts or ambassadors. None of this was allowed to anyone who wasn't white when South Africa had apartheid laws. There was even a retired South African politician that visited Israel not that long ago and said that there was nothing there that reminded him of what his country did. Although Israel does have its flaws, it's not an apartheid state. Overall, a non-Jew living in Israel has a lot more freedom than a non-Muslim living in the rest of the region. BTW, why does Abbas want exactly no Jews living in what would become a Palestinian state? Doesn't that sound more of wanting apartheid than what Israel does?
2
On Trump - so what?
The right-thinking readers of this paper are doing nothing to help the Dems or to sink the GOP.
Offended? How much money have you contributed to the Democratic Party for this year's campaign? I know how much - zero.
I've asked this question at least 20 times in these comments, and only one person said he's contributed. Not you.
Please blab here all you want - it costs you nothing. And accomplishes nothing.
2
When was it again that the meek shall inherit the Earth? I'm really getting tired of the pigs being in control.
1
Going all the way is not a new strategy.
The Nazis took on way too much when attacking Russia, as the Japanese did by attacking the US at Pearl Harbor. Johnson and Nixon took on too much in Vietnam as did Bush II in Iraq - hardly “mission accomplished.”
The Arabs tried to destroy the new country of a Israel in 1948, 1967 and 1973, and lost the Sinai, West Bank and Golan Heights. And Arafat mistakenly rejected the Clinton two state proposal in 2001 as did Abbas in 2008 leading to an expansion of the settlements. And now the Netanyahu government has gotten greedy.
Eventually moderate heads prevail and deals are made, but in their wake lie decades of unnecessary death, destruction and lost opportunities.
3
So Mr. Friedman, I'm not going to the "big parade" if it materializes.
Guess you won't be either.
Folks! Thank goodness we still have the writers of the New York Times. As long as the Times has its Friedman, Dowd, Bruni, Douthat, Cohen, Krugman, Goldberg, Haberman, the two guys whose last names start with E, and all the rest in the op-ed stable we have a chance to remain and continue on as "human beings"
and in the short term as well as the "long run"
keep at bay those in this god forsaken world who would turn us into "things."
2
Excellent, love the simplistic argument you presented. Now if anyone knows where Noah is building his boat throw me a line
1
If FBI and justice department are so corrupt, according to our President and the Republican party, then why would we believe they are not targeting innocent Muslims and suspecting them of being ISIS? Everyone is innocent since the only bad people are the FBI agents and the DOJ.
And what I see here in the USA is politicians celebrating a weekly paycheck bump of $1.50 ..... equally disgusting
Tom - more masterful insights - stopping 'going all the way' through the forces you mentioned, sure, but in what time frame and how soon until they reoccur?
Mr. Friedman, with this column you've truly jumped the shark and made yourself irrelevant. Now you're just part of the anti-Trump resistance and pandering to it. Enjoy the next 7 years.
2
Gosh, the U.S. asked for Nothing in return for recognizing Jerusalem ! Whereas Israel has recognized D.C. as the U.S. capital for ages ! Imagine !
3
"Worst of all, I see an America — the world’s strongest guardian of truth, science and democratic norms — now led by a serial liar and norms destroyer, giving license to everyone else to ask, why can’t I?"
Friedman expresses it eloquently but its a bitter reality which is going to haunt US for times to come. Mother nature, ecological balance, human lust and greed...we've played havoc with planet earth.
Yes; Iran controls four capitals thanks to US/Bremer's Iraq/Syria policy. Obama/Kerry opposed Hillary's 'no fly zone' in Syria back in 2012-13 and both Damascus and Beirut were lost forever. Ambassador Stevens was asphyxiated tragically similar to lynching of Qaddafi and dehumanizing trial and execution of Saddam Hussain....Ben Gazi and Tripoli have been lost for ever. US military presence is in Kabul but Afghanistan has long been lost to resilient Taleban. Kurds/PKK has been given a massive thrashing on Syria-Turkey border couple of weeks back.
Putin is over the moon with his growing influence in 'middle east' as Syria has been gifted to him by John Kerry...in the guise of finishing off Da'esh, Russian military/air-force destroyed the moderate opposition in Syria while consolidating Tartus Naval base and establishing air-force base in Latakia.
Top of all Russia/Putin master-minding US election is adding insult to injury and Trump and his cronies are littered with 'Kompromat'. US come back in global affairs/domestic politics if not impossible is quite daunting.
Tragic!
1
Why does Friedman always expect Israel to make concessions, to take the 1st step? He constantly complains that Israel isn't acting with enough “compassion” Really? How much compassion do the Arabs have for Israel? Not much if you review past history. Imagine a scenario where the Arabs won the 1948 war they initiated against Israel. What would have happened? Here's what Arab League's Secretary-General Azzam Pasha promised would happen: "This will be a war of extermination & a momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacres & the Crusades." How can Israel negotiate with that kind of mentality? The Palestinians don't want peace. They've had a chance for peace many times. They've instead chosen violence. They're where they are today because of past actions. I'm not a fan of Trump. But he's right on Jerusalem. He had the guts to recognize reality -something liberals & progressives don't have. The so called "Peace Process" is a fraud & the people who have pushed it are self-deluded charlatans. In the past 70 years trillions have been spent trying to solve this problem. We've engaged in horrifying wars with no end in sight because of our involvement in the "Peace Process". A 2013 Harvard study estimated that future medical care & disability benefits for veterans of these war will exceed $900 billion. What do we have to show for it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. The Peace Process is a political sham pushed by people like Friedman who should know better.
1
Tom, one can only pray that you're right...
1
There’s some self-contradiction here. The technocratic consensus that Friedman has lauded for years remains: globalization is inevitable, he insists, and “nature, human nature, and markets” make it inevitable. But the whole premise of the article is a critique of the politics in the Middle East and throughout the world, by extension. People get an idea in their heads and they attempt to realize it, come hell or high water.
But these ideas are conflicting and their clash becomes a kind of democratic conversation—albeit involving violence. In short, Friedman seems to be suggesting something he hasn’t much suggested for a long time. He’s of course recommended that people cut out the violence. But I can’t remember him having recommended that people engage in the quintessential conversation around the question: “what do we want?” This undermines the inevitability of globalization. Globalization is not inevitable in a democratic world, it’s just one side of a conversation. Do “we” want it? Or is that simply the technocratic consensus?
Dr. Tom - we're "going all the way" to perdition unless Mother Nature, human nature and markets fight back. The push-back by Mother Nature in Gaza's untreated sewage which drifts north in the Med to Israel's big desal plant in Ashkelon is just the tip of the disappearing potable water on earth iceberg. What lies below is unthinkable, just as our American president today is unthinkable, and yet he's "going all the way" to destroy our American democracy.
1
"I see Houthis, Yemeni warlords, Iranians, Saudis and the U.A.E. all tearing Yemen apart in the name of God knows what."
And the US, don't forget the US.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/oct/15/us-bombed-yemen-mi...
1
"It’s Mother Nature’s way of reminding both that if they try to go all the way, if they shun a healthy interdependence, she’ll poison them both."
Mother Nature's way in the Middle East is overpopulation. Gaza has a fertility rate of 4 children per female, Israel 3 per female ( highest in OECD). Israel urges Jewish people around the world to come live there. Yasser Arafat once referred to the womb of the Palestinian woman as his “strongest weapon.” They are in the middle of a desert and both of them believe their winning strategy is to out-populate the other. How can this end well?
1
I see Trump's supporters and enablers - each of them every day, in their own little way making the world a slightly worse place - shouting years from now, after the catastrophe, how they were innocent of any wrongdoing, just like Poland's current regime washing their hands and minds of Nazi taint. Of course, just like Trump, I'm joking.
1
Let's toast wishful thinking. God, I hope you're right.
2
Wow! There are still some adults around, too bad it's the crazy kids who are in charge. Indeed we are living in a fractal made of social, cultural, technical and political maelstroms swirling around at all levels from our families to the entire planet. Reminded me of "Thank you for being late". And like the book, it ends with a note of optimistic though realistic wisdom. Let us that another nature will be (and actually is) pushing back: the irrespressible force of enlightenment, perhaps the only one worth helping all the way. Thank you Mr. Friedman.
2
This is hodgepodge confounding so many things together but of course arriving at the same point that the Times makes every day in about twenty different articles i.e. President Trump is the bad guy. Here it would be especially appreciated if the Times could occasionally act like the kind of newspaper it is supposed to be and balance their analysis a bit .
I would also ask Thomas Friedman and about every well-known figure from the political and cultural worlds why they have not dared open their mouths in
relation to the total erasure of the work of someone who boosted the careers of so many including Thomas Friedman i.e. Charlie Rose. Rose may well have been guilty of inappropriate sexual conduct, and deserve severe public censure. But is there no one with the courage and decency to defend the remarkable work he did for so many years?
It seems it is far easy to preach to the world about what it should be when one cannot be held directly responsible for any of what one has said, than to take the heat and be fair to someone who has contributed so much to oneself and to the general American public discourse.
I appreciate when a columnist buries the lead, or the point, but the real point is too deeply buried here: the extent to which the current President of the United States *gives license to* the worst horrors in the World is not just another item in the depressingly long catalog of long-term damage that he is doing.
Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, Xi, Kim Jong-un, Erdogan, Duterte are going "all the way" each in their own way, and where it will end is anybody's guess. But it won't end well for any of us until we put our own house in order.
2
The sad part is the Palestinians could have been partners in Gaza in building the Malta or Singapore of the eastern Med.
Instead Abbas stole money, built rockets and tunnels, launched the rockets from atop churches, schools and mosques and rained them down on civilians in cities.
Good Hammas and PLO. That's really liberating Palestine.
Of course they will never do that with their murderous leaders who rule by terror and who exile, imprison or kill their political opposition
I predict a big infrastructure plan in Israel to build larger desalination plants.
Thanks for an incoherent and historically misplaced analogy.
The Arabs and Iranians never cared much about the Palestinians, but don’t even pretend to at this point. Syria is a mess, the dangerous dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran rages on unabated—with Yemen and the UAE and Qatar in the mix, economic volatility of oil and the economic problems oil dependency brings persist, plus structural economic and political problems in Iran and Saudi Arabia grow worse.
Israel, economically and militarily vibrant, moves to continue to eat land without any organized opposition of any consequence. Israel is a victim of its success and highly favored political status in the U.S. among Democrats and Republicans. We live in a world where we are taught by the media and government to pick sides. So we have.
1
Every system, be it political, economic, of environmental, contains within it, the seeds of its own destruction. So yes. Kudos on this article. Mother Nature wins every time. People can be stretch apart only for so long, and money cannot freely gobble up space and resources and not eventually dry up. We are supposed to be intelligent, but a view of the person in the White House, one person who could make a big difference in the world, chooses hate and greed. Yep. I see what Friedman sees. And I find myself not sending money to politicians who say they will make the change; I send prayers to God instead and ask for help. Then I reach out to help someone somewhere. At this time in history when yes, the powerfully stupid are at the helm, you have to reach out to God.
2
as per usual friedman, great stuff. i will highlight how strong the israeli tech economy is as a reason that the usa does not have to subsidize them with foreign or military aid, israel will do fine without. the other highlight is that israeli arabs that get educated at israeli schools and universitys and participate in the tech economy are doing extremely well, compared to their palestinian siblings. if the palestinians had made peace in 67 or 73 or the 80's and educated their kids in tech they'd be a huge economic and therefore political force. their mistake, intentional and repeated for at least three generations of their youth, going on four. and their negotiating position is gone. i understand and respect dr friedman's perspective that the israeli's should allow the palestinians a homeland in exchange for real peace. but why bother now? why? will the palestinian people rise up and pick new honest leaders who will make peace and have the best interests of their people at heart? or will they continue to be hoodwinked, hold onto their grudges and hatreds, as they and their children's children are lost to the dustbin of history?
Tom Friedman has got it right again. That which comes around goes around ad finitum. His strategic overview of the Middle East based on his personal experience going back decades. Trump will eventually learn that lesson. Hopefully things will improve when Trump and Netanyahu are gone and forfotten. The Palestinian tragedy is being ignored but the problem will not go away and if the two state solution fails then the demographics will eventually lead to the end of the Jewish state. Let's all hope it doesn't happen.
1
Sigh. Thank you for your, as always, extraordinary insight. I wish reason, decency, and wisdom were more in control than the market, Mother Nature, and human nature. I wish every politician in America, and leaders throughout the world would listen to and heed voices like yours.
1
It's Us against Them. We human beings are the enemy and though the forces Friedman names push back and sometimes most effectively so far we are prevailing in ruining the planet. And ourselves.
We, with a "human nature" so selfish and murderous, are the spoilers.
John Lennon wants us to "Imagine" a life and a world without strife and wanton destruction, a world of brotherhood and love at peace.
And that's possible but only on one condition: that we,human beings, disappear.
That would be going all the way!
33
Amen, but it takes the concerted effort, not only of individuals, but the whole flock acting together, to be able to stay together and withstand revanchist storm howling amongst the prejudiced, the ultra nationalists, the religious extremists, and the mind numbing racists who now feel free to howl without any restraint.
4
"That which goes against the Tao, will not last long." The Tao is the ancient Chinese philosophy that supports everything that Friedman is saying. Mother nature (the Tao) has the same rules - for nature, for human nature, for markets, for everything.
3
Tom, if those treasonous Democrats had only applauded President Trump at his State of the Union address when he graciously, and modestly, told them he had saved the economy, the markets would still be climbing. We must teach them a good lesson--'go all the way'--shut down the government and give the global economy and the stock markets the boost in confidence they so desperately need after the Democrats outrageous snub. Tree-zun, tree-zun, tree-zun!!!!
The only reason to applaud would have been if Trump replaced the mannequin in Musk's sports car to the sun!
I do hope readers realize I was being sarcastic, but that might be dangerous in the age of Trump.
Tom, you are really have a hard time coming to grips with the fact that all your predictions of disaster for Israel at the hands of Netanyahu and Trump have proven woefully wrong to date. So, instead of recognizing that you have been wrong, you double down on your predictions, or could we say that you are "going all the way" with these predictions. We have really come to the point where you are rooting against Israel. You do not want them to succeed if it means validating policies you have predicted would fail. You are like Democrats refusing to applaud good news for the American economy, demonstrating that partisanship is more important to them than economic welfare of the country.
1
Friedman is not betting against Israel. He is exposing the extreme mendacity and Chutzpah of trump, Bibi and other Middle East leaders in their quest for power. Yes, there will be pushback. The blue wave and Mueller will take care of trump, who has debased our democracy and all that we value as Americans: truth, honesty, respect and dignity and the Israeli investigation into Bibi’s criminal dealings will prevail in the end. Of that I am certain.
2
Tom, what does Israeli citizens have to do with this?
A corollary to “going all the way” is the breakdown of empathy — the binding force of civilization. When one is shut out of decision-making, due to ethnicity, religion or political affiliation, resentment smolders and revenge takes root. Trust erodes, suspicion festers, respect withers. A new formulation, the zero-sum game, appears on the scene. For me to win, you have to lose.
Friedman was writing about the Middle East. I’m talking about the U.S.
5
This is the best column of Tom Freedman over the last few decades. He is trying to predict and prevent the problems before those even happen. I cannot recall any other pundit attempting this feat.
Those of us trying to peak into the future have a simple trick. We understand that the people are not capable of comprehending that whatever they consider to be their strength might turn into the colossal weakness and liability overnight.
For example, nobody has any problem with the US Congress lavishly funding the border wall the Israeli government constructed between them and the Palestinians while refusing to build such a wall between the USA and Mexico.
That’s not the problem as long as the economy remains strong.
However, the serious economic crisis or another Great Recession might let the bad genies out of bottles in the matter of days…
Did any analyst predict that the American voters would sent Trump to the White House?
What would happen if the economy suddenly crumbled?
Thus the Israeli government must strike the fair deal with the Palestinians at this moment even though it seems unnecessary, illogical and counterintuitive.
Tomorrow it might be too late for such a step and the pendulum could swing in the completey opposite direction.
Those believing that they could predict the future should recall that our grandfathers initially supported Hitler because he seemed capable of defeating the communism.
The people tend to stare at the wrong direction...
How dare you, Tom, suggest that there is a downside to what these "great leaders" are doing. They couldn't possibly be lying and not have the public's best interest in mind. They aren't heading us down the wrong path. We always come out ahead if we follow their script. It says so right in the Trump University materials I paid thousands for. So stop being such a wet blanket. Totally treasonous.
1
This is a brilliant piece by Friedman but most in our western world don't like to contemplate that something bigger than us is in control. Times are good, the market will rise forever, the electricity is on, and our effluent disappears like magic never to be seen again. Until it shows up in the salt we sprinkle on our food. Say what? Who's to blame? Who can we sue?
In a world view where we are in control, we don't even need to treat each other with respect and dignity. We just need bigger guns.
Fortunately, the earth has a larger wisdom and the infinite patience to carry it through. Our puny stop gap agendas would be laughable if they weren't so tragic for us. We have the cerebral cortex to understand exactly what our place and our duty is on this planet but refuse to relinquish our tribal monkey brains to embrace that reality. What a waste of our potential. What a waste of a beautiful planet.
131
I would argue that if we could be better, we would be better; that is, we are rational animals who, like all animals, worry about survival and dominance in order to spread our progeny. We ain't angels or even saints, and probably never will be. Yes, you imagine a better world; don't we all? But temper your idealism with reality. Most of us aren't heroic, noble, generous, wise, just, or loving. You can't get blood from a turnip.
@Memi von Gaza
Brilliant comment. Clear and true observations.
1
@Jim Muncy,
I believe you completely miss my point. Our survival is dependent on 'being better' as you put it. That we aren't better is not a matter of inability, but sheer laziness. I'm not asking people to necessarily be 'heroic, noble, generous, wise, just, or loving. Just smart.
tom, i'm a lawyer, my wife is a doctor, we have 5 adult kids, all professionals, all activists...we all agree that 1. trump is the most destructive, moronic political leader in the history of the US, and 2. this is the best column you've written....thanks
3
As my grandmother would say: Alevay.
Israel has the upper hand here, and is abusing it, and shame seems gone from it's vocabulary. I guess we humans remain tribal even in the XXI century, all for our own, none for 'the other'. Justice denied, again. Greed wins, a jealous god to serve.
1
The ultimate checks and balances - what Freud called the reality principle. It's been waiting for the US and Israel fantasies of exceptionalism to run out of steam. Almost there... One last push...
2
Indeed. As the party of the donkeys "goes all the way" in moving ever left to the point of arriving at intellectual fascism, their appeal "goes all the way" to utter detestation. So much so, it bursts into two parties. This internecine religious war will continue until current ossified elders are dragged kicking and screaming from the micrphone. In the meantime, nine Senate seats and about 20 House seats go red and stay red long enough to frustrate career planning among many a fledgling gravy train rider. Liberals, heal thyself.
Excellent column Mr. Friedman, the best one you have written in a long time.
Good vs. Evil, All or Nothing thinking is driving a lot of needless misery in our world today, and the people who "benefit" from their death-grip on power will not in the end be immune from the political, social, economic and environmental backlash of their actions. Unfortunately, the rest of us will suffer earlier and more harshly than they will.
63
If Trump goes all the way, you think you've seen something when women march on Washington. Wait until all the real men do.
1
There is probably no way to release the pressure except with a major war - little ones aren't doing it. My bet is it will happen soon in Korea. It will trigger conflicts in the Mid-east and possibly in Indian subcontinent. This war will be nuclear, quick, and the casualties will easily surpass WWII !
The UN was founded to prevent exactly this scenario, but its not working!
I wear the chain I forged in life...I made it link by link and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it. ~Jacob Marley's Ghost
Is America the ghost of Jacob Marley?
1
Another name for "going all the way" is nihilism - the same nihilism that gave us Hitler, Stalin and Mao, who all functioned as if there could be no tomorrow for whoever was not them and their terrorized followers, as if there could be no consequences nor reactions to their mad actions. To see this disease slowly spreading all over the world leaves us with a stark choice: accept that human history is subject to cyclical fate, independently of any real progresses realized, or reaffirm that freedom is actually, in the words of Vassilii Grossman, an inner law of nature - and as such, indestructible.
Thank you, Mr. Friedman, and sending this reminder of yours to some of us who feel lost in The Land of the Free:
So to all of you going all the way, I say: Watch out for the market, Mother Nature and human nature. Because, noted Israeli political theorist Yaron Ezrahi, the first two are “uncontrollable and the other is irrepressible.”
Can anything stop our Fake President's "going all the way"? Yes: Robert Mueller and his indefatigable team of federal prosecutors and F.B.I. agents. "Watch out" DJT, your day of reckoning is coming!
1
No, Thomas, you are sadly wrong. I've come to the dismal conclusion that the wonderful dynamic equilibrium of a Western Democratic Republic, whether President or Parliamentarian, that brings freedom, equality, peace, security, and prosperity to its citizens, is NOT the natural order of things.
Sadly, the "Natural" order down through history is one of rule by the strongest, meanest, cruelest thug in the tribe. Call them warlords, kings, chieftains, emperors, whatever, they STRIVE to bring down everything so...they can take it for themselves. And, starting in the 20th Century, with Lenin taking down the nascent democratic Kerensky government, and Mussolini undermining Italy's young democracy to set themselves up as dictators, using Democracy's freedoms against itself has been the key to dictators taking power and riches for themselves, imprisoning and murdering those who question or oppose them, and, generally, catastrophically destroying their economy while grabbing everything else, usually with a populist PR (that's Mussolini's innovation).
Whether it was Peron, Samoza, Noriega, Stalin, Franco, or Salazar in the past, or Putin, Erdogan, Duterte, Mugabe, Sisi, Netanyahu, or Trump, they ALL use that same method, like a mad doctor using medicines and instruments that can heal and relieve pain to, instead, torture and kill, use the blessings of Liberty to destroy that very liberty.
And what happens? Eventually they are overthrown by another, who then repeats the same cycle.
1
Mr. Friedman's observations are almost always salient and astute. Here he presents truths that give us optimism that we shall survive Trump...even if our survival comes with terrible consequences.
But, if we are going to identify who is all-in for going all the way, we find Republicans, not Trump, blazing the way. Trump is simply one of the terrible consequences of their extremism.
Republicans are the shoot-first-aim-later macho cowboys who led America to invade Iraq.
Republicans are the sacrifice-safety-and-health-for-greed capitalists who proclaimed debt doesn't matter, tax cuts will pay for themselves, investment deregulation is good that led to the 2008 financial collapse.
Republicans are the scorched-earth-win-at-any-costs Machiavellian Villains who conspired to obstruct America's economic recovery.
Republicans are the insanity that enables and propels Trump.
At some point (hopefully November 2018) Republicans will feel the backlash for their anti-Americanism, their disregard for human suffering, their blind greed, their willingness to trample the Constitution to gain and keep power, their attacks on education, science, truth, their loyalty and service to the wealthy at the expense of 90 percent of the American people, their crime of supporting and inflicting Trump on our nation, values, integrity, honor, peace and sanity.
118
Dude, I have nominated you for the Putting-Words-Together-To-Be-Used-As-One-Fulsome-Adjective Award. First prize is a lifetime supply of hyphens.
But your comment was astute, worthwhile, well-written, and thought-provoking. (Now you got me doing it!)
1
"...America — the world’s strongest guardian of truth, science and democratic norms ." It never was. In reality, America was always about the money and power - So now you have a president who is money and power. This is truthful, democratic and scientific. No need to complain.
3
Now that the Palestinians have been beaten down its time to give them the country they desire, secure it, help them build it and show them how to run it. It would be nice to see Israelis be the mensches they really are.
The Palestinians have never been interested in having their own state. They've only been interested in destroying Israel. If they had wanted their own state, they would have declared independence in 1948. Instead, the West Bank Palestinians asked for union with Jordan.
When they finally agree to stop the terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians, they will be given their own state.
The extreme right-wing parties -- led by Bibi Netanyahu -- are in power since the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.
The unwavering US financial-military support enabled Israel to do anything they please with the Palestinians.
The only drawback for Israel is geography and the neighborhood. As real estate people like to say, location, location, location will eventually catch up with the Jewish State.
3
What Israel wanted to do with the Palestinians was to live in peace, but the Palestinians have had no interest in living in peace.
"I see Republicans trashing two of our most sacred institutions — the F.B.I. and the Justice Department " ??? Neither of these is a sacred institution. What is a sacred institution is uncorrupted democratic elections. When the FBI or Justice department deliberately sabotage an election they lose any sacredness they may have had. One need not be a Trump fan, or even a Republican, to recognize just how vile the conduct of the Justice department was under the Obama administration. As for the FBI, some very serious housecleaning is in order. Tragically there is no FBI to investigate the FBI
1
No real comment on content. Just hopeful, prayerful that people like Dr. Friedman speak loudly and persistently, especially persistently, because one other thing works, also, and that thing is perseverance.
1
Oppression not governance - corruption not benevolence - pageantry not purpose. The golf courses, the cheerleaders, military parades, bullying of law enforcement and the judiciary - Washington burns while Trump fiddles. The world is more chaotic now than in all eight years under President Obama. The new normal is the President censoring Congressional documents, firing law enforcement, and ignoring the wars in the Middle East. Imagine the headlines if President Obama had ignored the use of chemical weapons in Syria (he worked with Russia to have them destroyed), allowed the destruction of the Palestinians (inhuman not to have water and electricity), destroyed relations with long time allies. And shame on the Congress for allowing this! Blame McConnell and Ryan - tools of a cunning old fool. America is the great destroyer of decency, peace, and stability.
78
Ah yes, more selective history from T Friedman. In 1982-83, Iran-- you know that country to which Obama/Kerry capitulated in 2015 to no discernible purpose-- created it's proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon and then the killing really started, including the bombing of the Marine Baracks. That bombing caused the SCOTUS to rule in 2016, that Iran owed the survivors of the victims over $2 billion. This was after Obama and Kerry started delivering plane loads of cash to Iran to help them continue their pursuit of nuclear weapons with which to terrorize the Middle East and the world. Maybe the mullahs can use that cash to pay the victims of the bombing, thus causing the American taxpayer to take it on the chin again.
As for Trump recognizing "Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, asking Israel for nothing in return," he''s asked nothing yet. It's called negotiation, and while we wait to see if the Palestinians can wake up and return to the negotiating table, it behooves us to honor promises made in previous administrations and perhaps kickstart a return to dialogue between the two sides. Clearly the Obama policy of attempting interfere in Israeli elections and insult it's leadership did not work.
"It's called negotiation." I don't think it's good negotiating strategy to cave in and then look a concession.
Mr. Friedman has consistently been able to fly above other journalists
and provide a sucint and comprehensive analysis of situations that
give readers excellent perspective. Thank you for your outstanding
contribution.
Iranian overreach in Syria, Gaza, Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen; how is that different than the U.S. having troops in 128 countries, as reported in an article in the NYT? The constant drumbeat for increases in the "defense budget" and Friedman's gee-whiz infatuation with military technology make it obvious that what drives this country is a desire for world-wide hegemony to advance the interests of the plutocrats and the oligarchy that has subsumed our democracy. Quit the hypocrisy, call out the legions with the battle cry: to the victors go the spoils. You will not lack for recruits if you were to monetize military service, but that would leave less money on the table for the MIC. Returning veterans, was it worth it to you personally? Who is looking out for you? Bone Spurs? Pax Americana pales in comparison to Pax Romana. Great Power conflict is returning. Nature is red in tooth and claw. Let's do what Americans do best: make money off carnage.
1
Yes, mother nature will punish the world, for it's selfishness and irresponsibility. She comes as Global Warming, with far reaches and catastrophe that we can not imagine.
Mother nature can take many years to exact her revenge, global warming being a prime example after many years of trashing this planet. I don't know about you but I don't think we can afford to wait that long.
Dear Mr Friedman, this is a pretty depressing column. Your list of "challenges" (for lack of a better word) is daunting - and depressingly inadequate. You miss income inequality, increasingly monopolistic markets (might this affect one of your triumvirate of self-correcting inevitables?) and global warming. I cannot help but think (in the aftermath of the Super Bowl) that from you, this is as close to a Hail Mary play as I can remember. And when New England tried it recently, the pass fell tantalisingly short of its target. Third and long with seconds to go. Down by five. Bring in Mother Nature, Markets and Human Nature and go for Goal! I hope this play works!
22
He has a word limit on his op-ed articles. I am sure that he would agree with some of your points, but why try to take on every issue. The import of his views would be mingled and lost.
1
Everything goes in cycles. These too shall pass .
Most things have a way of coming back and biting us. I thought the same thought this morning as I shoveled out the driveway and the snow plow came along and plowed me back in. As I watched his back end go down the street, I wondered if he knew how much I needed him and how much he needed me?
Human history is replete with excesses, “going all the way”. Do we learn from our excesses? Nope. Humans repeated these excesses over centuries and millennia. It is part of our nature. It is the nature of the “beast” if you will.
1
Mr. Friedman complains about the Republicans "trashing" two of "our most sacred institutions" (the FBI and the DOJ). I wonder whether Martin Luther King felt that those institutions were sacred when they were secretly wire-tapping him in order to defeat his civil rights efforts. And don't the recently released Strzok/Page emails reveal that President Obama had already manipulated those sacred institutions? Strzok writes that he has to write talking points for Comey's meeting with Obama re the Hillary email investigation because the President "wants to know everything." Looks like those at the FBI, DOJ and the WH were "going all the way" too.
1
I agree with the 'serial liar' President comment. For some of your other reasons many Americans don't seem to care. I might use '...the balance between greed and fear..' as to why. We all need food and shelter and safety. And, for many reasons we've been very bad at helping all of us achieve this. We've been had by 'greed', which gets money and power, then more, then more lawyers and lobbyists and judges and politicians, and evermore. Sad we are now here.
I do believe in your point of 'the eternal human quest for freedom and dignity.' I think that is real. I think community, connection and compassion are intrinsic. We are that. But, seemingly weak to actually think, vote and fight like that matters. We're lazy economically: I don't mean working, I mean thinking about economics and distribution of wealth, capital, property, income, etc.
So, keep showing us the truth; albeit sad and mean and somewhat dispiriting. This is the only way through. The Palestinians are real people who are just like the Israelis and they need a home, and that same area is it. And an advanced military or right-wing hatreds won't change that.
ttrumbo
The Palestinians are not just like the Israelis. The Palestinian children are raised to be martyrs. The Israeli children are not.
When there will be a generation of Palestinians who will wake up and call out both Hamas and Fatah on their actions as well making their lands more democratic, then there will be peace.
1
Excellent column: Mother Nature has a way of getting back at the infidels. Question is; How many will be able to fit in the Ark- this time?
I call it the trap of fundamentalism.
Most issues exist withing a continuous framework, for example taxes. Taxes can be any level. People can argue over whether taxes should be more or less, higher or lower, but there is a discussion. If there is no discussion you either have the whole economy in the state, or you have anarchy, no state.
In the condition of fundamentalism my side is good and the other side is bad. Thus the other side needs to go away. Kill or be killed.
Fundamentalists do not know they are in a trap. They identify with their beliefs so strongly that they feel if the surrender the belief the surrender their very existence.
I think that the fundamentalist trap is so compelling because it arises out of our human nature, but that's another story...
1
Not much insight here, just a repetition of all the problems in the middle east along with Trump issues. Israel has been going all the way for a long time.
1
Larry Figdill
Israel has not been going all the way.
In 1929, Palestinians ethnically cleansed Hebron & Gaza of their Jews.
In 1948, Arabs ethnically cleansed the West Bank & East Jerusalem of their Jews. ZERO Jews were left in Gaza, the West Bank or East Jerusalem. Israel could have gone all the way and ethnically cleansed all the Arabs from Israel, but Israel didn’t. There are now 1.6 million Arabs living in Israel.
You are not always right, Tom, but I have always thought that you are sometimes so far ahead that you trigger -- in these comments -- the ire of those who can't take the reality that you so aptly describe. I will continue to read you avidly. A lone voice of reason in a crazy world... of the press? Partly so.
1
The future of the Middle East depends solely how Trump’s next domestic moves are played out—even if they don’t seem to have a remote connection to foreign affairs.
By now—a year into term—most presidents would have put in place both a domestic and foreign policy and, whether you liked both or not, political operatives had guidelines by which to chart their future directions. Trump hasn’t given consistent hints of either a predictable domestic or foreign agenda. The closest we have is Friedman defining the “Trump Doctrine: “Obama built it, I broke it, you fix it.”
To determine where the country goes next is to list all the remaining government articles President Obama made operational without the consent of Congress. Congress—Democrats as well as Republicans—might have foreseen the DACA crisis before it became a crisis.
It might be good for both Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell to peep into the barrel and see what Obama orders are still floating to prepare for 2018, the Congressional agenda, the mid-term elections and the future of Israel and the Middle East.
What we are witness to here are detachment/distortions in our view of planetary reality.
An example of this is seen in our nation on the far Neo-Liberal Right as well as on parts of the Left. We also see among those of all sorts throughout many other parts of the world. We see it in a mental laziness among many.
It is, however, is encouraging to know from you that there is an undercurrent of commitment to global progress and to a realization of what is and what is reality. Since the 70s there has been a growing recognition of the need for radical change. It is most apparent in academia and among the millennial generation. I do find this encouraging.
Ecological reality, ie Gaza sewers for example, is just one piece of the puzzle. The puzzle itself is solved by answering how we as a species judge reality. Our self-destructive neurotic/psychotic cranial imperfection is the real problem. Much of the conflict in the world today is fed by that imperfection.
There are those many who refuse to face this reality. And now we have a new problem; the release of the neurotic/psychotic cranial imperfection through the media and the internet.
It appears that civilizational change will occur but only after enormous pain and suffering, most likely Nature forcing humanity to face planetary reality. And it will be far more than the Gaza sewers destroying the planet.
www.InquiryAbraham.com
1
The delusion suffered by the global elite leadership caste is that they can do what they please with no thought to repercussions. They give no regard to blow-back and the law of unintended consequences. And so the pattern of history repeats yet one more time as it all begins to come down around their ears. So it goes.
John~
American Net'Zen
From the historic perspective it’s great that Israel is publically humiliating the Arab world. For some people that’s the only way to change for better.
The history is always repeating itself.
It already happened in Europe 4-5 centuries ago .
The Old Continent was divided and polarized between the Catholics, the Orthodox Christians and the Protestants, so when relatively downsized Ottoman tribes started invading Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, the other countries were cheering up the troubles of their old adversaries until it was too late and they received the equally harsh treatment because the Ottoman Empire kept invading more and more westward.
Only after the sultan sieged Vienna, the previously mutually divided and antagonized Europeans learned how to cooperate and integrate so they started pushing back…
Since the same is happening right now in the Middle East where the Arab tribes have been bitterly divided into the Sunnis and the Shiites for 14 centuries, it means Israel’s occupation is the only way for them to reform their understanding and implementation of the faith and finally embrace the social tolerance and team spirit.
If there were an easier way, it would be enacted by now, wouldn’t it?
One day the Arab world will be very thankful to Israel for the tough love.
Unfortunately, the Old Continent never expressed own thankfulness to the Ottomans for forcing the European reforms several centuries ago…
2
Thanks, Tom, for helping me to stay sane.
And the Democrats are blowing the chance to sweep the mid-terms. Out of a US population of 323 million, the Dems are focusing all of their energy on 800 thousand dreamers that can't even vote! All you hear from Democrats now is immigration and DACA. Well guess what? That is fine but these are not the issues that are going to win in the heartland. We will have Trump for 2 terms if Dems don't come up with a better plan. Taxes, the economy, a position on trade agreements - there are so many more issues than just immigration. Think BIG Democrats or you will continue to get killed in the election.
Points taken but the thing is: the forces that seek to "go all the way" wreak untold and unspeakable damage to humanity in their headlong plunge "going all the way."
Think of pre mid-20th Century world events, the fates of the Ottoman Empire and the former Soviet Union. Ultimately history brought these excesses up short, sadly at the combined cost of hundreds of millions of human lives.
Let's hope and act so that today's "all the way" excesses of collective arrogance avoid exacting a similarly steep human price. We have our work cut out for us and time is short.
40
The ultimate counterbalance to man's greed and avarice is indeed (a gender neutral) nature. Nature has its own laws, which humans violate at our own peril.
2017 wrought the world with natural consequences of record storms, droughts, fires and other high crimes and misdemeanors. In the coming years, we'll suffer nature's felonies. It may already be too late to avert the worst of those. Perhaps when the seas swallow Mar-a-Lago rendering it into marred Legos, along with Manhattan, Miami and Santa Monica will this nation wake up to see what the rest of the world does now, how deplorable the situation has become.
You and I may not live to witness this, but I'm stricken with the thought that my children and their children yet unborn will. All these localized political turf and power struggles will mean little when nature has the ultimate say.
What I call the import model of happiness (get more good stuff for yourself) ultimately is doomed. Over time ones satisfaction goes down. Imagine a graph when the line goes down. That's why addiction doesn't work. Those that try to arrange the show to go their way find this--e.g., Corporations, and their enablers that insist on minimum wage find that people can't afford their stuff.
Going all the way is a vane attempt to deny reality. And is childish to boot.
As always, great article, disconnected from reality. I read today's top story in The Times about the markets ability to cure excesses as well as today's Editorial Board's "Do You Think Donald Trump Is Ready for a Real Financial Crisis". I do agree with you Mr. Friedman that in the end the balance between greed and fear; and the the eternal human quest for freedom and dignity will shape the future more than any leader or party who tries going all the way, but I disagree with the examples you give especially tying up the situation to Trump, Israel and the Palestinians. I disagree but understand why you do it, your abhorrence with Trump and Netanyahu as well as your longing to the shuttered dreams sold by President Obama. Just one correction that I must bring up. You write, "Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, asking Israel for nothing in return. The Arab states barely made a peep". Trump clearly stated that he took the Jerusalem issue off the table and "Israel will have to pay for it...." and those Arab states who barely made a peep did so for a very good reason.
1
Another column holding desperately to straws. You are betting that catastrophe and revolution will stop madness. That is hopeful! Vote the right people in and the wrong person out in the next election, and stop hoping for miracles. We can bend this in the right direction.
With the wind at their backs lets stop (gasp!) the financial aid and fill some potholes at home.
1
Well said. Thank you for offering long-run hope.
In the past the failure of leadership resulted in revolution and a new order, sometimes an improvement. But today a failure of leadership can lead to no response to climate change and to nuclear devastation. The World ends, not just a ridiculous incompetent regime.
1
Benedict Donald--aka "Cadet Bone Spurs"--is well on his way to "going all the way." Democrats are "treasonous" for not applauding him, it's not at all clear he will acquiesce to meeting with special counsel Mueller, and now he wants a gigantic military parade. Here's what "going all the way" might look like. Mueller says he wants to talk to Trump. The bone spurious one says "no thanks." So Mueller gets a grand jury indictment to force Trump's little hand. Again, Trump demurs. Mueller threatens to send FBI agents to the White House to arrest, on contempt charges, the ridiculously coifed Commander-in-Chief while he quaffs a Diet Coke. Trump replies that his secret service agents have orders to shoot any unauthorized intruders on White House grounds. Mueller counters with the suggestion that he'll bring in the National Guard. Trump trumps him with the Marines. It all ends with water cannons dispersing the thousands of protesters marching down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Our constitution is nothing less--but really nothing more--than a profound but ethereal collection of tenuously agreed upon philosophical principles backed up by the rule of law. But what happens when legal recourse in the face of bad behavior disappears?
I'm reminded of the ironic scene in 'Braveheart" when the king feigns interest as a young man expounds upon his encyclopedic knowledge of military strategy before calmly shoving him out a window to his death. Are we prepared for democracy defenestrated?
1
It used to be American presidents stood up to autocrats. Now he is one.
Where is sincere old Jimmy Carter and his ethics when we need him?
After he got blown out of the tube by Reagan and the Major Petroleum Corporations, then everybody "was going all the way" too.
All the way down and around again.
We buy it, pay for it, and then the next guy breaks it, again.
Weep, oh weep for our gagged and crippled American majority.
95
Why is the American majority gagged, crippled and impotent? In a few words, it is because of Citizens United and big money in politics.
3
An excellent illustration of the concept that when "core values" -- whatever they might be -- unravel in a system, virtually anything goes. Freedom without responsibility, individuality without social conscience -- whether in a neighborhood or on a global scale, some sense of shared human sensibility that can be communicated or acknowledged must be at the foundation of keeping us all going.
"Enlightened self-interest," as I believe Hume portrayed, might have a shot at allowing humanity to survive with more than a cockroach's integrity. But for many of the world's current leaders, it seems switching on the kitchen light only has everyone scrambling for self-protection. And they'll take most of us with them, like it or not. I truly wish the Dalai Lama's words -- any of them! -- could be emblazoned on all our foreheads.
6
Yet another great column. I have had the sense for some time that forces are slowly but inexorably building, much like the stress between tectonic plates before an earthquake. Sooner or later, things have to give. The sensible thing would be to work together to relieve the stress before a destructive break occurs, but that would be oh so non-zero sum. And that isn't human nature, at least in the short term. Ultimately, though, it is - if survival is the goal.
16
I may be mired in the politics of late twentieth-century Europe [I taught and studied in London during the 90s] but it strikes me how much the Palestinian occupation is the seed for so much discord in the world - a continuous license to 'go all the way' for anyone who feels the geopolitical need to.
It isn't anti-Semitism that makes Palestine the focus of so much western attention, but that Israel is a modern democracy. If one of us can behave like this, then what's to stop any of us from going all the way?
And now we have America accepting the practise - of starting to do things thought unthinkable for a modern democracy, let alone the leader of modern democracies.
How long until we unlearn the lessons of two world wars?
41
ah but the weakness of your argument you make is that it is the Arabs that literally want to go "all the way" by consistently rejecting any Israeli Jewish state, and even any Jewish presence in the Arab world, having eliminated almost all their historic Jewish populations. Israelis have offered to compromise many times, the Arabs never. As they are backed by the world's billion+ Muslims and have so much of the oil, most of the world panders to them. Unfortunately for them, the Israelis refuse to roll over and allow themselves to be expelled or slaughtered.
But I agree with you, the US which unlike Israel faces no existential threat is increasingly getting itself embroiled in worldwide conflicts in ways we never thought necessary or even legal.
1
In the form of an organizational chart, Mother Nature would occupy the top slot, then human nature reporting to Her from below, and then markets below that. But I suppose constructing such a chart is just an aspect of human nature, isn’t it?
“… why can’t I? Can anything stop this epidemic of going all the way?”
That’s a great question. America can’t control the entire world, but if we can’t control ourselves, then we are surely lost. The tipping point could come with the upcoming elections, or perhaps with the firing of Mueller should that occur first.
It’s up to us. We’ve already sacrificed our dignity. The freedom we still have is about all we have left. Whether or not it is worth fighting for is our remaining choice.
7
Two of the biggest problems in our current, polar political environs here in the USA are an increasing lack of tolerance and the lack of restraint in the application of power. This has been noticed by scholars studying democracies of varied sorts: https://www.wsj.com/articles/review-polarized-societies-and-how-democrac... ("Review: Polarized Societies and ‘How Democracies Die’").
Mr. Friedman's observations are consistent with those who've actually studied the issue.
6
"The lack of restraint in the application of power" goes back decades, to the end of the Cold War, when the US took that event as license to throw off all restraints. It has been down hill from there, becoming more general, but it is the same snowball rolling down.
Two compelling facts describe and epitomize the present conditions in the Middle East ( the last battle ground of the Cold War.
Facts are :
A- never in recent regional history did Arab Officialdom, Arab regimes, has been as ineffective, supine and submissive as they are now.
B- never in regional history has the Alienation between regime and public orientation has been as clearly defined as it is now.
With the regimes abandoning all vestiges of public representation and the public giving up any distant hope of a Regime - Public reconciliation.
What both facts unmistakeable demonstrate is that Something Drastic will have to impose itself on both regimes and publi
Regimes are replaceable , the public is Not
Enumerating the internal causes and constraints Mr Fried an fails to note any external factors which would necessarily lead to the Judeo /Christian alliance failure to stabilize the region!
3
The Arab Street is a phrase that exists because Arab government has never had any real connection to the needs or desires of its public. That isn't new, it is a constant.
"never in recent regional history did Arab Officialdom, Arab regimes, has been as ineffective, supine and submissive"
Arab governments have always been ineffective. That is how such vast wealth has accomplished so little.
Submissive? This is the first since Nasser took the Canal that any at all have stood up to the West. Now we have several, though not all. Of course, those are the ones that inspire outrage in the West, "How dare they!" The West responded by helping to reimpose dictatorship, as in Egypt and Bahrain, and as they would in more if they could.
Overall, this pretends there was some past that was better. There wasn't.
There was in the past, including during the Ottoman era, bad regimes in the sense of being unresponsive to public wii, But never as bad as what we have now
Now we are in the era of regimes knowing well the revulsion they cause in the public arena But they do not care and some do actually enjoy and exploit present conditions to enhance their own undeclared enmity of the public going as far as gazing their subjects to universal indifference !,
Here may lay the root cause of the present conditions with the Judeo,/Christian alliance, presumably for public accountability, open support and avid encouragement of these regimes reveling in their utter unresponsive ness to their public will!.
It all started with the Western / Christian will to avemge Byzantium , plus of course other Imperialist ambitions of domination and exploitation ..
But that was soon dominated by Zionist ambitions leading to plain, undisguised Jewish /Zionist domination of the alliance
and the tptal. Arab Moslem alienation with all theystand for and LIE about.
Net result :the Zionist domination we all see now!
I admire Friedman for being one of the people who actually travels to the places in the middle east to observe and report. It gives him invaluable insight. I hope he can reprint the article he wrote that discussed the consequences of a region of people raised in dictatorships who control the media, raising generations of misinformed people.
12
"Generations of misinformed people" is a symptom clear right here at home.
Let's set an example. There is a lot of work to do there.
I would like to see the Democratic Party stalwarts go all the way to persuade red state inhabitants that they should vote for their own self interest and prosperity rather than for the GOP which stands not for them but for the rich who live mostly in the blue states.
Massive tax cuts, funded by borrowing and by increasing the national debt which already exceeds national GDP, exacerbates inequality which is already the highest in several decades. The GOP is not looking out for the common man, red or blue, but for the rich. And where do the rich live? In blue states.
6
If the Palestinians don't like it, they should try negotiating and see what sort of deal they can get. 70 years of refusing to negotiate is what got them into this situation, and their position will only continue to weaken if they don't get the best deal they can now. A list of unrealistic non-negotiable demands, their present position, is a sure way of getting nothing (except from a U. S. college administration, but that's another world).
5
You mean they should surrender and see what scraps will be thrown.
That is more "going all the way" thinking.
This moment of Israel's greatest strength is the time for Israel to make its best deal, while it has the most to trade.
It can only get worse for Israel, because there is no place to go from here but down, and things always keep moving.
Mr. Katz:
Are unbridled Israeli settlements and the declaration of Jerusalem as Israel's capital a good starting point for negotiations?
How about, as a different starting point, declaring Jerusalem an international city with protections for all? Probably unthinkable in today's "going all the way" climate.
Wait until things heat up for real. Bad for us all.
1
This fire has been burning for too long. We're now past the point of no return. Mother nature, human nature, and the markets may disrupt the course, but like Lebanon/Israel from the early 80's this fire will continue to smolder long after the attempt to "go all the way" fails.
4
One of his bests. For me that is saying a lot.
3
Everyone is going all the way including Mr. Friedman with a sweeping theory for the region. Big data, big theory. Everything fits into place. This reminds me of the game children play putting pegs into holes, round to round and square to square. Some children will pound with a hammer what does not fit.
Mr. Friedman does this. History does not repeat itself, this is not 1983 and each piece of the puzzle and how it connects is complex and dynamic.
Mr. Friedman's analysis of individual parts is often questionable.
One theory does not fit all and in the Middle East nobody is going all the way. That is something Mr. Friedman does not want to contemplate.
7
We who are against this regime are going to look back on this time and wonder why we were so quiet, and why we were content to just call or email our representatives, or make comments such as these. We will wonder why we were, if not content, at least resigned to living in a fascist state.
As with many peoples in fascist regimes before us, we are supposedly in the majority. If this is true, all we are doing is sitting in this runaway train, doing nothing but holding on for our very lives. We believe that something will just happen to stop this train -- but it won't. At least not peacefully and not before many, many people are hurt.
In the past century, fascist regimes went on the march and didn't stop until other nations allied to stop them. In Trump's America, he can easily order nuclear strikes on North Korea or Iran. This is no idle speculation. We all know what he capable of.
And yet, it appears that the sixty percent of us against this regime may simply have to sit back for a while longer, until Trump causes such harm internationally that other nations must be allied to stop the United States. And for the first time, we will be on the wrong side of history. It won't matter that most of us detest this regime and Republican control.
The experience of the German people in World War II is a harbinger for us. Trump will continue to put this nation on a collision course with the international community. And other nations will, for the first time, need to defeat us.
10
Yes, but...
The three forces you mention to stop extremism--the market, Mother Nature and human nature--may ultimately work but those "leaders" who succeed in taking us 'part of the way' can make things awful for an awfully large segment of the population.
7
This is a great column. "Fear of missing out", sometimes backed by an inflated sense of entitlement, often drives the behavior of those with more ambition than wisdom.
This fear almost inevitably leads someone to push on boundaries until the boundaries fight back with terrible consequences. Most societies have enough complexity that people who regularly exhibit this flaw often self-destruct before they reach the highest levels. As the author points out, however, we are painfully aware that there are many exceptions.
The world would be a better place if everyone learned the phrase "This is good enough.".
I have officially named President Donald Trump the "Peril-in-Chief" for all of the reasons described by Tom Friedman.
I don't know what else to say or what other tag to place on Donald Trump. I watch Sarah Huckabee Sanders speak with mockery every day toward the political opposition which has worthwhile positions held by more than half our citizenry and guests. And the President just loves it.
No it's not OK. The role of the politician is to lead human nature and society in the right direction and not to take advantage of it.
Using this measure as a test, our President gets a fail and should be asked to resign before he creates more damage here and around the world.
1
And we see the oil & gas industry, in cahoots with authoritarian regimes under leaders like Putin and (the late) Chavez and Trump, continuing with business-as-usual even as its pollution wreaks havoc on human health and on the environment, and greenhouse gas emissions drive climate change that is already causing huge economic, social, and environmental damage which will increase in decades to come. All for some billions in profits and to further inflate already inflated super-egos. Indeed, going all the way, to self-made Armageddon,
1
So to all of you going all the way, I say: '' Watch out, because the political pendulum is going to swing back left just as far as the extremes the right has taken them. ''
It will start with the U.S. that will elect a super majority ( filibuster proof ) Democratic Congress and then a Presidency. I predict one of the first acts will be to finally close Guantanamo. I predict a true closing out of the longest wars ever by the U.S. in the middle east. That will start the dominoes to fall.
Perhaps a swing back to the left in Israel and elsewhere ? ( Iran ) The people ( young ) are starting to flex their muscles and are demanding change.
A change is gonna' come.
8
Dear Tom,
This piece is well observed, the widening gyre and all that.
But you're too optimistic. We need solid political institutions and mature leaders to translate the actions of markets, mother nature and human nature into wise policies. We could easily just get the opposite.
Suppose, for instance, the stock market continues to plunge and tips the economy into a nosedive, al la 2007. I doubt that President Trump, Paul "Ayn Rand" Ryan, and the new Fed Chief will have either the will or the means to pull us out of the dive.
I fear that's when Trump gets the crisis he craves and his "gifts" as a demagogue take us over an authoritarian cliff.
What can Tom Friedman do? Honestly, I hear you writing the same column over and over. Since as long as I can remember, you've been telling us that Nature and markets and technology will ride to the rescue.
But that's not the right answer because markets and technology are a big part of the problem. They savagely winnow losers (factory workers, construction workers, red state exurbanites) from winners (knowledge workers on the coasts, bankers and coders). The underlying trends of the economy have been shredding the social compact for a generation, inflicting deep wounds.
Please put on your thinking cap, Tom. I think we need a different way forward. I'm out of space, but I think the Answer lies in the direction of Hamilton, Lincoln the railroad builder, and FDR, not Jefferson, Reagan and Clinton.
3
Bravo Tom. I call these things Freedom without Restraints. Freedom indeed has consequences that few ever think about. Law and Order are meant to breathe. A wise person or nation realizes this. A child will see a green apple and eat it without restraint because it’s succulent in taste and appearance. An adult sees the same green apple, and it too appears succulent, but the adult realizes through experience that it has consequences that just are not worth it. Normally, the perpetrators of taking that bite just end up with a temporary stomachache. What the world right now is doing by “going all the way” is going to affect more than just our stomachs. It could spell the end of life as we know it. Brakes were invented to slow down or stop something that’s out of control. Intelligence might be our only savior. The voter, at least in the US, is the only thing to stop this run away train.
1
Great column, as usual. But the weak link in Mr. Friedman's chain of possible correctives to the crisis he describes is human nature and it's capacity to draw the wrong lessons from market swings and natural disasters and other signs and wonders. Trump as president is a great example of the wrong lessons being drawn. (So is Hamas as overlord of the Gaza and Netanyahu as perpetual Prime Minister of Israel). Trump's dismissal of reality in the form of climate change, his use of his office to enrich himself, and his constant lying, for example, have done nothing to diminish his authority over the GOP and therefore the nation. His compulsive squandering of American moral authority means he can bring no moral pressure to bear (even if he wanted to) on the excesses of the Turkish leader or those of the Saudi leader or those of Hamas. And partisan media here and elsewhere insure that the wrong lessons will continue to be drawn for the foreseeable future. (Alas, not everyone reads Thomas Friedman).
Well, when a country was created by outside players and forced down the throats of everyone else in the region, and relatively successfully, that country is going to assume it can use the same strong arm tactics. And it has.
4
What Mr. Friedman is describing is a manifestation of Jay Forrester's observation that complex social systems are counterintuitive. Authoritative strongmen see only one trajectory and go all the way with it, and are able to cope with the often unpredictable behavior of complex systems only through deception, corruption, and repression.
74
Forrester is known as the founder of system dynamics, which deals with the simulation of interactions between objects in dynamic systems.
It isn't any one of them, it is all of them. It is not the characteristics of any one of them, but the interactions between them. Any analysis that looks at just one is wrong.
3
I used to teach Forrester in some of my classes around 1990 or so. His idea was that because complex systems are counter intuitive, the harder you try to make them work the worse things became. One example of this is dieting to lose weight. Dieting is a way of training the body as a system to use calories more efficiently. Thus the more you diet, the worse things get. Another counter intuitive example is that when roles only a woman can perform (giving birth) are denigrated, the status of women as a whole suffers. In their efforts to raise the status of women, feminists have denigrated maternal roles and thus have lowered the status of women. I especially like Forrester’s book, World Dynamics. He created a computer model of a world system. What would make the system stable was not birth control (this being largely ineffective), and not development (this making the problem worse). What was needed was to stop development and take as much land as possible out of production. Obviously, it is not only authoritative strongmen that are confused by the counter intuitive nature of complex systems.
Thanks for mentioning this, David. Forrester's work is extraordinarily important. Your car, commercial airliners, etc., all make extensive use of system dynamics. Lately, folks have been confusing system dynamics with a number of whacky schemes whose names are similar. System dynamics is simply the mathematics of complex feedback systems. In light of Mr. Friedman's piece, one line from an old Chinese book is apt. In English it goes something like this: "Administrating a very large kingdom is like cooking a very small fish." Authoritarian leaders and others who "go all the way" are predisposed to fail. Those notions are in direct conflict with what is needed to succeed.
David Packer wrote:
"What Mr. Friedman is describing is a manifestation of Jay Forrester's observation that complex social systems are counterintuitive. Authoritative strongmen see only one trajectory and go all the way with it, and are able to cope with the often unpredictable behavior of complex systems only through deception, corruption, and repression."
1
Great article, but- what will the least fortunate (in all classes) of Americans do when most of the very little they have is taken away - when entitlement programs are slashed, medical care is unavailable, housing, let alone integrated housing, is denied and second class citizenship is forced upon them? How will they start their quest for freedom and dignity? I fear it will not be pretty.
16
So far, Trump has not slashed/damaged SS and Medicare as much as Obama did. (Research the history of the SS COLA and google IPAB). Seniors' decline into second/third class status began before Trump and occurs in all aspects of life in the US, particularly employment and portrayal/representation in the media.
2
Climate change is the ultimate 'going all the way' and thus far, we've all pretty much been 'all in' to supporting our current lifestyles. However, bad behavior and unlearned historical lessons have their consequences as Friedman is pointing out. Cape Town South Africa is running out of water, thousands continue to be stricken with black lung disease from 'beautiful clean coal', and wildfires ravage the West Coast with increased intensity just as scientists predicted. Politically, the last of those that witnessed WWII first hand are leaving us and we are seeing a resurgence in alt right movements in the US and Europe. How quickly we forget history's lessons and ignore clear warnings.
46
"The center cannot hold" has always been a recurring theme in human history. What is new though is sheer scale. There have never been six billion of us on the earth at the same time before. Migrations, political upheavals, extreme weather and environmental destruction are not new. It is the scope of the impact of these forces we have never faced before.
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"There have never been six billion of us on the earth at the same time before." And there has never been billions on social media before, learning instantly what happens around the world.
Yes, and six billion working together can make mince meat out of troubles, when they work together and no one thinks of themselves as too important.
2
Actually, Mark, there are 7.6 billion of us and all of these socio-political and environmental problems were predicted over fifty years ago by thinking people capable of doing the math. The median estimate for 2030 is 8.6 billion. That's twelve yeas from now. Everyone's water filters will be clogged by then.
2
Yet the reliance on Mother Nature and markets depresses me rather than comforts: it means that our wit and wisdom have failed.
17
Mr. Friedman says, "Watch out for the market, Mother Nature and human nature." What is he really getting at? As a journalist, and a prominent one, he is used to hobnobbing with other prominent people, and thinks that they are what the world turns around. And when that is not happening he turns to the grandiose forces of nature (human or physical). But what he is missing are the forces of history -- economics, institutions, ideas, gender relations, legal systems, religious institutions and beliefs. If we had more reporting about these (not very glamorous though they may be) and less about personalities and lifestyles of the leaders and the wealthy, we might see the factors that work to make the human world go. Then we can add in "mother nature" and begin to understand our challenges and potential. The Middle East has not recovered from its early 20th century crises -- of collapsing empires, British and French imperialism, the rise of oil as a major world commodity, and its misfit in a world of European-style nation-states. Jews and Arabs have legitimate claims to the same territory and the world does not know how to handle that. Non-Middle East actors helped create this impossibility, and they do not want to take responsibility; instead they blame others. Can false stories of the past be erased, along with stories of real suffering, to open up a way forward? Or is the Middle East locked in a blame game, where the truly guilty are able to deny their responsibilities?
32
Sadly, it takes a few to abuse the physical world by splitting atoms, the twin demons of greed and fear and perverted sense of individual freedom by suppressing other people's dignity and freedom to bring on the End of Days. That moment can't be more real now than ever.
Forget about exchanging nukes, the amount of abuses Earth is enduring, there is little balance between development and conservation.
While the women uprising worldwide - not just in Sandi Arabia and Iran but also in the U.S. and Europe - is encouraging, the use of greed and fear in Russia, in the U.S. and everywhere else is so apparent. It is not just Russian meddling in the U.S. domestic politics, but also powerful people like the Koch bros and the Mercers.
Freedom is supposed to be a great concept, but if one's freedom is another person's bondage, it is not so great.
Yeah, everyone is going all the way - to kingdom comes!
17
At the end of the day feeling good because others feel good is secondary to feeling good directly. For example, if i am hungry but everyone around me is fed and happy I would feel good for them but this good feeling will be swamped by my hunger. This is the core of the individualism and it is not going away.
10
Yeah, but what happens if you're not hungry or worrying about a roof over your head?
But he can waste billions on a useless wall!
1
EXcellent article. AGREED. That said, a Powerful Leader can influence the THREE FACTORS. It's only a question of degree and hopefully for GOOD.
6
Excellent piece. The only point that needs making is long the time it takes the natural order -- "the market, Mother Nature and human nature" -- to overcome the damage caused by narcissistic plutocrats.
After all and in spite of the Declaration of Independence and Constitutional wording, the USA evolved from a federation run by men who were landowners and didn't recognize the rights of women or black people to a country that only reluctantly allows them equal rights. That is 241 years of social evolution with women and people of color still doing battle for equal rights.
As a reminder, the Declaration states: "... self evident that all men are created equal ..." The Constitution is nowhere so bold and only as an afterthought in the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868 after the completion of the Civil War "no state shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws." Women were given the right to vote in the 19th Amendment ratified in 1920, 144 years after the Declaration of independence.
The flow of benefits is in the right direction, but Mr. Friedman is perhaps overly optimistic about the American women citizens who felt the need to vote in 1790.
30
You prove once again, Mr. Friedman, that a student of history will be able to make sense of the most nonsensical events--with your answer to the question of what can stop "this epidemic of going all the way?" You gave three answers, actually: Mother Nature, human nature, and markets.
I hadn't realized until I read your column today that I have been subconsciously placing my hopes in these three inexorable "remedies" to help me endure the terrible national and international circumstances we've endured since November 2016. No one who is wise or loving would ever wish harm to others just so they might learn a lesson, but wishing harm will not be necessary because harm is a'coming anyway--in the form of bad natural occurrences, uprisings, and market downturns.
Change is inevitable. I'm grateful that your column articulated the three forces that "push back when no one else will."
125
Another piece of advice, for Israel and for any satellite state, is... beware of placing your welfare on the survival of a single great power. The US, especially with our current President, is not a great power. Should Israel need military support, it will be given only if it's good for Mr. Trump's storylines and base.
The moment a war turns difficult, as all of them do in the Middle East, the fastest this President will run.
66
It's human nature doing more to cause the problems than solve them. Mother Nature, yes will prevail in the end, but there's a load of suffering along the way. Markets? Excuse me, but markets are a lot of the problem: markets serving greed not need and ignoring Mother Nature while buying our politicians. I wish I could be more optimistic, but I Mother Nature is losing due to bad biz practices and ongoing gigantic amounts of waste and pollution generated by each of us. Recycling markets are tanked as China has now refused to take our contaminated "recycling", so now we're going to export it to VietNam and Indonesia which doesn't have the infrastructure. I can only hope that humans wake up to need to have a clean, health environment. It sure aint happening under the current GOP and Dems are barely helping. The biggest thing missing in conservative politics is: conservation.
51
Bolt a lid on a pressure cooker and then ignore it. Great plan.
46
There aren't enough Americans who are willing to receive Mr. Friedman's message right now. Or at least not enough that don't already know the precarious situation developing for the country and the world at Trump's instigation.
Roughly forty percent of voters are all in with Trump on their perceived joyride, and will cheer no matter what havoc his policies may wreak. That's a lot of people supporting what may even be proven to be collusion with the Russian government no less. They just don't care.
Other governments take their lead from the US and the results are spelled out in the article. But this is a process that has to play out as it will, meaning things will indeed have to get much worse for enough people in this country to take pause at what Trump is doing. As long as employment maintains a decent economy, more people than not will take the ride as long as they can.
For most citizens there is still plenty of food on the table and the prospect of disrupting that scenario is not the American way. Mr. Friedman's warning will need to express it much more tangibly before tipping the citizens to action.
36
I think we are naive and arrogant to assume that "other governments take their lead from the US." Other governments are lead by individuals who do what they perceive will benefit themselves, their families, and maybe their country's citizens--regardless of what is going on in the US or what US leaders might think about their actions. The assumption that they take their lead from us blinds us to what is really going on in other countries, with the result that we are often surprised and shocked by international events.
So far Israel has managed to thrive while keeping a boot firmly on Palestinian necks. The well is being seriously poisoned for the future. The poison will fester for another generation of Palestinians who will then pass it on to the next generation. Palestinians have lived there for centuries and will continue to be there for more centuries. The Israelis are fooling themselves if they believe that this situation will not blow back on them eventually.
155
Israel offered the Palestinians a state on several occasions, but were turned down. Hamas wants Palestine from the river to the sea. They will continue to fight Israel and, as friedman notes, use billions of dollars in Donations to Build tunnels and
Rockets instead of their Economy. They will never accept Jews in the Middle East. Abbas fools the west into Thinking he wants peace, but he tells his People that he too wants Palestine From the river to the sea and glorifies Palestinians
Who stab unarmed
Israelis as martyrs. When a Palestinian leader like Sadat shows up, israel
Will make peace. Until
Then, they will not
Commit national suicide by
Giving up the West Bank to
Hamas and even
More Radical islamists armed by Iran who will continue to attack Israel.
5
The Israelis keep deluding themselves that they can make life miserable enough for Palestinians to drive them away. So much wasted on festering resentment, so much potential for coexistence squandered. And the inevitable fallout will be used as another occasion to abuse Palestinians. So it continues...
Thanks for writing. Best regards.
7
serban
Israel has no choice. If it picks up the boot (Israel pulled out of Gaza.) the Palestinians fired rockets & mortars from Gaza killing or injuring 2,000 Israelis.
4
I see these events overseas as other countries adapting the modern political dynamic in America for their own use. Have big meaningless cultural fights like whether or not women need head scarves or can drive to entertain the domestic audience, then continue a brutal real politik abroad. Domestic "protests" all end up being more circus for when there's not enough bread, without ever really contesting the true sources of power for political regimes. Think Occupy Wall Street; let them all gather and chant and snap fingers because at the end of the day they aren't really going to try to change things, just yell about them. The Israeli left protests house prices and insists that if it just focuses on an economic message it can win some credibility to effect more important issues (sound familiar?). To hush a real political resistance in the arab spring in Saudi Arabia, the royal family effectively just threw money at people (you got an extra $1.50 a week!) without giving an inch on politics. When all else fails, Iran sends out the goons to arrest, beat, and kill protesters that refuse to accept money in exchange for political process.
The point I'm making is we've seen these regimes last for decades now, despite pushback from markets, mother and human nature. This column is optimism for its own sake, i.e. false hope that some invisible forces are going to clean this mess up for us so all we have to do is go march in the park, make signs and learn chants.
18
Jeez, that's cynical. Unfortunately, it also happens to be all too true, but people need to hold onto something! Even if it doesn't ultimately achieve anything, at least it gives people the idea that they're participating. Otherwise, people will climb into their bathtubs with very sharp objects.
With all due respect, the reason that the 1983 peace treaty between Israel and Lebanon failed was not the lack of a strong central government in Beirut, but the unwillingness of Syria to pull out of Lebanon at the same time the Israelis did, which was a key clause of the 1983 treaty. And by the way, that warlord Bashir Gemayal just happened to become Lebanon's president-elect before he was later assassinated.
42
Assassinated by the Syrians, acting through Hezbollah, their agents.
1
The Israelis didn’t pull out of South Lebanon until 2000.
1
Syria was encouraged by all including Israel to be in Lebanon and end the Lebanese Civil War that had been set off by the Israeli invasion. Syria did finally end it, in 1990.
Tom
Nailed it!!!!
12
As Nassem Taleb said, "the biggest failure of human nature is to fail to realize how little we understand about the world." Most people feel they understand the world far better than anyone is capable of understanding. To me your column means that "going all the way" is a bet that you understand the world much better than you do.
21
Testosterone Poisoning. Just saying.
168
Yeah, right. Do you really miss having Condoleeza Rice as Secretary of State. Or Madeline Albright? And wasn't Margaret Thatcher an awesome model of warm nurturing leadership for the UK?
No? I didn't think so. Ambition for power and egomania are not sex-linked traits.
And neither is sexist reasoning.
1
@ Duane McPherson.... hey now.... i don't think you can lump these three women together. condi is the only one that should be in prison.
4
Or lack thereof.
1
Egomaniacal autocrats run amok--Trump, Ertogan, Duterte, Assad, el-Sisi, Putin. The only reason I don't throw Netanyahu in there is that at least Israel is a democracy and he and his party can be tossed out of office. But then again, I can say the same thing about the U.S. and look who we elected.
194
Yes, Israel is a democracy, a SOCIALIST democracy with universal health care and all of the other awful things we exceptional Americans find detestable.
7
Sorry, but as long as Palestinians under Israeli occupation - for well over fifty years now - are denied the vote Israel is hardly a true democracy. And anyone who thinks Israel wants to change that status quo (except for possibly annexing the entire West Bank) is delusional.
5
With due respect, John, there are a lot of people in the Arab nations of the Middle East who have few rights. Most of the these countries are either theocracies, run by royal families, or controlled by terrorist groups, with a dose of military dictatorship (Egypt) thrown in. So while I agree that perhaps making the Palestinians Israeli citizens is a good long range solution, let's not be "delusional" (your word) that the rest of the Middle East are a bunch of good governance exemplars.
1
Like a runaway train, we can lose control of the restraints that govern our behavior. In our present time, it’s all or nothing.
5
I see the Saudis
Fooled as we sse
Pouring huge sums
In Solar Energy.
49
We’ll, Israel can always decree that the Gazans not “poop” during those hours when they lack electricity. See, there’s at least one viable solution for EVERY human problem.
6
Go away! This is not funny. So when someone really gets to you, joke it all away...very intellectual.
7
rosemary:
Thank you.
They underlying theme is this essay is the only thing that matters is what I want, and everyone and everything else is just an obstacle to my needs and desires.
It is hyper-individualism taken to the state level. Many on the right would call that the ultimate embrace of freedom. It is also the path to never ending conflict and terrible the drain is places on all of us. Not to mention, the loss of liberty of those who get stepped on along the way.
Oh but sharing the world is socialism. Can't do that. It's so post WWII European. How awful that was with 70 years of peace and open borders.
So long as me first politics and brutal tribalism runs the world, this is how the world will function. This is exactly how Trump functions. It's just that the 35% who follow him haven't figured out that Trump is not functioning for them. He just tells them he is.
For some reason, people have to suffer terribly before they realize how badly they are being played. The Middle East has been like that for decades and we are now living through our soapbox drama of deceit.
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I worked as a counselor in an alcohol/drug rehab hospital. Intense substance abuse behavior w adverse consequences is called. "hitting bottom". Addicts lives have become unmanageable. The solution found by addicts and alcoholics is to recognize this fact and stop playing God. 12 step communities know this. Why are Republicans (and others) ignoring this wisdom that is already well know in America?
One would think it was rocket science!
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"They underlying theme is this essay is the only thing that matters is what I want, and everyone and everything else is just an obstacle to my needs and desires."
It's also the underlying theme of economic policy in the West since Reagan and Thatcher.
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