Yep, I'm one of those who stopped advancing.
And the magic number? 2007-2008. Our small office hasn't gotten a raise in 10 years. We've gone backwards.
Our family is having a very hard time keeping afloat. With family obligations that will never end and no way to reduce them, it is and has been a tough time.
Our meager savings aren't doing anything. With the minute interest banks are paying and yet they are borrowing at almost 0% and charging 15-19% and more to their "best" customers. What's wrong with this picture?
Corporations are now "people" and can go into bankruptcy, die and get reborn under a new name with "0" debt. Yet the individual doesn't have that option.
Yes, it is a scary time out there and normally I'm the optimist but for the last 8-9 years, it's not been good.
Where does it end? Not with the "crazies" running for office these days.
Fat chance I would ever vote for a Republican again. They have self-destructed and no where to be seen.
And the magic number? 2007-2008. Our small office hasn't gotten a raise in 10 years. We've gone backwards.
Our family is having a very hard time keeping afloat. With family obligations that will never end and no way to reduce them, it is and has been a tough time.
Our meager savings aren't doing anything. With the minute interest banks are paying and yet they are borrowing at almost 0% and charging 15-19% and more to their "best" customers. What's wrong with this picture?
Corporations are now "people" and can go into bankruptcy, die and get reborn under a new name with "0" debt. Yet the individual doesn't have that option.
Yes, it is a scary time out there and normally I'm the optimist but for the last 8-9 years, it's not been good.
Where does it end? Not with the "crazies" running for office these days.
Fat chance I would ever vote for a Republican again. They have self-destructed and no where to be seen.
19
I enjoy your contemporary history perceptions.
Not really, but at least the delivery is refreshing, creative
and succinct, though un-settling as hades.
An example of why isolationism has a case:
The Christian West/NATO/USA actually saved Kosovo, and thus
alienated Serbs & angered their Russian cousins.
Putin the populist demagogically capitalizes on animus: Isn't he still high in
opinion polls?
And no good deed goes unpunished, as per ingrate-hacker demonstrates.
Is the world better-off post-post Cold War early 21st century?
My answer is the hedge/cop-out: yes and no.
Not really, but at least the delivery is refreshing, creative
and succinct, though un-settling as hades.
An example of why isolationism has a case:
The Christian West/NATO/USA actually saved Kosovo, and thus
alienated Serbs & angered their Russian cousins.
Putin the populist demagogically capitalizes on animus: Isn't he still high in
opinion polls?
And no good deed goes unpunished, as per ingrate-hacker demonstrates.
Is the world better-off post-post Cold War early 21st century?
My answer is the hedge/cop-out: yes and no.
2
Don't overestimate the intelligence of the American voter, the election is all showbiz. I watch the debates and wonder how they decide to disqualify presidential candidates. 2016's looking like a weak vintage, especially without Biden.
It's always interesting to catch the angle of writers for the old grey lady.
Friedman and others conceptualize the world for lesser souls. James Bond has a license to kill, and NYT op/ed writers have a license to write pretty much whatever will get the most eyeballs. Do a threat analysis of today''s world and take a swat - instant leading paragraph.
The most remarkable thing about our Democracy is that we actually got someone as intelligent as Obama following a person as unintelligent as Bush. The next president will be a placeholder in history, keeping the seat warm for someone else who can stomach having to prove themselves to the voting public.
If you look back at our presidents, even the most cunning, Nixon, or incompetent, Bush, have no lasting effect on the nation as a whole. In that sense, we're all safer. The most celebrated presidents performed heroically, the most mediocre managed not to break anything. Then there came Iraq.
No longer playing the role of indispensable leading role, the U.S. must assert itself on a new stagel. We've matured over the years, and showing restraint is not a weakness. We are not taking the traditional route in Syria, and our signals are very inconsistent. So it goes.
It's always interesting to catch the angle of writers for the old grey lady.
Friedman and others conceptualize the world for lesser souls. James Bond has a license to kill, and NYT op/ed writers have a license to write pretty much whatever will get the most eyeballs. Do a threat analysis of today''s world and take a swat - instant leading paragraph.
The most remarkable thing about our Democracy is that we actually got someone as intelligent as Obama following a person as unintelligent as Bush. The next president will be a placeholder in history, keeping the seat warm for someone else who can stomach having to prove themselves to the voting public.
If you look back at our presidents, even the most cunning, Nixon, or incompetent, Bush, have no lasting effect on the nation as a whole. In that sense, we're all safer. The most celebrated presidents performed heroically, the most mediocre managed not to break anything. Then there came Iraq.
No longer playing the role of indispensable leading role, the U.S. must assert itself on a new stagel. We've matured over the years, and showing restraint is not a weakness. We are not taking the traditional route in Syria, and our signals are very inconsistent. So it goes.
12
History is on over-drive. Technology has driven the pace of change too fast for us to effectively manage. Entire paradigms of economic thought will have to be re-thought. This pace will continue at an exponential rate. I am honestly not sure what will happen.
A couple of disruptive changes:
- Genetic splicing that can be done in a garage will be here shortly. Who in the world knows what diseases will be manufactured? How do we regulate such a thing?
- Robotics and Computers will replace 90% of jobs. Where will everyone work? How will resources be allocated?
- Communications will drive quicker change in the third world. Leading to more instability, conflict and mass migrations. How will we manage that?
- Climate Change will accelerate mass disruptions and mass migrations. Where will these people go?
There are many more.
We are at the greatest inflection point in human history and no one really has the slightest clue on how to deal with all of this.
A couple of disruptive changes:
- Genetic splicing that can be done in a garage will be here shortly. Who in the world knows what diseases will be manufactured? How do we regulate such a thing?
- Robotics and Computers will replace 90% of jobs. Where will everyone work? How will resources be allocated?
- Communications will drive quicker change in the third world. Leading to more instability, conflict and mass migrations. How will we manage that?
- Climate Change will accelerate mass disruptions and mass migrations. Where will these people go?
There are many more.
We are at the greatest inflection point in human history and no one really has the slightest clue on how to deal with all of this.
20
Awaiting our NEXT President???...These problems are awaiting our PRESENT President. No surprise that Mr. Obama's hair has turned grey. It's amazing that he has any hair left at all, given the current state of world events; Syria is all but dissolved, China has availed itself to massive amounts of supposedly "secure" information, mass migrations are overwhelming Europe, ISIS is on the march everywhere, it seems. And then there's Congress...
8
"And that is why Donald Trump is resonating in America, Marine Le Pen in France, the ISIS caliph in the Arab world, and Vladimir Putin in Russia. They all promise to bring back the certainties and prosperity of the Cold War or post-Cold War eras — by sacking the traditional elites who got us here and by building walls against change and against the superempowered angry men."
At first blush, there's a bit of a contradiction here. Putin is supporting the existing Assad regime, the ruling elite in that country. ISIS wants to bring back a caliphate, the concept of which considerably predates the modern eras of the Cold War and post-Cold War.
Putin also supports the existing regime in Iran and is creating an axis between that country and Syria. No chance of a new Shah.
Putin's first concern in Syria is to take out the rebel forces that originally opposed Assad. He hates any kind of challenge to an established government, no matter how odious that existing regime might be.
But since ISIS represents an even older type of order, you wonder if Putin's ultimate plan to resolve civil war in Syria is to give some form of concessions to ISIS after he's destroyed the rebel forces. ISIS is by far the tougher of the two challenges to Assad and would ultimately require ground troops. For domestic reasons, Putin knows that he can't become bogged down long term in the Near East, even with his tight control on what he releases to the Russian press--that internet thing.
At first blush, there's a bit of a contradiction here. Putin is supporting the existing Assad regime, the ruling elite in that country. ISIS wants to bring back a caliphate, the concept of which considerably predates the modern eras of the Cold War and post-Cold War.
Putin also supports the existing regime in Iran and is creating an axis between that country and Syria. No chance of a new Shah.
Putin's first concern in Syria is to take out the rebel forces that originally opposed Assad. He hates any kind of challenge to an established government, no matter how odious that existing regime might be.
But since ISIS represents an even older type of order, you wonder if Putin's ultimate plan to resolve civil war in Syria is to give some form of concessions to ISIS after he's destroyed the rebel forces. ISIS is by far the tougher of the two challenges to Assad and would ultimately require ground troops. For domestic reasons, Putin knows that he can't become bogged down long term in the Near East, even with his tight control on what he releases to the Russian press--that internet thing.
4
??
You overlook a very basic fact. The average person today is far better off in most ways than the elites at any time in history. This is due to science and technology and they continue to move forward impervious to whether it is being driven by fascism, capitalism or communism.
We have hot and cold water, instantaneous communication, dentists for teeth, we can fly better than Daedalus, swim better than Neptune. We have godly powers.
What we lack is a recognition that all the science in the world does not hold all the answers – just what does it mean to be alive for instance and where do all the wondrous gifts of the world come from. No matter how poor you are, in the morning there is the miracle of the sun and in the evening the moon and the stars.
Trump pays tribute to the value of faith, even if he is not truly religious. Trump is stating the obvious – illegal immigration is bad on principal. Fairness and values count! Indirectly he says the world has a population problem. Something you being politically correct won’t touch. He questions all sacred shibboleths even the notion that Bush kept us safe.
Where is the democratic equivalent? Where is our Trump? Want to go after the republicans, begin by pointing out that all life is sacred, not just human life. Then try becoming a little more humble in the face of religious faith. Faith is not bigotry, it simply says we don’t know it all.
You overlook a very basic fact. The average person today is far better off in most ways than the elites at any time in history. This is due to science and technology and they continue to move forward impervious to whether it is being driven by fascism, capitalism or communism.
We have hot and cold water, instantaneous communication, dentists for teeth, we can fly better than Daedalus, swim better than Neptune. We have godly powers.
What we lack is a recognition that all the science in the world does not hold all the answers – just what does it mean to be alive for instance and where do all the wondrous gifts of the world come from. No matter how poor you are, in the morning there is the miracle of the sun and in the evening the moon and the stars.
Trump pays tribute to the value of faith, even if he is not truly religious. Trump is stating the obvious – illegal immigration is bad on principal. Fairness and values count! Indirectly he says the world has a population problem. Something you being politically correct won’t touch. He questions all sacred shibboleths even the notion that Bush kept us safe.
Where is the democratic equivalent? Where is our Trump? Want to go after the republicans, begin by pointing out that all life is sacred, not just human life. Then try becoming a little more humble in the face of religious faith. Faith is not bigotry, it simply says we don’t know it all.
3
Mr. Friedman in this column: "And that is why Donald Trump is resonating in America, Marine Le Pen in France, the ISIS caliph in the Arab world, and Vladimir Putin in Russia. They all promise to bring back the certainties and prosperity of the Cold War or post-Cold War eras — by sacking the traditional elites who got us here and by building walls against change and against the superempowered angry men. They are all false prophets, but the storm they promise to hold back is very real."
Very true! These "false prophets" are no problem solvers and visionary reformers either. They will make this world more dangerous, divided, and paranoid. I fear deeply for our next generations.
Very true! These "false prophets" are no problem solvers and visionary reformers either. They will make this world more dangerous, divided, and paranoid. I fear deeply for our next generations.
4
With this as a background it is possible to gauge how utterly without merit is the House investigation of Hillary Clinton. All the hacks mentioned here are of government servers etc. that get hacked (where's the security???). Please. If we had a cardboard figure of Daffy Duck in front of Trey Gowdy we would have a truer idea of what the GOP is all about.
5
The problem with our government is that it has denounced the Biblical principle “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”
The essence of this Biblical principle is that the punishment has to be proportionate to the crime.
The punishment cannot be worse than the committed crime.
If we denounce the terrorism, we have to be better than the terrorists.
If the terrorists attacked the innocent people in the WTC on the 9/11/2001, our government should be more just and fair than the terrorists. We cannot attack the innocent people.
We shouldn’t have invaded Afghanistan and Iraq because the residents of those two countries have not attacked us on the 9/11 but just the members of Al Qaeda, primarily the handful of Saudi and Egyptian citizens.
The Bush Administration was wrong for two reasons. Firstly, it targeted completely innocent people and secondly, it absolutely overreacted.
Bombing of the hospital in Kunduz was wrong for several reasons.
The civil war in Afghanistan is none of our business.
They didn’t attack us so we cannot attack them. Our Constitution prohibits waging the unauthorized wars. After President Obama declared that the combat operations in Afghanistan were over, he declared the entire war to be over.
Bombing the hospital in Kunduz was an act of war. The prerequisite was to get new authorization from the US Congress.
When our leaders ignore both the Biblical principles and the US Constitution, no wonder that we end up in the terrible quagmires…
The essence of this Biblical principle is that the punishment has to be proportionate to the crime.
The punishment cannot be worse than the committed crime.
If we denounce the terrorism, we have to be better than the terrorists.
If the terrorists attacked the innocent people in the WTC on the 9/11/2001, our government should be more just and fair than the terrorists. We cannot attack the innocent people.
We shouldn’t have invaded Afghanistan and Iraq because the residents of those two countries have not attacked us on the 9/11 but just the members of Al Qaeda, primarily the handful of Saudi and Egyptian citizens.
The Bush Administration was wrong for two reasons. Firstly, it targeted completely innocent people and secondly, it absolutely overreacted.
Bombing of the hospital in Kunduz was wrong for several reasons.
The civil war in Afghanistan is none of our business.
They didn’t attack us so we cannot attack them. Our Constitution prohibits waging the unauthorized wars. After President Obama declared that the combat operations in Afghanistan were over, he declared the entire war to be over.
Bombing the hospital in Kunduz was an act of war. The prerequisite was to get new authorization from the US Congress.
When our leaders ignore both the Biblical principles and the US Constitution, no wonder that we end up in the terrible quagmires…
7
Tom, you identified the false prophets and the real storm they promise to hold back. Is there any candidate for POTUS offering a vision of the future which confronts these adversities, challenges, and dangers, and builds a more humane community? Perhaps not. Then again, maybe this message is coming from the grassroots. Ari Shapiro on "All Things Considered", spoke about a Syrian family immigrating to Greater Toledo, Ohio. HIAS, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, a Jewish organization founded over 100 years ago, organized the process. A majority of the funds came from surrounding Christian Churches. All to help Muslims come to Toledo, Ohio. I wish more of our leaders reflected this work of hope and compassion that is also a genuine part of the American character.
7
The smartest most qualified are too smart to want the job.
12
Very interesting essay. The future is in clear view and I think you are seeing it correctly. The US is in the best position to adapt to this new environment but the window of opportunity will close in a generation or so. I count on you to take a worldview and the timeline of our great grandchildren in your column, books and public appearances.
As I see it we must address the huge differences in income that seem to continue to concentrate incomes in the top quintile of the US. I strongly believe that if we must show the world how to live better in the future, we must address the problem of work and incomes distribution. The charts show the top income quintile has been steadily diverging from the rest since the late 1970s and incomes of the rest of us are stagnant.
Meanwhile when you take the longer term view you can see the potential catastrophic consequences of fossil fuel combustion that we must deal with. You have been a leader in keeping a focus on this issue. This is also my concern. My colleagues & I believe that we must electrify transport, trucks, freight, and passengers by using the ultrafast superconducting Maglev technology invented by Powell and Danby, and develop the electric Maglev facilities to place solar PV technology in space to generate very low cost electricity to beam to Earth grids. Our geniuses then could create synthetic gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from carbon dioxide in air & hydrogen in water & make mobility available to humanity.
As I see it we must address the huge differences in income that seem to continue to concentrate incomes in the top quintile of the US. I strongly believe that if we must show the world how to live better in the future, we must address the problem of work and incomes distribution. The charts show the top income quintile has been steadily diverging from the rest since the late 1970s and incomes of the rest of us are stagnant.
Meanwhile when you take the longer term view you can see the potential catastrophic consequences of fossil fuel combustion that we must deal with. You have been a leader in keeping a focus on this issue. This is also my concern. My colleagues & I believe that we must electrify transport, trucks, freight, and passengers by using the ultrafast superconducting Maglev technology invented by Powell and Danby, and develop the electric Maglev facilities to place solar PV technology in space to generate very low cost electricity to beam to Earth grids. Our geniuses then could create synthetic gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from carbon dioxide in air & hydrogen in water & make mobility available to humanity.
4
Reason, not passion, will be our best guide. Religion, as opposed to reason, guides too many. Whether it is the Texas school board (and how it feels history should be taught) Paul Ryan (and his choice of, "God's children," to describe humanity) or the leader of ISIS (thinking he is carrying out God's will) the leaders who use religion, instead of reason, to make choices are a threat to us all.
19
Thom,
You overlook a very basic fact. The average person today is far better off in most ways than the elites at any time in history. This is due to science and technology and they continue to move forward impervious to whether it is being driven by fascism, capitalism or communism.
We have hot and cold water, instantaneous communication, dentists for teeth, we can fly better than Daedalus, swim better than Neptune. We have godly powers.
What we lack is a recognition that all the science in the world does not hold all the answers – just what does it mean to be alive for instance and where do all the wondrous gifts of the world come from.
Trump pays tribute to the value of faith, even if he is not truly religious. Trump is stating the obvious – illegal immigration is bad on principal. Fairness and values count! Indirectly he says the world has a population problem. Something you being politically correct won’t touch. He questions all sacred shibboleths even the notion that Bush kept us safe.
Where is the democratic equivalent? Where is our Trump? Want to go after the republicans, begin by pointing out that all life is sacred, not just human life. Then try becoming a little more humble in the face of religious faith. Faith is not bigotry, it simply says we don’t know it all.
You overlook a very basic fact. The average person today is far better off in most ways than the elites at any time in history. This is due to science and technology and they continue to move forward impervious to whether it is being driven by fascism, capitalism or communism.
We have hot and cold water, instantaneous communication, dentists for teeth, we can fly better than Daedalus, swim better than Neptune. We have godly powers.
What we lack is a recognition that all the science in the world does not hold all the answers – just what does it mean to be alive for instance and where do all the wondrous gifts of the world come from.
Trump pays tribute to the value of faith, even if he is not truly religious. Trump is stating the obvious – illegal immigration is bad on principal. Fairness and values count! Indirectly he says the world has a population problem. Something you being politically correct won’t touch. He questions all sacred shibboleths even the notion that Bush kept us safe.
Where is the democratic equivalent? Where is our Trump? Want to go after the republicans, begin by pointing out that all life is sacred, not just human life. Then try becoming a little more humble in the face of religious faith. Faith is not bigotry, it simply says we don’t know it all.
2
No mention of Putin's military confrontation with the West in Syria. The Neocons will exploit this as a failure of US strength under a leftist President.The problem is Putin is favoring one group of terrorists over another and creating a real dilemma for Israel, the Kurds and the US. Putin and his buddy Assad are in bed with the Iranians , Hezbollah and be extension Hamas. It is no coincidence the war on terror has now escalated in Israel. Hamas and ISIS see an opportunity to evade the Iron Dome and and are exploiting it to detriment of Israel.There is nothing US can do despite all the GOP rhetoric to aid Israel when the head cleric at Al Aqsa is reported to preach death to all Jews and infidels for plotting to destroy Al-Aqsa.
Unless US with or without Turkey's approval sides clearly with the Kurds, they too will be targets of the pro Assad coalition. If this coalition tangles with the Kurds or Israel, US should step in. Unfortunately Iraq appears to be a lost cause for US with Iranians and Russians making their presence bolder and louder there. Putin has a credible basis for his country's involvement with thousands of Chechnyans involved as ISIS fighters. Where is US interests in all this???Looking for any candidate to articulate a coherent policy for Mideast debacle.
Looking also for Mr. Friedman to dig deeper into where Mideast is heading while the demagogues blame it all on Obama.
Unless US with or without Turkey's approval sides clearly with the Kurds, they too will be targets of the pro Assad coalition. If this coalition tangles with the Kurds or Israel, US should step in. Unfortunately Iraq appears to be a lost cause for US with Iranians and Russians making their presence bolder and louder there. Putin has a credible basis for his country's involvement with thousands of Chechnyans involved as ISIS fighters. Where is US interests in all this???Looking for any candidate to articulate a coherent policy for Mideast debacle.
Looking also for Mr. Friedman to dig deeper into where Mideast is heading while the demagogues blame it all on Obama.
3
Could a hackers please stealth out the names and financial history of the 0.1%ers as this angry man wants to distribute their wealth more equitably. Also could they put a mic in the board rooms of the to big to fail banks so I can listen into their conversations....... thanks if you can help me cause my government sure as hell isn't.
3
These "false prophets" of whom Mr. Friedman speaks, the storm they are promising to hold off is the storm that they are unleashing. Ask any Syrian about that. Come to think of it, ask ourselves, if not now then maybe not much later.
www.endthemadnessnow.org
www.endthemadnessnow.org
About 20 million people died in conflicts propped up/funded by/generated by the Cold War--it's just the fact that only a small proportion of them were Americans and Russians that make us look back at the era and think it was stable. Also, "...But we now know that the dictators that both America and Russia propped up in the Middle East and Africa suppressed volcanic sectarian conflicts." That statement implies that the dictators being propped up didn't have any hand in creating and exacerbating those conflicts that have become volcanic--that they were somehow primordial, rather than caused by often quite deliberate policies chosen by dictators to divide-and-conquer their own societies. While the primordial "they've always hated each other" argument is beloved by the media, virtually any case study on virtually any actual conflict can trace out the policies and historical decisions of the last century that have led to the current outcome. So propping up those dictators was NOT making the world safe for democracy...it was sowing the seeds of the current world.
1
This column is Tom Friedmans's equivalent of Jimmy Carter's "malaise" speech.
It is negativity without analysis or constructive solutions. As other commenters have essentially stated, he is simply a shivering would be political pundit expressing his frustration that the world does not conform to his simplistic ideas.
It is negativity without analysis or constructive solutions. As other commenters have essentially stated, he is simply a shivering would be political pundit expressing his frustration that the world does not conform to his simplistic ideas.
3
Tom is right to emphasize the difficulty of being president in the 21st century - steeped in soundbites rather than real information. Where he is wrong is to assume that those who have advanced over the last 15 years are happy with the country's direction. I'm willing to bet that many of the former are not. The problem is that in-depth explanations, let alone solutions, are hard to come by. Let's take the Affordable Care Act. Despite over 30 years working medical communications and having gained the insight of other healthcare systems as far as Asia, the Mid-East and Europe, I could not make sense of the political "information" about the ACA while it was being debated. As long as we tolerate this kind of political irresponsibility from our elected officials, we will not improve our current situation.
2
The world is different now. It will require more from ordinary people. The power of governments and armies will not keep the peace in the world anymore. We can harness the power of social media for the purposes of peace. There is hope for the future. It is not inevitable that the forces of violence and chaos will win.
2
It is worth comparing this down-to-earth analysis with David Brooks' airy analysis of "spiritual crisis" two days ago. As Friedman says, as long as your own economic and social life is improving somewhat, you can tolerate inequalities and wealth differentials; but when your own condition stalls, watch out. It's true in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Mumbai or Indiana: all people seek a life of health, sufficient food, safety and hope. Without them, anger and revolution comes.
2
The personal data of US service personnel never were secured in my experience. I worked in a Finance Office at 7th Army Hq. in Germany back in the early 1950s. Most of the employees who handled those records were German civilians. Those records, which contained much personal data about all Army personnel in the Stuttgart area, were available to anyone who chose to access them, any of whom could easily have been in the employ of East German or Soviet agents.
2
My parents have had, and still do have, a wonderful life, full of love, good health, and family. I challenge anyone, of any generation, to be "better off than my parents".
2
Friedman agrees with David Brooks' column Enter The Age of Outsiders in that the fringe ideas and fringe players are rising because world conditions are worsening and it is the "establishment" that appears to have gotten us here.
However the two men disagree sharply on what to do about it.
Brooks says double down on the establishment playbook of the past that we have regrettably turned away from and Friedman suggests we tackle the evolving world with fresh ideas.
If the "establishment" is treating the atmosphere as an open sewer, invading foreign countries and funneling all of the nation's wealth to hedge fund managers, lawyers, doctors, and CEOs then I'll go with some change.
However the two men disagree sharply on what to do about it.
Brooks says double down on the establishment playbook of the past that we have regrettably turned away from and Friedman suggests we tackle the evolving world with fresh ideas.
If the "establishment" is treating the atmosphere as an open sewer, invading foreign countries and funneling all of the nation's wealth to hedge fund managers, lawyers, doctors, and CEOs then I'll go with some change.
6
First, the US can actually shut down all of the cyber stuff. But, we won't. Next, there are three times as many people in the US now and that's enough to support all of the baby-boomers' Social Security benefits, if Congress does not steal all of the contributions. Last, and sadly, we ARE a failed species.
6
The real problem for the next president is not ISIS, or Putin. It is the global billionaires who are picking our economy clean while the dangle "jobs" just out of reach.
The"Job Creators"are the ones who lowered the "cost of labor" by firing everyone. They helped create the Arab Spring by taking their ill-gotten-booty from the Great Recession (that they started) and doubling the price of commodities like rice, wheat, and oil.
They finance the shut it down wing of congress so that they can cut taxes for themselves and services for everyone else.
If the next president is another corporate stooge life will be easy. Do what your told. But if the next president really wants to save the American people and their democracy from ruin he/she will have to take on the most powerful force in the history of the world: the global corporations and their billionaires.
The"Job Creators"are the ones who lowered the "cost of labor" by firing everyone. They helped create the Arab Spring by taking their ill-gotten-booty from the Great Recession (that they started) and doubling the price of commodities like rice, wheat, and oil.
They finance the shut it down wing of congress so that they can cut taxes for themselves and services for everyone else.
If the next president is another corporate stooge life will be easy. Do what your told. But if the next president really wants to save the American people and their democracy from ruin he/she will have to take on the most powerful force in the history of the world: the global corporations and their billionaires.
86
C'mon Tom, how about a modicum of optimism?
As for Cruz, I don't even understand why a CANADIAN by birth is running for President without any objection. The Supreme Court has never settled the issue of who really is a "natural born citizen" and we shouldn't have to wait for a Constitutional crisis (e.g., a Canadian on the verge of being sworn in) for the issue to be settled.
4
The problem with believing one's country is exceptional is that it not only pretends it's true but also leads to truly obtuse interference elsewhere in the world. And now the world order is shared by more nations while the U.S. slowly deteriorates into a nation of economic inequity, gun violence that is continual and an infrastructure that is slipping into obsolescence. In other words, negatively exceptional.
We didn't start the fire, but we sure as hell fed it lots of fuel by pretending we were the greatest country on earth. Not even close. And now the clueless empty suits in the Republican party farthest to the right, the Freedom Caucus (meaning freedom from common sense and democratic values), want to destroy us to save us. That's why they're known as the Christian ISIS or Taliban. And no better than those elsewhere seeking to destroy what they hate.
Eclectic Pragmatist — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
We didn't start the fire, but we sure as hell fed it lots of fuel by pretending we were the greatest country on earth. Not even close. And now the clueless empty suits in the Republican party farthest to the right, the Freedom Caucus (meaning freedom from common sense and democratic values), want to destroy us to save us. That's why they're known as the Christian ISIS or Taliban. And no better than those elsewhere seeking to destroy what they hate.
Eclectic Pragmatist — http://eclectic-pragmatist.tumblr.com/
Eclectic Pragmatist — https://medium.com/eclectic-pragmatism
1
Friedman opened the op-ed, saying, "Having watched all the debates and seen all these people running for president, I can’t suppress the thought: Why would anyone want this job now?"
Here's the simple answer: OUTSIZE ego of all presidential aspirants, who very BADLY want to occupy the Oval Office chair in January2017.
(And there are always many fat cats with their own agendas who will pour money into the campaign chests of whichever candidate they deem likely to help their agendas and, very importantly, likely to WIN the Grand Trophy on the night of November 8, 2016.
Here's the simple answer: OUTSIZE ego of all presidential aspirants, who very BADLY want to occupy the Oval Office chair in January2017.
(And there are always many fat cats with their own agendas who will pour money into the campaign chests of whichever candidate they deem likely to help their agendas and, very importantly, likely to WIN the Grand Trophy on the night of November 8, 2016.
3
"Robots are milking cows and IBM’s Watson computer can beat you at “Jeopardy!” and your doctor at radiology, so every decent job requires more technical and social skills — and continuous learning. "
So, actually, a dairy farmer or the person who tells you what the robot found on your x-ray can be less skilled, right? It might be true that those few good jobs that continue to exist require additional skills, but the problem is that there are few of them and all the rest have been de-skilled so that you can pay people peanuts to do them. I am always amazed by those who think everyone will be a programmer, engineer, or entrepreneur in the future world. Visit your local institution of higher education. Thinking is the most difficult thing you can ask most people to do! How else can you explain the Donald??
So, actually, a dairy farmer or the person who tells you what the robot found on your x-ray can be less skilled, right? It might be true that those few good jobs that continue to exist require additional skills, but the problem is that there are few of them and all the rest have been de-skilled so that you can pay people peanuts to do them. I am always amazed by those who think everyone will be a programmer, engineer, or entrepreneur in the future world. Visit your local institution of higher education. Thinking is the most difficult thing you can ask most people to do! How else can you explain the Donald??
If Justin Trudeau can become the PM in Canada, there is hope
2
Its like telling a couple, are you sure you want to get married? Marriage is a huge commitment, life long. Its like telling are you sure you want to have kids? That's a huge commitment too.
1
"Are you sure you want the job?"
Justin Trudeau, in his victory speech, said, "A positive, optimistic, hopeful vision of public life isn’t a naïve dream — it can be a powerful force for change.”
That quote, Mr. Friedman, encapsulates why he and Bernie Sanders want the job.
Go Bernie, go!
There is also Bernie Sanders who is resonating with man
Justin Trudeau, in his victory speech, said, "A positive, optimistic, hopeful vision of public life isn’t a naïve dream — it can be a powerful force for change.”
That quote, Mr. Friedman, encapsulates why he and Bernie Sanders want the job.
Go Bernie, go!
There is also Bernie Sanders who is resonating with man
5
Gee! Now that you put it that way it sounds pretty good. Sack the old elites who got us here? Sign me up!
The current rules of engagement no longer apply since they were written in the age of dinosaurs and morse code. The rules have to change so we can now just go after the "bad guys". The bad guys are not playing by any rules and neither should we. Time for our leaders to take off the holier than thou gloves and start using the same methods our adversaries use. Russia, China, ISIL N. Korea etc are the enemy, don't forget that.. A Chinese smile is really a smirk and a sneer. We need to recruit the best hackers we have, teens who are so computer savvy that they run circles around the professionals. Let them loose on the enemy. Time to stop pussy footing around and our politicians do not seem to get it.
1
Our addiction to hydrocarbons and those Americans who are more loyal to that addiction than they are to America are our biggest problem. Crazy hackers are crazy, a distraction, and not significant. Our worry should be Chinese and Russian hackers.
Please note that "en passant" Mr. Friedman debunks two central shibboleths of Democratic rage: 1) the Bush invasion of Iraq caused all the trouble in the Middle East. Had we not invaded, everything would be fine. WRONG! Saddam and other dictators of his ilk were accidents waiting to happen-the invasion hastened that event, and it was followed by many other ME dictators biting the dust, but eventually, the ME was going to explode. 2) The Financial Crisis was entirely a case of Wall Street greed. No other institution or individuals, especially the common man, had any fault-all were victims. FALSE! The house flipper-still much in evidence-the profligate spender on borrowed money, the drunken sailor government, which can never say "no"-all very much involved. Not victims as Bernie, among others, like to paint them! And all those bad loans: how many granted under pressure from CONGRESS to increase home ownership?????
1
Reasonable people might well consider whether they want the job.
The Republicans? They want the job so they can stoke their huge egos, and delegate the tough parts to staff. Just what my Republican friends told me about Reagan--don't worry--yes, he's a genial dunce, but he'll hire great people and we'll all get tax cuts. And we got trickle down economics, which even its architect admitted was made from fantasy cloth.
Do you seriously think Donald Trump is going to slog through the muck of dealing with the Congressional Tea Party when they disagree with him? Dream on--his attention span is already near it's limits just in campaigning.
And Ben Carson? Ask him what he'll do in a crisis and he says "I don't know". Which is true. Because he plans to hire good people to do that stuff for him. Why does he want the job? So he can sit at State Dinners and look good in a tux? One does wonder.
The Republicans? They want the job so they can stoke their huge egos, and delegate the tough parts to staff. Just what my Republican friends told me about Reagan--don't worry--yes, he's a genial dunce, but he'll hire great people and we'll all get tax cuts. And we got trickle down economics, which even its architect admitted was made from fantasy cloth.
Do you seriously think Donald Trump is going to slog through the muck of dealing with the Congressional Tea Party when they disagree with him? Dream on--his attention span is already near it's limits just in campaigning.
And Ben Carson? Ask him what he'll do in a crisis and he says "I don't know". Which is true. Because he plans to hire good people to do that stuff for him. Why does he want the job? So he can sit at State Dinners and look good in a tux? One does wonder.
1
I don't think Donald Trump (or any Republican) would be able to best handle this. I do like Donald's ideas on immigrants from Mexico however
Yes, Tom.
It's not back to the future, but rather forward to the past.
It's not back to the future, but rather forward to the past.
1
The earth has faced many of these conflicts in its billions of years. Mother Nature has a way of correcting it. We might have too many humans trying to share one planet. She got rid of the dinosaurs..she'll do the same to humans if necessary. Mother Nature always wins.
We are part of Mother Nature, a powerful part. We can consciously change our own outcome.
1
Social security has been paid into, over the years, by future recipients - it does not depend on the younger generation.
2
Funny, when I looked at the headline, Are You Sure You Want the Job, and before I clicked on it, I thought Friedman was going to write about Paul Ryan considering the House Speakership. So that headline could be recycled. There are of course a lot of issues suddenly hitting at the same time. And yet, the country financially is doing pretty well, relative to almost any other country in the world. A lot of good things have happened under Obama, but at the same time there are these countervailing winds holding back more positive changes that would help.
Tom, I am surprised with you, especially being around for so long in power politics. The answer: power and control. Look no further.
1
"...global supply chains drove profitability up and the cost of labor and goods down. "
"Global" pretty much means China which received ALL developing market FDI in the post cold war period and Mr. Friedman was a major cheerleader. Over that time, China's biggest export has been wage deflation.
This, and the easy access to major weaponry in the ME, Africa, South Asia are two key components to the powder keg.
"Global" pretty much means China which received ALL developing market FDI in the post cold war period and Mr. Friedman was a major cheerleader. Over that time, China's biggest export has been wage deflation.
This, and the easy access to major weaponry in the ME, Africa, South Asia are two key components to the powder keg.
6
Hey Tom: A very astute question, why would they want this job? The answer is power of course. And BTW, Bill Clinton went just as grey in just about the same time (and things weren't even that nutty then!). (Compare 1992 to 1996 and 2000). I was 'Obama-cized' in 2008. Now, (after the debate) I am just about convinced that Hillary (Bill's better half!) is the right choice. She's mastered the issues (credibly) and has the experience and creds to deal with them. And yes, I flirted with Bernie (I still DO like and agree with him) but gender is also a component. I would really like to see a woman president in my lifetime (I'm 62 and grew up during the 'cold war' as well). Unfortunately, the Republican candidates do NOT have 'the right stuff' (you're of a certain age, and know what that means!). They just blather on about 'issues' (I put that in quotes, just because) which really have no meaning in a 21st century global world. It really is a ruse, to convince the masses that they really have the confidence and answers (Trump bluster, 'make America great again'). What really does that mean? Nothing, actually. And if you believe THAT, then you probably also believe in the 'tooth fairy' too!
5
If you want a woman president, get Sanders to pick Warren as her running mate, then she can get elected next time.
Hillary is unelectable. Way too many people will not want to vote for her.
Hillary is unelectable. Way too many people will not want to vote for her.
Typical Friedman - Afghanistan and ISIS put in the same sentence as the Republican Freedom Caucus, as if they are similar in evilness. If he wanted to refer to the Freedom Caucus as a potential problem for the next president, fine, and a separate sentence would have been appropriate. But just lumping them together with the others exposes, as if we needed any further proof, of Friedman's membership in the loony left Democratic cheer-leading club.
3
"But we now know that the dictators that both America and Russia propped up in the Middle East and Africa suppressed volcanic sectarian conflicts."
Indeed! One should add a little more historical perspective to Mr. Friedman's excellent point.
We're not just talking about America and Russia here and the blowback created by them. The British, French and Big Oil (John. D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil) took a look at the map after WWI and saw Persia, the Ottoman Empire and Arabia, three entities only. The West wanted the oil, so they partitioned the Middle East into a bunch of phony nations and installed those potentates or backed them. So, the blame for the blowback goes way back!
And, IKE allowed the CIA to make an horrendous blunder in Iran/Persia in 1953. Overthrowing Mossadegh was a monumental error. He was no commie. All he wanted to do was get some of his own country's oil revenue for Iran. Our mistake there may be the largest screw-up of all in the Middle East by the West. We could very well be pals with Persia and have an ally and friend there, if not for this absurd action.
Indeed! One should add a little more historical perspective to Mr. Friedman's excellent point.
We're not just talking about America and Russia here and the blowback created by them. The British, French and Big Oil (John. D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil) took a look at the map after WWI and saw Persia, the Ottoman Empire and Arabia, three entities only. The West wanted the oil, so they partitioned the Middle East into a bunch of phony nations and installed those potentates or backed them. So, the blame for the blowback goes way back!
And, IKE allowed the CIA to make an horrendous blunder in Iran/Persia in 1953. Overthrowing Mossadegh was a monumental error. He was no commie. All he wanted to do was get some of his own country's oil revenue for Iran. Our mistake there may be the largest screw-up of all in the Middle East by the West. We could very well be pals with Persia and have an ally and friend there, if not for this absurd action.
2
Let me add to the list of woes: climate-driven migration crises.
The Middle East has too much oil, too little water, too much anger.
The Middle East has too much oil, too little water, too much anger.
Interesting fear mongering. If God weren't in control this world would have been blown to smithereens long ago. Do you really believe this world 70 years into the age of nuclear warheads and 53 years after the brink in October of 1962 had no higher power that's held it all together. I don't know what's next any more than Mr. Friedman does but I trust in God's will and that his perfect love casteth out fear.
Actually,Trump has steadily been " resonating " with between 25 % and 30 % of voters identifying themselves as Republicans.And I'm not yet convinced that Trump genuinely wants the job as much as he wants the attention.It won't surprise if he eventually ,purposely,screws us his chance at this job,since I don't get the impression that he really wants to do all the work being President requires.
Joe Biden also has me suspecting he wants to run for President,as much as he still wants to hear the media ask " will he or won't " as a sort of last hurrah of his decades of public service.This late the game he must be aware that much of the money has been grabbed by others and many of the donors and volunteers he would need are committed to other candidates.
But Bernie and Hillary clearly show they want and believe they can successfully do the job.
Webb is now talking about an independent run,having dropped out of the Democratic race.But having raised less than $700,000 ,that's probably some last bravado on his part,especially as only has 1% support.
Joe Biden also has me suspecting he wants to run for President,as much as he still wants to hear the media ask " will he or won't " as a sort of last hurrah of his decades of public service.This late the game he must be aware that much of the money has been grabbed by others and many of the donors and volunteers he would need are committed to other candidates.
But Bernie and Hillary clearly show they want and believe they can successfully do the job.
Webb is now talking about an independent run,having dropped out of the Democratic race.But having raised less than $700,000 ,that's probably some last bravado on his part,especially as only has 1% support.
1
I think we're gonna have to get over the fantasy that it's ever going to be 1947 again, particularly given that bqck then wasn't anything like as pretty as it's cracked up to be by the Right.
i remember the 1950s, and 1960s. And this is a better country than the one I grew up in, in every way but one: we've slashed and burned our communities, the better to chase the Almighty Dollar.
Or to put it another way, the prob loons like Ben Carson have is that their religious and political theories directly contradict their views on economics. Well, that and the way they refuse to believe that the world is what it is today.
i remember the 1950s, and 1960s. And this is a better country than the one I grew up in, in every way but one: we've slashed and burned our communities, the better to chase the Almighty Dollar.
Or to put it another way, the prob loons like Ben Carson have is that their religious and political theories directly contradict their views on economics. Well, that and the way they refuse to believe that the world is what it is today.
36
And that 'very real storm' Friedman decribes is hyper-fueled by the human drive to weaponize every technological advance.
What drives that drive? Well, bottom line is that power is the antidote to fear and fear is the most primal of all primal instincts. So, though Friedman focuses on non-State actors, I'm reading this as I'm listening to an NPR show (multi-tasking) about how our very own State, the good ole US of A, is likely creating more enemies than it is destroying by droning from the skies.
Turning the other cheek will, in a world driven by fear, likely end up in a slit throat. But isn't it the ones who already have the power who should be the first to take a risk and make a sacrifice to try to shift from a fear-based world. Exhibit A has to be the Iraq war. After 9/11 we had the opportunity to suck the oxygen out of the air of all those evil-doers whom Friedman fears by inviting empathy and responding rationally. Instead, we acted just like, if not worse than, those evil-doers.
Reaping what you sow? Karma? Equal/Opposite reactions? Goes around/comes around? Pick your wisdom tradition, they all warn us not to do exactly that which we seem incapable of not doing. Pity.
What drives that drive? Well, bottom line is that power is the antidote to fear and fear is the most primal of all primal instincts. So, though Friedman focuses on non-State actors, I'm reading this as I'm listening to an NPR show (multi-tasking) about how our very own State, the good ole US of A, is likely creating more enemies than it is destroying by droning from the skies.
Turning the other cheek will, in a world driven by fear, likely end up in a slit throat. But isn't it the ones who already have the power who should be the first to take a risk and make a sacrifice to try to shift from a fear-based world. Exhibit A has to be the Iraq war. After 9/11 we had the opportunity to suck the oxygen out of the air of all those evil-doers whom Friedman fears by inviting empathy and responding rationally. Instead, we acted just like, if not worse than, those evil-doers.
Reaping what you sow? Karma? Equal/Opposite reactions? Goes around/comes around? Pick your wisdom tradition, they all warn us not to do exactly that which we seem incapable of not doing. Pity.
TLF misses the point. It was not that we just happened to revert to the .1% taking over any income gains. Our government gave these leaches the wealth of the country. Read David K Johnston's books on how our government gave all of the middle class financial opportunity away to capital interests.
This is not magic, or even as insidious as TLF makes it out to be in this article. Ray-gun was the best example of a person with modest abilities that personally benefitted from playing to his corporate sponsors. He brought this infection into government practice, and the modern GOP adopts it as their ethic. Before Ray-gun folks were generally embarrassed by great wealth, with the implicit question as to whether they earned it fairly. This is not even a thought today.
This is not magic, or even as insidious as TLF makes it out to be in this article. Ray-gun was the best example of a person with modest abilities that personally benefitted from playing to his corporate sponsors. He brought this infection into government practice, and the modern GOP adopts it as their ethic. Before Ray-gun folks were generally embarrassed by great wealth, with the implicit question as to whether they earned it fairly. This is not even a thought today.
3
It is dismaying to realize that, when we face the menu of candidates who will replace Obama, there is no choice I find appealing. None of the Republican candidates has the competence to deal with lethal and complex global issues; Sanders' bailiwick is not foreign affairs, Biden will not be able to distance himself from Obama's record just as Gore couldn't break away from Clinton. We are left with what I deem as the only candidate who has the knowledge, savvy, and mettle to take on nearly insuperable challenges: Hillary.
1
The massive complicated ever increasing disturbing problems clearly identified by Thomas Friedman (that make the cold war era seem benign) can't be solved at the level of the problems. Instead, grappling with their breathtaking danger and uniqueness requires a visionary, someone who can grasp a bigger picture, understand historical underpinnings, who has some knowledge about the psychological factors that drive human behavior, plus sufficient wisdom for creative outside the box thinking and problem solving. Is there anyone out there who meets that criteria, who would at the same time want what's become a disturbingly divide divisive do-unto-others-before-they-do-unto-you job? I think not.
1
I do not know the answers to the human storm that is emerging as described by Mr. Friedman. In the past Mr. Friedman has described technology as the answer to all our problems, but this article acknowledges its cyber dangers which bring humanity together in a new way that emphasizes our ability to destroy each other and our often dangerous tendencies. After all, it is our huge economic power and greed combined that creates and fuels our current ecological crisis that threatens to make all our ideological squabbles secondary.
It is truly strange that we are cutting each other's throats as our seas can no longer support life and much of the world becomes uninhabitable.
It is truly strange that we are cutting each other's throats as our seas can no longer support life and much of the world becomes uninhabitable.
Mr. Friedman writes that the first decades of the post-Cold War era were a time of relative stability. This ignores the fighting in the former Yugoslavia (much worse than what is currently happening in Ukraine), the Rwandan genocide, which led to the Great African War (which led to excess deaths more than 10x those of the current Syrian Civil War). Yes, we have problems now, but we had problems before as well.
It is tempting to see yesterday's problems as easier because they have already been solved. We should avoid this false nostalgia and instead feel happy that these problems are no longer with us.
It is tempting to see yesterday's problems as easier because they have already been solved. We should avoid this false nostalgia and instead feel happy that these problems are no longer with us.
3
We need to be less concerned about how much money other people have -- The Donald boasts of billions, but he's poor compared with the Koch brothers. Instead, we need to focus on what each of us can do to improve our lives and our collective future. It starts with electing leaders who have a compelling vision and a plan for getting there. We haven't heard anything from Trump about that except that he wants to build a wall. Cruz and his allies in Congress are promising to reduce, instead of expand, the role of the federal government. But they have no plan to replace the governmental functions they seek to dismantle. Should each of us fix the potholes and crumbling bridges we drive over? Should we figure out how to homeschool our kids instead of sending them to under-resourced public schools? And should we all buy guns and learn how to shoot potential criminals who threaten our safety?
We have truly entered The Twilight Zone.
We have truly entered The Twilight Zone.
You argue for the reversal of Citizens United. Inequality has risen we accepted the redefining of free markets. Free markets defined by conservative economists Milton Friedman, are industries where there were many producers offering products to meet needs of the consumer. The government's role was to police each market assuring that one entity, or a small number of entities, was not in a position to independently set price or quality of that which they were producing. If a particular industry was such that only one producer could be supported then it was government's role to police that industry so it did not abuse its power.
Friedman said, "we cannot rely on custom or conscious alone to interpret and enforce the rules; we need an umpire. These then are the basic roles of government … to provide a means where we can modify rules, to mediate differences among us on the meaning of rules, and to enforce compliance with the rules on the part of those few who otherwise would not play the game."
The definition was altered as one free of all government regulation. It is not clear how this change in definition came about but it became widely accepted as a result of such popular talk shows as Rush Limbaugh. Many who listen look at the host as a member of the news media instead of entertainment. They advocate government should get out of the way of private industries rather than watch over them to assure their control does not end up in the hands of a few.... http://lstrn.us/1BtQaWp
Friedman said, "we cannot rely on custom or conscious alone to interpret and enforce the rules; we need an umpire. These then are the basic roles of government … to provide a means where we can modify rules, to mediate differences among us on the meaning of rules, and to enforce compliance with the rules on the part of those few who otherwise would not play the game."
The definition was altered as one free of all government regulation. It is not clear how this change in definition came about but it became widely accepted as a result of such popular talk shows as Rush Limbaugh. Many who listen look at the host as a member of the news media instead of entertainment. They advocate government should get out of the way of private industries rather than watch over them to assure their control does not end up in the hands of a few.... http://lstrn.us/1BtQaWp
After reading the article, I realized how unprepared America is for the future. It is very evident that education and specialized training will be needed by nearly every person in the workforce. Technology is in its infancy and will bring change at a staggering pace. We cannot keep up with our current education system that changes at a snails pace.
College costs are rising and excluding more people from advanced training. Our populous needs to continually gain skills throughout their working life in a fashion that is cheap and convenient.
I believe we need a free online national education system based on something like Coursera. There should be a variety of tracks, degrees and certificates offered. Also, business and industry could approve programs tailored to their needs. This would go a long way toward preparing our workforce for a future we cannot possibly imagine. It would also remove the cost and debt barriers plaguing our youth.
America has to be the change. We cannot afford to waste time complaining about high tuition and college debt. The technology is readily available to change the educational and skill level of our populous and tailor it to the technological change that is sure to come.
College costs are rising and excluding more people from advanced training. Our populous needs to continually gain skills throughout their working life in a fashion that is cheap and convenient.
I believe we need a free online national education system based on something like Coursera. There should be a variety of tracks, degrees and certificates offered. Also, business and industry could approve programs tailored to their needs. This would go a long way toward preparing our workforce for a future we cannot possibly imagine. It would also remove the cost and debt barriers plaguing our youth.
America has to be the change. We cannot afford to waste time complaining about high tuition and college debt. The technology is readily available to change the educational and skill level of our populous and tailor it to the technological change that is sure to come.
Well played. But please stop asserting that Watson "beat" Ken Jennings. Watson held an signaling device advantage over Jennings, not so much a knowledge advantage. This is no different from the advantage co-locations firms held in the area of trading.
1
It seems we live in the New Middle Ages. Instead of the Catholic Church promising "Heaven" for a menial, hard live if we keep our noses clean, we have conglomerates promising us IWatches instead of good salaries. The Biggest problems we have are: One, we don't know the problems in our Democracy, Two, we have leaders who either can't or won't understand our problems and cooperate for a solution. And then there is three, which is all the other stuff, like ISIS. Yet what we hear from the Media, which is supposed to keep the electorate informed, is Benghazi, Emails, Freedom Party, Government shutdowns, Donald Trump, Planned Parenthood, and the like. Thank you Mr. Friedman for pointing out a glimmer of what the future will hold if we don't wake up and solve some real problems.
2
"The combination of technological, economic and climate pressures is literally blowing the lid off nation-states in the Middle East and Africa..." Don't forget the elephant in the room, which is religious ideology. That is the reason why these conflicts have this "invitation to heaven" aspect, that was not the case with the Soviet Union. Religious ideology is the primary motivation for the defection of born and raised Westerners to join the ranks of ISIS. Not only that, but religious ideology is the only thing common to all of the other maladies that Friedman described in this article! You are a progressive reporter, report on the dangers of Islamic Conservatives as if they were Christian Conservatives!
1
Belief in afterlife cannot be thoroughly debunked too soon. It is the most blatant fraud in public policy.
1
Washington, like Moscow, is the center of intoxicating political power and there will never be a shortage of those wanting as much of that power as possible.
The world population is 7 billion and counting... Let's say that there are 0.01% who are super angry that's 700000, among them about 120000 males of the age group that can cause a lot of damage! Even if we reduce to 0.001% that's still a lot of super angry guys left!
Bravo, Mr. Friedman !
The empathetic me said to myself, "Self, look what the job is doing to him. He's considerably more gray/grey than when he assumed office."
But the scientific me said, "self, don't confuse cause & correlation.
Gray/grey hair is genetic & 45 is an average age to become gray/grey.
Mr. Obama is 54.
On the other hand, the present obstructionist bunch on Capital Hill might present a challenge to anyone.
The empathetic me said to myself, "Self, look what the job is doing to him. He's considerably more gray/grey than when he assumed office."
But the scientific me said, "self, don't confuse cause & correlation.
Gray/grey hair is genetic & 45 is an average age to become gray/grey.
Mr. Obama is 54.
On the other hand, the present obstructionist bunch on Capital Hill might present a challenge to anyone.
1
I am more intrigued by Thomas' first thought...who would want this job? Whomever is elected, they will face a gerrymandered Congress living in an alternate universe of trickle down , emergency room health care and church run soup kitchens. The winner's thoughts of "big" ideas and broad plans will be reduced to blackmail government over things like continuing funding resolutions of 1 month intervals! We must end Citizens United, install term limits and end the idea of a permanent ruling elite.
3
Remember The Onion headline: Black man gets worse job in the world "? Well, he wanted it and got it twice and has been doing pretty well with it, if not perfectly. This is a job for people who crave, or at least welcome, the power. I suspect for Hillary, Trump, Cruz and others it is the craving. I hope for Bernie it is the welcoming.
This morning's Boston Globe notes that according to the Fleisch-Kincaid readability test anyone with a fourth grade education can understand Donald Trump's message, but to understand Hillary Clinton's takes a seventh grade education, and Bernie Sanders' requires tenth grade comprehension. How 'smart' is smart when candidates craft the messages that will get their positions across to voters?
4
good point
It is impossible to know what would be the situation today had we not invaded Iraq in 2003. But some very smart people including you Thomas Friedman, supported that invasion.
As far the loss of faith that the kids will be better off than their parents, an improving middle class requires a strong liberal government. Everywhere there is a strong liberal government you have a secure and growing middle class. But as long as the white lower middle class in persuaded that government help is the road to tyranny, then the middle class decline will continue.
As far the loss of faith that the kids will be better off than their parents, an improving middle class requires a strong liberal government. Everywhere there is a strong liberal government you have a secure and growing middle class. But as long as the white lower middle class in persuaded that government help is the road to tyranny, then the middle class decline will continue.
2
Candidates for the presidency want the power they perceive to reside in the office. For the GOP, a Republican president would fulfill their dream of destroying the USA as we know it. This is a terrifying prospect.
2
When the level of strife in the Arab world elevated in the wake of the Arab Spring, and when hacking became something where intelligent, disenfranchised people started having an impact on millions of people's lives, the pincer movement on traditional societies created by uniting technology with radicalism was in full swing. Abetted by a few tyrants (Putin, Assad) who care little for their own people, the rise of ISIS and other terrorist groups was inevitable. The root cause - US policy in the Middle East during both Bush presidencies.
It is a terrible mess now, and the fall-out from it will be felt for the next decade or more. It's going to be a long haul to restore order in key parts of the world. The solution is the same as it ever was - turning swords into plowshares. But the powers that be will never resort to such mundane practices, until things get much worse.
It is a terrible mess now, and the fall-out from it will be felt for the next decade or more. It's going to be a long haul to restore order in key parts of the world. The solution is the same as it ever was - turning swords into plowshares. But the powers that be will never resort to such mundane practices, until things get much worse.
The system isn’t working because the billionaire class has gotten its way for over 30 years. Most people know what’s going on and know what the solutions to our problems are, raise taxes on the rich, reign in corporate power and influence , and spend money to repair and buildup our crumbling infrastructure, and create jobs. We will only dig ourselves out of this economic malaise by sharing the wealth and when we are stronger, we will be able to handle the false prophets in the rest of the world. We have to handle our own first. The immediate problem now is an austerity obsessed and obstructionist Republican Party and the demagogues they are running for President to appeal to peoples’ prejudices and petty hatreds.
America is a democratic republic and we deserve the politicians we vote for. If the Republicans continue to fool enough people enough of the time and if too many people continue to sit on their rump, keep proclaiming a pox on both parties and refuse to participate in our democracy then we will deserve the whirlwind we reap.
America is a democratic republic and we deserve the politicians we vote for. If the Republicans continue to fool enough people enough of the time and if too many people continue to sit on their rump, keep proclaiming a pox on both parties and refuse to participate in our democracy then we will deserve the whirlwind we reap.
5
Unregulated market capitalism is a dogma that we in the US embrace the same way fundamentalists embrace religious dogma. Our belief that unregulated "free markets" will bring result in an equitable distribution of wealth among the citizenry and between generations is demonstrably false, yet we continue to promote it as the only way to achieve peace and prosperity..."Cheap, fast and easy" sells merchandise and wins elections but doesn't solve social problems…
1
It is likely that the stress of climate change over the next decades will generate refugee problems on a scale we have never experienced. Given the difficulty of handling a few million Syrians, it doesn't look good. Overall, the climate problem will dominate life for the next generations, and along with large scale nuclear war, is one of the few things that can completely disrupt our technological society and food production system.
3
TLF and the commenters remind me what the difference is between tactics and strategy. The strategy was decided years ago by those few right wings pols who developed the "Southern strategy" and the dumbing down of the electorate. The tactics were the implementation of events such as defunding many agencies resulting in our uneducated and uninformed masses who vote. The cake was baked and here we are.
1
The President's gift or according to the Republicans, his weakness, is his understanding and ability to manage ambiguity ---we now live in a world of unchanging and rapid social, economic, and political change. Now you can adapt to this uncertainty, you can adopt this uncertainty, or you can deny this uncertainty. The President has chosen a path of adoption and adaptation, which appears weak and indecisive, but whose policies best prepares us of living in an eternal world of uncertainty. The problem for the President, and other political leaders who understand the world we now live in, is getting elected in a country whose population craves quick answers and certain solutions, so they can quickly return to the football game of the week.
5
In many ways, what we are witnessing - at least in the West, but really, globally - is capitalism's end game. Friedman likes to embrace the myth that as long as people learn new skills in perpetuity, or become "micro-preneurs" (both tough propositions for, say, a family struggling to remain in the middle class), everything will be fine and dandy. But in a time when computers and robots are beginning to take on medical and legal work, the writing should be clearly on the wall. The cost of labor has always been an inefficiency in the capitalist model, and inefficiencies are there to be eliminated. Within a couple of generations the very term "labor force" will be a quaint notion. Where does capitalism go then? Turns out that while Marx was wrong about the solutions, he was right in pointing out the natural endpoint to a capitalist system.
I enjoy reading Friedman's columns, but his inability to even conceive this scenario is one of his biggest blind spots.
I enjoy reading Friedman's columns, but his inability to even conceive this scenario is one of his biggest blind spots.
4
Marx thought that the natural endpoint to capitalism was first socialism, and then the withering away of the State.
That is not what's going on now: Marx was too patriarchal, too social Darwinist, too ignorant of corporations and mass media, to handle current history.
That is not what's going on now: Marx was too patriarchal, too social Darwinist, too ignorant of corporations and mass media, to handle current history.
We've descended into World War III and 90% of Americans don't even know it. Our political leaders are more interested in fighting Planned Parenthood and Obamacare and seem willing to destroy our economy and our government in the process. How many countries are we fighting in? How many of those fights are we winning? Are we winning in Iraq? Are we winning in Afghanistan? Are we winning in Libya and Syria? We kill a terrorist a day and call it a victory. We need to kill 30,000 terrorists a month to win this war. When I hear a drone strike in Afghanistan killed two important terrorists, it almost makes me laugh. Now the Russians are bombing Syrians we are arming and training. Sometime tells me that isn't going to go well either. I'm not even going to mention the Chinese and what might happen there. Despite all this bad news the Republican front runner is Donald Trump. That should be enough scare all of us to death; but, no one seems to care. Half the country is worried about making enough money to pay for food and rent. Many have to choose between medicine and food. I see more homeless people on the streets than ever, yet the Koch Brothers get richer and richer and pay fewer and fewer taxes, which in turn, weakens our entire system. I'm starting to get very angry about that. Angry enough to say we might just need a revolution of our own to level the playing field.
4
The people that can do the job don't want the job. The super empowerment of crazy people in the digital age has created an environment that qualified, decent people avoid like the plague. Only self obsessed fools like Ted Cruz and Donald Trump rush to get the job.
The new digital media and tabloid journalism has polluted the water to the point that it poisons all. T. Boone Pickens torpedoed John Kerry with a false smear campaign. It worked. False media is a terrible poison.
Everyone is an expert and yet no one is an expert. The keyboard in now the gateway to being an expert. A twitter account is the new podium. We now trend or we disappear from view.
The internet is a great equalizer but it is also a great destroyer of credibility. It is a creator of the celebrity cult instead of celebrity by accomplishment.
The entire basket of GOP candidates is an embarrassment. Reasonable people wont run because of the noise of the angry mob, all empowered by key strokes.
We are having a leadership crises in part because the mob is in charge and no leader can control it. The House is a good example of things to come. Perhaps there is such a thing as too much democracy. We need to answer that question.
The new digital media and tabloid journalism has polluted the water to the point that it poisons all. T. Boone Pickens torpedoed John Kerry with a false smear campaign. It worked. False media is a terrible poison.
Everyone is an expert and yet no one is an expert. The keyboard in now the gateway to being an expert. A twitter account is the new podium. We now trend or we disappear from view.
The internet is a great equalizer but it is also a great destroyer of credibility. It is a creator of the celebrity cult instead of celebrity by accomplishment.
The entire basket of GOP candidates is an embarrassment. Reasonable people wont run because of the noise of the angry mob, all empowered by key strokes.
We are having a leadership crises in part because the mob is in charge and no leader can control it. The House is a good example of things to come. Perhaps there is such a thing as too much democracy. We need to answer that question.
6
I think many commenters misunderstand Mr. Friedman's point. It is not that the current era is worse than the Cold War or the Second World War but that it is bad in a new and different way. The rise of non-state agents, such as international Islamic terrorism, and the collapse of nation-states create a world with a completely different set of challenges, in which ideological warfare, especially online, and propaganda are far more important than bombs and planes. You cannot fight an idea with a bombing campaign. So far, the West has failed to take on the ideas propagated by the international jihadi movement. And as to who the next American president is going to be, it is, to be honest, largely irrelevant in the global scheme of things. I would much prefer Hillary but if it is Trump or somebody like him, it will be bad for the U.S. but the rest of the world will continue much as it is today.
2
I thought the same thing when Dubya "beat" Gore, but look what happened. I am afraid it does matter who is in charge.
1
We are still paying for World War II. All of the political tectonic plates that have shifted--from neo-colonialism replacing the old colonial system to the end of Bretton Woods with Nixon taking the U.S. off gold to the Reagan-Thatcher assault on New Deal Reforms to the implosion of the USSR may be seen as the inevitable aftershocks of a spasm of human violence that took over 70 million lives and ended with two attacks on Japanese civilians using the new signature weapon of the age to come. Looking back, only one American president reigned over a brief respite from ongoing crisis, but even Eisenhower's golden age was a byproduct of the country's relative--and temporary--unchallenged economic dominance.
The question of who would want the job of U.S. president needs to be preceded by a hard look at precisely what the job now entails--at least for any man or woman who would hope to make a real difference. Ideally, what the leader of the reputed sole superpower will be required to accomplish is tantamount to a New Deal not just for the fifty states of the homeland, but for the entire globe over which our hundreds of military bases are now scattered.
The question of who would want the job of U.S. president needs to be preceded by a hard look at precisely what the job now entails--at least for any man or woman who would hope to make a real difference. Ideally, what the leader of the reputed sole superpower will be required to accomplish is tantamount to a New Deal not just for the fifty states of the homeland, but for the entire globe over which our hundreds of military bases are now scattered.
31
October 21. 2015
.'...not military bases...' but more the intelligence collection of opportunity that's good for advancing the knowledge that America's great institutions welcome. And by the way the man or women that takes the mantel of leadership leads and lets the rest do the work - not only a fun job but with grace of love of country applied virtue to happy days and a nation of immigrants forever....
jja Manhattan, N. Y.
.'...not military bases...' but more the intelligence collection of opportunity that's good for advancing the knowledge that America's great institutions welcome. And by the way the man or women that takes the mantel of leadership leads and lets the rest do the work - not only a fun job but with grace of love of country applied virtue to happy days and a nation of immigrants forever....
jja Manhattan, N. Y.
Yes, Mr. Krugman, it can be a very frightening world - if we let it. Unfortunately the media and entertainment organizations focus on violence, war, chaos, fear, destruction, a need-to-survive mentality and other things that destabilize societies. It's not the true picture of the world but what is talked about most is what drives many - witness the influence of propagandists fox so-called news and RL's destructive talk. Ms. Hillary Rodham Clinton is the MOST QUALIFIED CANDIDATE to be the next President of the United States and she, President Clinton and their daughter Chelsea are focused on making lives better for everyone in America and around the world. Average people around the world are waking up to the destruction caused by the insatiably greedy, predatory top 1% global financial elite in the past 40+ years and , like Canada, will elect new leaders who want to have a more peaceful world. All is not lost! The sun is shining behind the clouds and we simply need to get rid of those "clouding" up OUR world.
4
Tom is right - Trump is resonating because the perception about this current administration is that middle class voters don't count, they have no voice. And when they speak out against the amount of taxpayer money going to global conflicts, and prioritizing migrants from the Middle East, for example, they are labeled xenophobes, only fueling more of the 'silent majority'.
The middle class has been pummeled, wages are stagnant, savings have flatlined, families are under immense pressure. We have homelessness emergencies declared is Los Angeles and now Hawaii. We need our candidates to prioritize Americans. The candidate who does this best, wins in 2016.
The middle class has been pummeled, wages are stagnant, savings have flatlined, families are under immense pressure. We have homelessness emergencies declared is Los Angeles and now Hawaii. We need our candidates to prioritize Americans. The candidate who does this best, wins in 2016.
32
Be careful what you wish for. Trump's solution won't be to tell Americans they need to sacrifice for the greater good for all. He will try to deliver on the "you can have it all and not have to pay for it" delusion that people want to believe. And the only way he can make that happen will be to take from the "losers" in our society to pay for it. The unemployed, the poor, the disabled, single mothers with children, immigrants, etc. will be forced to make the sacrifice. Trump warned us: He likes winners, not losers. The other price to be paid will be America's future. He will take from the future to allow some of us to live better now. It will be the future American presidents' problem to deal with, and I doubt few living today care.
The Republicans control the Senate and House of Representatives. We do not live in a dictatorship. If the Republicans really cared about the middle class they could have done something by now. Giving the 1% bigger tax cuts only sends more money to tax havens or buys more yachts which are mostly built in Europe. (I admit they are spending some of their extra money at Gulf Stream in Savannah, GA for their private jets, but then we taxpayers are expected to pony up to expand resort airports for their benefit). All I hear from too many of these candidates on the right is send ground troops, build more fighter jets, put missiles aimed at Russia in Poland, threaten Putin. Other than talking about building a multimillion dollar wall and spending more millions to round up people and send them out of the country and thus opening up a lot of low paying jobs, I haven't heard anything from Trump about how he would benefit the middle class.
Actually Barack Obama's hair has gone early gray for nothing.
(And 54 is hardly early, Tom.)
Every single thing Barack Obama touts as an "accomplishment" during his presidency either has, is or will unravel by the time he leaves office in 2017.
Obamacare? A disaster that grows exponentially every day, along with the profits for insurance company and HMO executives sipping champagne on private jets.
Afghanistan? A success only if you consider the Taliban back in charge and small boys being assaulted on US military bases something to cheer about.
Iraq? Barack Obama has deployed nearly 4,000 US troops into combat in a war he declared was over and into an Iraq he declared stable, secure and self reliant during his 2012 re-election bid. And that's not counting the private military contractors working on the sly so Obama can boast about keeping troop levels low.
Syria? I'd say more about Obama's incompetence on Syria, but Vladimir Putin is laughing too loud for me to concentrate.
The economy. Today is October 21, 2015. Every economic indicator used to measure quality of life in America shows that Blacks are suffering more during the Obama presidency than any other racial group. That's happened once before in our history. During slavery.
The question for the 2016 candidates isn't whether they want the job, the question is why did Barack Obama ever GET the job?
(And 54 is hardly early, Tom.)
Every single thing Barack Obama touts as an "accomplishment" during his presidency either has, is or will unravel by the time he leaves office in 2017.
Obamacare? A disaster that grows exponentially every day, along with the profits for insurance company and HMO executives sipping champagne on private jets.
Afghanistan? A success only if you consider the Taliban back in charge and small boys being assaulted on US military bases something to cheer about.
Iraq? Barack Obama has deployed nearly 4,000 US troops into combat in a war he declared was over and into an Iraq he declared stable, secure and self reliant during his 2012 re-election bid. And that's not counting the private military contractors working on the sly so Obama can boast about keeping troop levels low.
Syria? I'd say more about Obama's incompetence on Syria, but Vladimir Putin is laughing too loud for me to concentrate.
The economy. Today is October 21, 2015. Every economic indicator used to measure quality of life in America shows that Blacks are suffering more during the Obama presidency than any other racial group. That's happened once before in our history. During slavery.
The question for the 2016 candidates isn't whether they want the job, the question is why did Barack Obama ever GET the job?
6
Have you ever heard of George W. Bush? He's the one that got us into Iraq. He's the one that started the war in Afghanistan and then bungled it. He's the one that created ISIS by giving Sunnis no place in Iraq once we occupied the place. He's the one that brought on the Great Recession. He's the one that lowered taxes on the wealthy and made economic inequality so much worse. President Obama has spent his entire administration digging us out of the deep hole dug by his predecessor. And although we may complain about life in America now, we are much better off now than when President Obama took office. And by the way, the Affordable Care Act is working well, contrary to what you might hear on Fox News.
1
Perhaps it's all the Americans who voted for him, after taking a good look at actual reality here on the planet and refusing to let crazy people amped up by even crazier right-wingers pass their astonishing nonsenses off as reality.
Or to put this another way, anybody who'd take the likes of d'Souza and Coulter and Breitbart seriously is nuts.
Or to put this another way, anybody who'd take the likes of d'Souza and Coulter and Breitbart seriously is nuts.
The job as referred to in this article has always been given to a man which should give a clue as to what might be wrong.
This isn't to say that women cannot be as thick headed and greed driven as men, especially when their models are chosen from the most aberrant among our gender, but in general I think most women are not by nature desirous to control or for that matter to be controlled.
Be that as it may we elect those who run the show and of course only when they almost run the table do we begin to squawk demanding a change which never really comes.
Rarely do any of us actually face the truth of our existence which is purposely obfuscated by the acceptance of another life beyond this which is as far from reality as one can get.
Why otherwise intelligent people who have a forum in which they can enlighten and perhaps even lead do not take advantage of their platform is a mystery whose solution appears to be covered in the mud of personal gain.
As long as we accept the tenets of any superstitions cloaked in the robes of belief we can and will deny our own life to the extent we clear paths for the most ignorant and dangerous politicians to direct our societies.
The real danger of ISIS is in their use of the powerful psychological tools of religious belief to hide reality, maintain order and gain control.
The truth will set us free but we have to be exposed to that axiom before we can lose our chains.
This isn't to say that women cannot be as thick headed and greed driven as men, especially when their models are chosen from the most aberrant among our gender, but in general I think most women are not by nature desirous to control or for that matter to be controlled.
Be that as it may we elect those who run the show and of course only when they almost run the table do we begin to squawk demanding a change which never really comes.
Rarely do any of us actually face the truth of our existence which is purposely obfuscated by the acceptance of another life beyond this which is as far from reality as one can get.
Why otherwise intelligent people who have a forum in which they can enlighten and perhaps even lead do not take advantage of their platform is a mystery whose solution appears to be covered in the mud of personal gain.
As long as we accept the tenets of any superstitions cloaked in the robes of belief we can and will deny our own life to the extent we clear paths for the most ignorant and dangerous politicians to direct our societies.
The real danger of ISIS is in their use of the powerful psychological tools of religious belief to hide reality, maintain order and gain control.
The truth will set us free but we have to be exposed to that axiom before we can lose our chains.
5
We live in an upside down world...of our own making (yes, the enemy 'is us'). Most unfortunate is the fact that a few bad apples, greedy enough to dump the vast majority into mere machine cogs, continue to enrich themselves, no matter how damaging to the environment and their fellow men/women. It didn't have to be that way, if only we could have followed the 'golden rule'. Our attitude remains tribal, tinged with poisonous faith-based violence, intolerant, prejudiced, "us vs them" behavior. We are, of course, emotional animals, and using our reason after the fact, to justify what we have (or haven't) done. What is tragic is that our rage, our ability to harm others, has risen exponentially by technology, the digital world, and our ability to spread misinformation at will, bypassing the usual seats of power. I suppose that, if all seems lost, we may redeem our humanity with immaterial gains, such as poetry, and some music, and the fact that, in the end, we'll leave Earth sooner than we think, and as naked as when we made our entry.
4
The Internet age brings new dimension to the world's culture - equal opportunity to knowledge. Today terrorists and common people are educated in the same schools and universities, using the same technologies and challenging their mind to solve their problems in the same way. Where is the difference - the problems two groups are trying to solve.
The history of natural evolution always followed two distinct paths to get the fitness - aggressive and altruistic. The same rule is now openly playing out in the interconnected world. We can not stop it - but we know from history that path of cooperation will ultimately win. In the mean time there will be tremendous pain and suffering to the world. Let us focus on more free trade, more international cooperation, more joint efforts on climate issues, more UN poverty elimination actions. And let us use intelligence and cooperation and not military power to counter the negative forces. It seems we are garudually moving in the right direction after the blunder of George Bush' unilateral war in Iraq.
The history of natural evolution always followed two distinct paths to get the fitness - aggressive and altruistic. The same rule is now openly playing out in the interconnected world. We can not stop it - but we know from history that path of cooperation will ultimately win. In the mean time there will be tremendous pain and suffering to the world. Let us focus on more free trade, more international cooperation, more joint efforts on climate issues, more UN poverty elimination actions. And let us use intelligence and cooperation and not military power to counter the negative forces. It seems we are garudually moving in the right direction after the blunder of George Bush' unilateral war in Iraq.
2
I am continually bemused by Tom Friedman's harping on the need for "continuing education" to keep afloat in today's economic and technologically roiled waters. This misses important points: First, significant numbers of people do not have the mind-set or the time and opportunity for this technical upgrade. Second, no matter how many courses in computer science one takes, how many software engineers are going to be needed? Certainly not as many as will result.
We are seeing this happen already: myriads of recent graduates burdened by debt and unable to find jobs with which to repay the debt. With world population exploding, is it not likely that there will be millions, even hundreds of millions, of basically unemployable people boiling with anger and resentment, foundering in a Detroit writ large (the ravaging of my hometown is to a great extent a result of the manufacturing lines going elsewhere or being robotized)? Continuing education will not be remotely sufficient to deal with this.
We are seeing this happen already: myriads of recent graduates burdened by debt and unable to find jobs with which to repay the debt. With world population exploding, is it not likely that there will be millions, even hundreds of millions, of basically unemployable people boiling with anger and resentment, foundering in a Detroit writ large (the ravaging of my hometown is to a great extent a result of the manufacturing lines going elsewhere or being robotized)? Continuing education will not be remotely sufficient to deal with this.
7
Tom,
you are correct at this point in time about the decline in financial prosperity for about 25% of the population. But this is relevant for the current college age generation. Science and Technology will improve everyone's life. Look at the grand achievements in treating certain diseases. There are patients alive today that would have been dead thirty years ago if not for the advancements in medicine. I am writing this note using technology that was unavailable 30 years ago. The challenge is to use the technology well and not let it become our downfall. The fanatics need to be corralled and held in check. We need to educate the ignorant masses and ensure that everyone has food, shelter and healthcare. Once the ignorant masses get a taste of the modern world, they will start moving away from the medieval beliefs and fundamentalist religions. These are easy phrases to write but monumentally difficult to expedite. Putin and other major players want power but do not want total anarchy. A new order will develop that will contain the fundamentalists and terroists. The question is:" Where role does the United States play"?
you are correct at this point in time about the decline in financial prosperity for about 25% of the population. But this is relevant for the current college age generation. Science and Technology will improve everyone's life. Look at the grand achievements in treating certain diseases. There are patients alive today that would have been dead thirty years ago if not for the advancements in medicine. I am writing this note using technology that was unavailable 30 years ago. The challenge is to use the technology well and not let it become our downfall. The fanatics need to be corralled and held in check. We need to educate the ignorant masses and ensure that everyone has food, shelter and healthcare. Once the ignorant masses get a taste of the modern world, they will start moving away from the medieval beliefs and fundamentalist religions. These are easy phrases to write but monumentally difficult to expedite. Putin and other major players want power but do not want total anarchy. A new order will develop that will contain the fundamentalists and terroists. The question is:" Where role does the United States play"?
1
An interesting column. But can we all please stop with the "bad guys" routine?
Language matters. And the fact that our most elevated pundits and political, military, and law-enforcement leaders actually use this comic-book label shows how simple-minded we have become.
I was pleased to read that the hacker and his ISIS accomplice have been brought to heel, and I have no sympathy with them. But when we simply - I use the word advisedly - brand them "evil" or "bad guys," we are signaling to the world a lack of seriousness about political violence and unrest.
We are not superheroes. Those fighting against the West are not cartoon villains. Better to try to understand their motivations than slap them with childish labels.
Language matters. And the fact that our most elevated pundits and political, military, and law-enforcement leaders actually use this comic-book label shows how simple-minded we have become.
I was pleased to read that the hacker and his ISIS accomplice have been brought to heel, and I have no sympathy with them. But when we simply - I use the word advisedly - brand them "evil" or "bad guys," we are signaling to the world a lack of seriousness about political violence and unrest.
We are not superheroes. Those fighting against the West are not cartoon villains. Better to try to understand their motivations than slap them with childish labels.
12
What changed in 2000? We got a president that wasn't elected by the people.
Clinton left a note on the oval office desk telling Bush that Al Quiada/Terrorism would be his biggest problem.
Bush acted with contempt towards that notice & that of the Hart-Rudman report & Richard Clark & the CIA all telling him the same.
He insanely spent 9 months under-reacting to the threat of terrorism & then 7 years overreacting. Judgment was not his strong suit. You see the idiot look in his eyes as he's getting the news & reading "my pet goat"
He shifted $12 trillion of societies resources from the demand-side 99% to the supply-side 1% ($5 trillion in tax cuts alone) & covered his tracks w/ cheap credit. When the credit ran out demand imploded nearly dragging down global civilization w/ it. But the wealth all stayed with the 1% & the middle class was destroyed.
Then he lied the nation into unnecessary war that has destroyed MidEast stability, cost $3 trillion, put it on credit card & kept it off the books!
If Isis/jihadist Muslim groups had been a little wiser & had limited their focused of their terrorism on the 1% & went after only billionaire & hundredmillionaires, the majority of the masses in the West wouldn't care about Isis or jihadist Islam & many of our unemployed youth might find its ideology empowering.
The elites on the supreme court over ruled the people & put psychopathic idiots in charge. They looted the nation's wealth & walked away with a wrecked world in their wake.
Clinton left a note on the oval office desk telling Bush that Al Quiada/Terrorism would be his biggest problem.
Bush acted with contempt towards that notice & that of the Hart-Rudman report & Richard Clark & the CIA all telling him the same.
He insanely spent 9 months under-reacting to the threat of terrorism & then 7 years overreacting. Judgment was not his strong suit. You see the idiot look in his eyes as he's getting the news & reading "my pet goat"
He shifted $12 trillion of societies resources from the demand-side 99% to the supply-side 1% ($5 trillion in tax cuts alone) & covered his tracks w/ cheap credit. When the credit ran out demand imploded nearly dragging down global civilization w/ it. But the wealth all stayed with the 1% & the middle class was destroyed.
Then he lied the nation into unnecessary war that has destroyed MidEast stability, cost $3 trillion, put it on credit card & kept it off the books!
If Isis/jihadist Muslim groups had been a little wiser & had limited their focused of their terrorism on the 1% & went after only billionaire & hundredmillionaires, the majority of the masses in the West wouldn't care about Isis or jihadist Islam & many of our unemployed youth might find its ideology empowering.
The elites on the supreme court over ruled the people & put psychopathic idiots in charge. They looted the nation's wealth & walked away with a wrecked world in their wake.
106
The more I read and hear regarding the alarming escalation of threats from so many directions worldwide the more I believe HRC is the only one qualified to lead the US at this point. Her intelligence and experience alone qualify her, especially when compared to anyone from the party of stupid. Rubio the Vacant is scary and seems to be approaching critical mass as far as supporters with money. We would end up with an Adelson/Koch Board of Directors who would actually be running the country. Given the complexity Tom has outlined here, and in response, I will begin providing whatever support I can to HRC. She is the only one who can hit the ground running, and pull a government together.
11
This was the very question many of us asked of Barack when he first approached the office. Our world is a dangerous place with too many factions placing no value on a human life. It snaps me to attention when I think of passing it on the the next stewards. It's not clear who has an answer.
1
Trump and the American people have been sold out by the multinationals. I encourage team Trump to generate a comprehensive list of all the items that are no longer made in the United States. Such a list would reveal items that are critical to the nation's infrastructure and security. If damaged, some items take months if not years to replace and would have catastrophic effects on the economy and businesses.
"Welcome to the future of warfare: superpowers versus superempowered angry men — and a tag-team of cybercriminals and cyberterrorists. They’re all a byproduct of a profound technology-driven inflection point"
That is not "the future of warfare." Look to China for that, or to the new ideas on state violence developing in Russia.
Terrorists are not "warfare." They are not a state, and are not the threat of state-level violence.
This is important both because it hypes terrorism, and because it discounts real state warfare.
States routinely kill in numbers that terrorists could only dream about, and they change the shape of the world's politics for a generation or more doing it.
Real warfare is still a real threat, and it is of an entirely different scale.
That is not "the future of warfare." Look to China for that, or to the new ideas on state violence developing in Russia.
Terrorists are not "warfare." They are not a state, and are not the threat of state-level violence.
This is important both because it hypes terrorism, and because it discounts real state warfare.
States routinely kill in numbers that terrorists could only dream about, and they change the shape of the world's politics for a generation or more doing it.
Real warfare is still a real threat, and it is of an entirely different scale.
14
The next decade will determine the world order that future generations will face. All the dots have been connected in this column and the next American president will not only have to address the American failure to address climate change. extreme inequality in income and educational opportunities, a third world infrastructure, immigration reform and all the other contributing factors that have weakened our economy but also how to position the US in the crumbling world order in a way that promotes American interests on a global scale.
The need to form stronger coalitions with nations that seek political solutions over military intervention and to redirect our foreign policy in that same direction should dominate our agenda abroad. Addressing climate change as the major threat to every nation - Syria's revolution was largely born as a reaction to severe drought - is an issue that offers the possibility of uniting the world in a common goal that could be a first step in reestablishing a sense of order in at least one area.
The last decade has been lost in cutting all domestic spending instead of investing in the future and putting military intervention as a first response, not a last resort, thanks to GOP dominance in setting the agenda. I don't know why anyone would want to be our next president but I have a list of 14 candidates that I don't want to see anywhere near the oval offfice, beginning with Trump and Carson and ending with Bush.
The need to form stronger coalitions with nations that seek political solutions over military intervention and to redirect our foreign policy in that same direction should dominate our agenda abroad. Addressing climate change as the major threat to every nation - Syria's revolution was largely born as a reaction to severe drought - is an issue that offers the possibility of uniting the world in a common goal that could be a first step in reestablishing a sense of order in at least one area.
The last decade has been lost in cutting all domestic spending instead of investing in the future and putting military intervention as a first response, not a last resort, thanks to GOP dominance in setting the agenda. I don't know why anyone would want to be our next president but I have a list of 14 candidates that I don't want to see anywhere near the oval offfice, beginning with Trump and Carson and ending with Bush.
18
What a panicky column. You keep telling young people that they need to get out of the comfort zone to be able to adapt to change and to effect change. And when that change comes to you, your reaction is to write around shouting that the storm that unhinged candidates trump is "very real". Please.
9
Macro,
You've added (1+1) and come up with 3. Save your reflexive opposition for issues that are closer to home, where you can have an impact - senseless gun violence, voter suppression & gerrymandering, privacy issues, etc.
Mr. Friedman's column is descriptive, not prescriptive. He's providing a distillation of the conditions that have given rise to extremism and he's offering a caution that the current tribal and xenophobic responses are lacking in deep analysis of the problems & a clear consensus plan to solve those problems.
You've added (1+1) and come up with 3. Save your reflexive opposition for issues that are closer to home, where you can have an impact - senseless gun violence, voter suppression & gerrymandering, privacy issues, etc.
Mr. Friedman's column is descriptive, not prescriptive. He's providing a distillation of the conditions that have given rise to extremism and he's offering a caution that the current tribal and xenophobic responses are lacking in deep analysis of the problems & a clear consensus plan to solve those problems.
1
The candidates may continually ask themselves if they want the job.
But the people of the United States had better start seriously asking themselves if they are seeing people on the stage that can Do the job.
Donald Trump can continually tick off his fellow Americans and it seems they just retract or continue to get stomped on. That might not go over so well with Putin or some of the other world leaders, say the Kim Jong clan.
Growing up in the Cold War wasn't fun. If we thought bomb shelters were the top of the line real estate sellers, what would we expect now? We might be only one insult away to make those old bomb shelters look worthy.
But the people of the United States had better start seriously asking themselves if they are seeing people on the stage that can Do the job.
Donald Trump can continually tick off his fellow Americans and it seems they just retract or continue to get stomped on. That might not go over so well with Putin or some of the other world leaders, say the Kim Jong clan.
Growing up in the Cold War wasn't fun. If we thought bomb shelters were the top of the line real estate sellers, what would we expect now? We might be only one insult away to make those old bomb shelters look worthy.
56
Even as bad as was GWB, and even as awful as a Cruz, Trump, or Carson presidency might be, Congress is a bigger, and more intractable problem, particularly the Senate with states like Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming, which barely have a single Congressional district each, but have two Senators each, which Senators can pretty much block anything they set their hand to.
When people are asked about their take on the job Congress is doing as a whole, the approval rating is in the 9% to 10% range. But when asked about how *their* Congressperson is doing, the ratings top 90%. Incumbents are mostly re-elected by locals in districts that seem to love them. Nothing is going to change in this realm anytime soon.
When people are asked about their take on the job Congress is doing as a whole, the approval rating is in the 9% to 10% range. But when asked about how *their* Congressperson is doing, the ratings top 90%. Incumbents are mostly re-elected by locals in districts that seem to love them. Nothing is going to change in this realm anytime soon.
103
It's a sad state of affairs when one of the groups most threatening to the United States and our way of life is within our own government. It's necrotizing fasciitis on the body politic, a threat from within. That, to me, is scarier than any outside threat.
26
Did someone spike Friedman's morning juice with gloom powder?
The world is screwed up, but the good guys still outnumber the bad ones!
The world is screwed up, but the good guys still outnumber the bad ones!
6
That is his point, I think: These days all it is going to take is one.
Clearly, the rational world needs to hold a contest: who are the least crazy buccaneers-dictators-strongmen demonstrably most capable of keeping the TRUE crazies suppressed? Saddam probably would have rated high enough for us to ignore rape rooms and the gassing of Kurds if we’d held that contest a dozen years ago. Then, we back the winner(s) with money and sophisticated war materiel to help them keep the tribes and caliphate-builders relatively harmless. We took out Saddam and his two charming sons, but maybe there’s a nephew left around.
We get it every which way – we support the less-crazies who suppress the more-crazies, and we’re bastinadoed by the left for being supporters of murderous dictators; yet we cease supporting such worthies and we get ISIS and Boko Haram. At least Russia is old-school and actively seeks out the Assads.
On reflection, Tom may be right: who DOES want this job? But, on further reflection, it’s not REALLY a bad gig. Interns are very impressed and these days you get to ignore the will of Congress to impose your policy preferences by diktat. You might even get a Nobel as a housewarming present before you properly even start.
Then, of course, steady work at high wages with excellent health benefits (including dental) for at least four years isn’t to be sneezed at in a labor market that seems still to be more burger-flipping jobs than substantial ones years after The Great Recession ended.
We get it every which way – we support the less-crazies who suppress the more-crazies, and we’re bastinadoed by the left for being supporters of murderous dictators; yet we cease supporting such worthies and we get ISIS and Boko Haram. At least Russia is old-school and actively seeks out the Assads.
On reflection, Tom may be right: who DOES want this job? But, on further reflection, it’s not REALLY a bad gig. Interns are very impressed and these days you get to ignore the will of Congress to impose your policy preferences by diktat. You might even get a Nobel as a housewarming present before you properly even start.
Then, of course, steady work at high wages with excellent health benefits (including dental) for at least four years isn’t to be sneezed at in a labor market that seems still to be more burger-flipping jobs than substantial ones years after The Great Recession ended.
2
The contest here seems to be how ridiculously cynical one can pretend to be and it seems as well that no limit applies. Added in for good measure is extreme rationalizing, as in support for the supposed lesser of evils or “the less-crazies.” Those Faustian bargains though never work out well; the metaphorical devil eventually will have his due, no matter what.
And while being one-sided or rather snide about the presidential “gig” may be satisfying, it would instead be credible to speak of the whole of the egregiousness that has occurred in the Oval Office; besides “interns” there are the later examples of sheer stupidity, incompetence, deceit, treachery, and immaturity-“bring ‘em on”; the post-Clinton list of outrages is endless.
Yes, the spectacle of “diktat” has been seen quite often. Like nearly forcing a hospitalized Attorney General to authorize law-breaking and of course those oh-so-special torture memos, the content and extent of some of them we still don’t know about. And let’s not forget those signing statements.
And a seemingly presumptuous Nobel Prize? How about an ignominy prize for ignoring warnings and reports about looming attacks and then scamming the country into attacking a country not connected to 9/11? And another one as well for bringing the economy crashing down like the World Trade Towers.
Nice work if you can get it, and lo what you can get away with and be lucky enough to have others cleanup for you.
And while being one-sided or rather snide about the presidential “gig” may be satisfying, it would instead be credible to speak of the whole of the egregiousness that has occurred in the Oval Office; besides “interns” there are the later examples of sheer stupidity, incompetence, deceit, treachery, and immaturity-“bring ‘em on”; the post-Clinton list of outrages is endless.
Yes, the spectacle of “diktat” has been seen quite often. Like nearly forcing a hospitalized Attorney General to authorize law-breaking and of course those oh-so-special torture memos, the content and extent of some of them we still don’t know about. And let’s not forget those signing statements.
And a seemingly presumptuous Nobel Prize? How about an ignominy prize for ignoring warnings and reports about looming attacks and then scamming the country into attacking a country not connected to 9/11? And another one as well for bringing the economy crashing down like the World Trade Towers.
Nice work if you can get it, and lo what you can get away with and be lucky enough to have others cleanup for you.
No, Donald Trump and others are resonating because they refuse to follow the same narrative as the elite, corporatists and liberal media. These people, when they look around themselves see the trend for themselves and their family over a number of years and it's not good.
Donald Trump brought up the issue of ILLEGAL immigration and bad trade deals which no other candidate seemed to be able to understand or attempt to analyze, Republican or Democrat.
If our best major party qualified candidates are blind to the issues of the normal citizen voter, the alternatives are NOT false prophets but the only alternative to the special interest pablum dished out by these candidates. The public isn't buying it. And even if these candidates are voted into office the world won't end. But it will change the narrative and the direction of how we deal with these problems. For the better.
Donald Trump brought up the issue of ILLEGAL immigration and bad trade deals which no other candidate seemed to be able to understand or attempt to analyze, Republican or Democrat.
If our best major party qualified candidates are blind to the issues of the normal citizen voter, the alternatives are NOT false prophets but the only alternative to the special interest pablum dished out by these candidates. The public isn't buying it. And even if these candidates are voted into office the world won't end. But it will change the narrative and the direction of how we deal with these problems. For the better.
4
Reread the column and pay close attention to the part about kids "with billions in college tuition debts [having to] pay the Social Security for the baby boomers now retiring". As most of the immigrants to which you refer statistically pay their fair share of taxes, you might want to revisit your xenophobic views in favor of a more pragmatic (and humane) solution. Immigration may be an issue that resonates with the "normal citizen voter", but it is a pin-prick compared to the other, potentially catastrophic, challenges we face.
And if you believe Donald Trump gives a nanosecond's thought about you or anyone like you, I've got a used VW TDI I'd like to sell you.
And if you believe Donald Trump gives a nanosecond's thought about you or anyone like you, I've got a used VW TDI I'd like to sell you.
There has never ever been a time when the human being was capable of doing something and yet, eventually, that something did not happen. That means one of three things: 1) the human psyche is going to change fundamentally (good luck with that!); 2) the worldwide social contract changes so that the "angry men" can no longer be "empowered" (good luck with that too!); or 3) boom!
1
How do the recent events in Canada fit into this apocalyptic world view?
13
The Clown Cavalcade _is_ really scary all by itself, and coupled with this alternative world order being spouted by fundamentalists on all sides makes it down right terrifying.
Terrifying is the right word because the leaders espouse that kind of thinking: scare the populace into submission and all will be well.
The issue is that the populace isn't necessarily scared by the same things. Education and access to neutral media mitigate the impact. So what's a would-be tyrant to do? Limit access.
By keeping the population poor and uneducated, the wing nuts can, and often do, thrust themselves into leadership positions. In order to keep those jobs, they further reduce access to media and education.
And yes, children, it can happen here. Remove health care and school funding, and soon you, too, can live in Ameristan.
http://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/
Terrifying is the right word because the leaders espouse that kind of thinking: scare the populace into submission and all will be well.
The issue is that the populace isn't necessarily scared by the same things. Education and access to neutral media mitigate the impact. So what's a would-be tyrant to do? Limit access.
By keeping the population poor and uneducated, the wing nuts can, and often do, thrust themselves into leadership positions. In order to keep those jobs, they further reduce access to media and education.
And yes, children, it can happen here. Remove health care and school funding, and soon you, too, can live in Ameristan.
http://wifelyperson.blogspot.com/
16
I really don't understand this opinion piece.when I think of the world in the early 20th century, with the mass killings of World War One and World War Two, the millions trapped in the iron curtain, the depression, even the stagflation of the 70's, we really do not have a bad situation today. Yes there is war and unrest, but it is nothing compared with the world wars, yes climate change is a problem, but it is not yet ( likely) insurmountable. Yes, we have 4 alarm certified nut jobs running for president, but that is nothing new either. The partisan divide has been present in the past as well. For the time being, we will most likely muddle on. The president (whoever she is) will muddle on as well!
2
There are a number of inaccuracies in your op-ed Mr. Friedman, beginning with the assertion that Yeltsin didn't oppose NATO expansion. In 1993, Yeltsin communicated to President Clinton that he bitterly opposed any expansion of NATO to include Eastern European nations like Poland or the Czech Republic as he considered this a threat to Russia's security. In 1997, at the Start II summit in Helsinki, Yeltsin acquiesced under pressure to agree with NATO expansion in exchange for a nuclear arms reduction accord with the US much to the chagrin of the Russian Duma & his political rival, Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who called the summit a "crushing defeat," comparing it to the Treaty of Versailles of 1919 that ended WWI & imposed humiliating conditions on defeated Germany.
As far as false prophets are concerned, many politicians could be lumped into this category including the wackier extremes of Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina to the more mainstream "stuff happens" & "my brother kept us safe" climate denier Jeb Bush. It seems that Hillary Clinton is the only moderate candidate in the traditional sense with Bernie Sanders her competitor representing the traditional liberal party. As far as ISIS lone testosterone charged wolfs waging war behind the safety of their internet cafe computers, perhaps if the US ended its long history of military intervention around the globe, we would not have a target painted on the backs of our courageous troops.
As far as false prophets are concerned, many politicians could be lumped into this category including the wackier extremes of Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina to the more mainstream "stuff happens" & "my brother kept us safe" climate denier Jeb Bush. It seems that Hillary Clinton is the only moderate candidate in the traditional sense with Bernie Sanders her competitor representing the traditional liberal party. As far as ISIS lone testosterone charged wolfs waging war behind the safety of their internet cafe computers, perhaps if the US ended its long history of military intervention around the globe, we would not have a target painted on the backs of our courageous troops.
19
Yeah, it's a tough job. But worse today than in other difficult times? Worse than a Cold War where an unstable President could have set off WWIII and the destruction of the entire planet? Worse than a Great Depression, the rise of fascism and communism and WWII? Worse than a Civil War? The next President faces a lot of unappealing and difficult things but nothing close to the problems faced by Presidents of truly difficult times.
The difference is that in times past we had Presidents of ability and common sense who felt an obligation to serve all of the American people (even Nixon more or less qualifies). Today the Republican Party may give us a President who cares for nothing more than his own hyper-inflated ego.
Prediction - Republicans will amend their platform on Immigration and citizenship to draft Vladimir Putin as their candidate (and that would be an improvement over Ted Cruz)!
The difference is that in times past we had Presidents of ability and common sense who felt an obligation to serve all of the American people (even Nixon more or less qualifies). Today the Republican Party may give us a President who cares for nothing more than his own hyper-inflated ego.
Prediction - Republicans will amend their platform on Immigration and citizenship to draft Vladimir Putin as their candidate (and that would be an improvement over Ted Cruz)!
1
I hope Friedman includes himself on his list of false prophets!
(I know, I'm probably the 100th person to make that commet)
(I know, I'm probably the 100th person to make that commet)
10
The greater mystery is why Barack Obama wanted the job in 2008 when the economy was heading so far south we might never see it again. He was bequeathed two wars, the awful mess in Iraq, the threatened collapse of American car making industry (the signal American business, aside from war, of the 20th century) and had on his hands at once millions of newly unemployed, angry workers across America coupled with millions being told through foreclosure that they could no longer live in the houses they'd bought only recently. What's not to like?
Why do people fight so hard to have the weight of the world thrust upon their shoulders? In part, it must be motivated by some of the same reasons that men, and a few women, beg to be placed into high powered coffins on wheels and thrust around race tracks at 200 mph: there is no more thrilling moment in life than to be fully engaged with difficulty and working at the absolute peak of one's capacities for the survival of one's self and, for a president, the survival and well being of a nation and the world. To be challenged at the very highest level and to meet that challenge head on is to feel utterly alive and intrinsically useful, a vibrating realization of the self and one's capacities like no other.
As for Mr. Friedman's "journalist's worry list", bravo. If every bad thing on the horizon became the worst reality, we would be doomed before breakfast. Against that possibility, good people strive in hope and faith for better tomorrows.
Why do people fight so hard to have the weight of the world thrust upon their shoulders? In part, it must be motivated by some of the same reasons that men, and a few women, beg to be placed into high powered coffins on wheels and thrust around race tracks at 200 mph: there is no more thrilling moment in life than to be fully engaged with difficulty and working at the absolute peak of one's capacities for the survival of one's self and, for a president, the survival and well being of a nation and the world. To be challenged at the very highest level and to meet that challenge head on is to feel utterly alive and intrinsically useful, a vibrating realization of the self and one's capacities like no other.
As for Mr. Friedman's "journalist's worry list", bravo. If every bad thing on the horizon became the worst reality, we would be doomed before breakfast. Against that possibility, good people strive in hope and faith for better tomorrows.
140
Well said, Mr. Terry!
2
"Why do people fight so hard to have the weight of the world thrust upon their shoulders? "
For fame, fortune and power. Which is why you should never trust anybody who seeks the office of President.
For fame, fortune and power. Which is why you should never trust anybody who seeks the office of President.
Senator Sander"s hair is already white- hr genuinely seeks to do the job, rather than seeks the office.
Yes, they are false prophets. And yet those who brought us to this point are just as bad. This is a real trick. Trust us and don't trust them, or trust me and don't trust them. Same sentence brings the same sentence, the rest of your life being screwed by me, us or them. Answer, none, but one. Read the first and last paragraphs of A Tale of Two Cities. It might help in choosing between us and them.
1
I knew I forgot to add something to my previous comment--Tom, was it really necessary to take the usual knee jerk cheap shot at the Baby Boomers whose only crime is that we're living longer??? Give me a break--Baby Boomers are not stealing anything from generations that come after us. Hey, our employers have been yanking Social Security and Medicare deductions out of our paychecks for decades and I fully intend to collect my fair share in a few years. I just want what's mine, that's all. Baby Boomers are living longer thanks to all the medical advances that came our way since the late 1940's. Baby Boomers are the first generation not to worry about polio thanks to the Salk vaccine. Other dreaded childhood illnesses like measles, mumps and rubella came under control because of mandatory vaccinations for school age children. Baby Boomers became the first truly health conscious generation and we're living into our 80's and 90's because we've altered our diets, exercised more and understood the dangers smoking. Therefore, Tom, as a fellow Baby Boomer, I find your compulsion to blame the entire post World War II generation for every single modern train wreck in extremely poor taste.
34
Indeed, who would want the job?
Nice house in Washington, then there's Camp David; the jet and the helicopter; your own world police force, syncophants everywhere.
Reason enough not to want the man or woman who wants the job. Alas, what choice do the little people have but to give one of them what they want.
Nice house in Washington, then there's Camp David; the jet and the helicopter; your own world police force, syncophants everywhere.
Reason enough not to want the man or woman who wants the job. Alas, what choice do the little people have but to give one of them what they want.
2
One good thing about the current aspirants for the job of President -- notwithstanding the Trump and Sanders hysteria --is that none of them is really rousing up any substantial hope among the American people for better times. President Obama's worst contribution to America was that he brought hope to many people. We are always better off not expecting much from politicians. It gives us more reason to do what we can for ourselves.
23
"President Obama's worst contribution to America was that he brought hope to many people."
A.S.
President Obama brought hope to many people left out of the American Dream. The Wall Street crowd and the 1% have had ample reason for hope, except during the financial meltdown (ushered in under the watchful eye of Alan Greenspan & G.W. Bush) prior to his election.
"We are always better off not expecting much from politicians."
I would urge you and your fellow Texan's to make dramatic changes to your Congressional delegation. They have done a remarkable job trying to live up to your cynicism from the comfort of carefully gerrymandered districts.
A.S.
President Obama brought hope to many people left out of the American Dream. The Wall Street crowd and the 1% have had ample reason for hope, except during the financial meltdown (ushered in under the watchful eye of Alan Greenspan & G.W. Bush) prior to his election.
"We are always better off not expecting much from politicians."
I would urge you and your fellow Texan's to make dramatic changes to your Congressional delegation. They have done a remarkable job trying to live up to your cynicism from the comfort of carefully gerrymandered districts.
Very solid thinking for the good ole days of the 19th century.
If one generation has enough to live fairly well and retire decently, why is it a given that their children's generation has to have more. Too many economists and politicians tell us that because we are not more prosperous than the last generation and even though we have enough to live healthy successful lives, something is very wrong. Cancers rely on endless and relentless growth. I don't think we need that for sustainable society, economy, and environment.
2
What the author saw as the Cole War and history I saw from a different perspective. I was born before the Cold War and was married and working at the age of 17 for an international firm that had just lost its factory in Cuba in 1963. Within a year I was paid 75% of the National Average wage according to the Social Security records. An underaged female teenager who didn't mind studying and working to earn what I have without making demands on any one. My 19 year old husband made 125% of the National Average Wage and I found a letter he left behind in his work files. The CEO of the trucking company he world for sent him a certified letter saying he was a the kind of worker that makes a company good. He was union and stuck a man's head in a firebarrel for crossing a picket line so I now have half of his pension. He would have lost if the man got in the truck and drove off. He too had to study driving manuals and union rules and work hard for what he earned.
4
Frank Bruni's column this morning told me I should be scared of Ted Cruz. Now Friedman tells me I should scared of...lots of things. Comments are constantly exhorting me to be scared of one thing or another.
Right wingers are scared that the government is coming for their guns and religion. The left wing is scared that no one takes them seriously.
Can we all stop being so scared for just a bit? It's hysterical and, frankly, I thought we Americans were tougher than that.
And how can anyone talk to each other when everyone is scared of each other all the time?
Right wingers are scared that the government is coming for their guns and religion. The left wing is scared that no one takes them seriously.
Can we all stop being so scared for just a bit? It's hysterical and, frankly, I thought we Americans were tougher than that.
And how can anyone talk to each other when everyone is scared of each other all the time?
172
Right On, Admiral!
With Trump getting over blown coverage and Sanders getting ignored it is not so easy to dismiss the fear of not being taken seriously.
Remember what happened to democracy in Germany, circa 1933. They all voted for that pip squeak.
To contradict the great Frank Zappa, "It can happen here."
Remember what happened to democracy in Germany, circa 1933. They all voted for that pip squeak.
To contradict the great Frank Zappa, "It can happen here."
1
Don't leave out the food scares (vegen, gluten) and the fear that drives paranoia about every bite we eat. All this fear of no control? What we eat will save us?
I believe the fear covers the sectrum of gluten through guns, and I mean taking them away. The whole country.
Why all this fear of unknown and not of the 55,000 real deaths on highways each year? Nary a blink. What are we really afraid of?
I believe the fear covers the sectrum of gluten through guns, and I mean taking them away. The whole country.
Why all this fear of unknown and not of the 55,000 real deaths on highways each year? Nary a blink. What are we really afraid of?
Tom's piece makes a strong case for less armed drones and more diplomacy and cooperation on foreign policy. The nature of global conflicts has changed dramatically in this new century.
Non state actors such as jihadist groups are now the main threat to American and European security. However, watching GOP primary debates one might think American politicians are still living in the past. The long gone golden years post WWII.
Non state actors such as jihadist groups are now the main threat to American and European security. However, watching GOP primary debates one might think American politicians are still living in the past. The long gone golden years post WWII.
1
Maybe Twitter can develop some kind of code that picks up hate filled word strings and locks one out for awhile. (of course then we wouldn't know what they were up to) But, I'm envisioning a pop-up that says, "Simmer down "jack", we all have to live and eat in this world, and if you think this is an easy task, why not try lending a hand?"
Great stuff. I would argue that the notion of "country" has been superseded by sects which cross geographical lines and connect on religious lines. Even the US is now two countries, Democratica and Republica.
1
I recently had surgery done by a robot named da Vinci and with a brilliant young surgeon at the console leading the operation, it was a remarkable success. There have been about 2.5 million of these surgeries around the world and many more to come.
My parents would have never dreamed of these advances in medicine that would have greatly increased the quality and lengthened their lives. these advances are now available to masses of people.
It's not all bad news, Tom. But it is important that elections matter. Barack Obama is not Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio and electing one over the over will influence generations to come.
My parents would have never dreamed of these advances in medicine that would have greatly increased the quality and lengthened their lives. these advances are now available to masses of people.
It's not all bad news, Tom. But it is important that elections matter. Barack Obama is not Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio and electing one over the over will influence generations to come.
3
"The combination of technological, economic and climate pressures is literally blowing the lid off nation-states in the Middle East and Africa, unleashing sectarian conflicts that no dictator can suppress."
Don't forgot the population growth that is out of control with way too many people for too few resources and jobs.
Don't forgot the population growth that is out of control with way too many people for too few resources and jobs.
4
Kind of comical for Friedman (and other NYT reporters) to be quoting someone from the McKinsey Global Institute, an anything but dispassionate observer affiliated with a consulting firm that has advised corporate multinational clients over the past three or more decades for seven figure fees to continually streamline, downsize, right-size, etc. shedding millions of jobs in the bargain. McKinsey, Bain, BCG et al are as much responsible for obliterating the middle class as the bought and paid for public servants in the executive and legislative branches, all of them becoming very rich along the way. The time is long overdue for the media to bypass the elite think tanks masquerading as public policy research groups for data, insights, etc. when it comes to helping their readers/listeners better understand the socioeconomic mess we find ourselves in.
8
We've put our fates in the hands of a group of selfish, feckless fools while we laughed and danced and spent money we never had in our quest to be "special".
The people who own the world now were handed their status and their fortunes. They've never had to struggle to win or compromise to move forward. They believe outrageous rhetoric and childish demands will attain their desires. They believe they are entitled. But most of all they believe unshakably that they are right.
Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders are the natural outgrowth of our selfish, inward facing policy. Each of them has one thing in common--a stubborn refusal to acknowledge the world as it is. An insistence that the way they see things and what they want is the way it must be.
Many will not like my lumping Mr. Sanders in this cotillion but the truth is, even in his socialist popularity, he refuses to accept the world as it is, shouting inflammatory rhetoric that will do nothing to mobilize change. In this way he is as bad as Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. He refuses to deal in facts just as they do. He insists and inflames while knowing he has no path forward were he to be elected President. If he was serious about his crusade, he's stay in Congress where, with Elizabeth Warren, he has a chance to effect change. And knowing is not fixing. We all know.
If wishes were horses...
The people who own the world now were handed their status and their fortunes. They've never had to struggle to win or compromise to move forward. They believe outrageous rhetoric and childish demands will attain their desires. They believe they are entitled. But most of all they believe unshakably that they are right.
Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders are the natural outgrowth of our selfish, inward facing policy. Each of them has one thing in common--a stubborn refusal to acknowledge the world as it is. An insistence that the way they see things and what they want is the way it must be.
Many will not like my lumping Mr. Sanders in this cotillion but the truth is, even in his socialist popularity, he refuses to accept the world as it is, shouting inflammatory rhetoric that will do nothing to mobilize change. In this way he is as bad as Donald Trump or Ted Cruz. He refuses to deal in facts just as they do. He insists and inflames while knowing he has no path forward were he to be elected President. If he was serious about his crusade, he's stay in Congress where, with Elizabeth Warren, he has a chance to effect change. And knowing is not fixing. We all know.
If wishes were horses...
1
The change seems to have happened suddenly, even though it has taken more than twenty years. Whichever event or events you choose to select as the tipping point, we all tend to see the glass half empty these days. But, is it really?
We are at a stage, both here at home and internationally, when we are paying the piper for the consequences of recent history. Some of that history can be blamed on mistakes, like the war in Iraq, but some of it was probably inevitable by reason of demographics or simmering cultural and religious differences.
At the risk of committing the sin of optimism, could it be that we are actually near the end of the storm which precedes the calm? Are we confusing despair with simple fatigue?
The next president, regardless of party, faces opportunities. This is all the more reason that we need to avoid – if possible – shooting wars which will prolong the storm and delay the calm. This is why smart diplomacy and strong alliances with other democracies are critical.
Just because we don’t have ready answers for technological problems like computer hacking or loss of American production jobs to cheap labor markets does not mean the problems are unsolvable.
We are at a stage, both here at home and internationally, when we are paying the piper for the consequences of recent history. Some of that history can be blamed on mistakes, like the war in Iraq, but some of it was probably inevitable by reason of demographics or simmering cultural and religious differences.
At the risk of committing the sin of optimism, could it be that we are actually near the end of the storm which precedes the calm? Are we confusing despair with simple fatigue?
The next president, regardless of party, faces opportunities. This is all the more reason that we need to avoid – if possible – shooting wars which will prolong the storm and delay the calm. This is why smart diplomacy and strong alliances with other democracies are critical.
Just because we don’t have ready answers for technological problems like computer hacking or loss of American production jobs to cheap labor markets does not mean the problems are unsolvable.
1
There he goes again! Tom Friedman, the "true prophet" of globalization now warning that those who want to put up walls are "false prophets." Let's not forget what Tom's prescription is for this golden era of globalization: "Average is Over" and "The Sharing Economy." The reason so many think that they won't be better off than their parents is because they in fact will not be better off than their parents. The column Friedman needs to write is why it's not worth giving up some of the benefits of globalization in exchange for a better society.
5
Interesting comparisons in your wrap-up paragraph: Trump, ISIS, Le Pen, and Putin. Each, in his own way, calling up an era of past victories. Trump is going to give us "so many wins we'll be tired of winning", as if that's possible. Problem is, he never indicates what those "wins" will be.
LePen plays on xenophobia and bringing France back to its ethnic gallic purity. ISIS promises a caliphate, straight out of the Koran. and Putin wants to restore Russian "gloire."
Isn't it funny that in such a high-tech world these guys want to restore the past, not step into the future? You know why? Because it's easier to promise the past than face a future with so many uncertainties. For all we know, the world will blow up tomorrow. But as long as we can look back at yesterday, and imply that that with themselves in power, these guys can make our lives as better as they used to be (whatever that means), they play people's unrest and craving for certainty.
There is no certainty. Why, indeed, does anyone want this job when it means addressing rampant inequality, nonstop wars, restive populations, a refugee crisis the likes the world has rarely seen, and a planet at the point of no return in terms of weather and resources.
Man has indeed made a mess of the world they were born into. How can anyone believe the false prophets promising even greater future glory?
LePen plays on xenophobia and bringing France back to its ethnic gallic purity. ISIS promises a caliphate, straight out of the Koran. and Putin wants to restore Russian "gloire."
Isn't it funny that in such a high-tech world these guys want to restore the past, not step into the future? You know why? Because it's easier to promise the past than face a future with so many uncertainties. For all we know, the world will blow up tomorrow. But as long as we can look back at yesterday, and imply that that with themselves in power, these guys can make our lives as better as they used to be (whatever that means), they play people's unrest and craving for certainty.
There is no certainty. Why, indeed, does anyone want this job when it means addressing rampant inequality, nonstop wars, restive populations, a refugee crisis the likes the world has rarely seen, and a planet at the point of no return in terms of weather and resources.
Man has indeed made a mess of the world they were born into. How can anyone believe the false prophets promising even greater future glory?
5
The appeal of Trump and Le Pen has nothing to do with returning to Cold War certainties or the internet. Their appeal is that the populations of many democracies feel themselves being overwhelmed by foreigners being let in by elites who see immigrants as cheap labor. Those populations feel they are ignored and talked down to by the elites running the show.
And it is mostly about immigration and anti-elitism as can be shown by the fervent devotion being shown Donald Trump by many on the right, when he is, by any rational yardstick, the most liberal candidate on the GOP line on every issue but that. His popularity stems from his vehement position on building a wall to stop immigration and from his continual in-your-face flouting of the rules of political correctness.
Someone recently said that Donald Trump's candidacy is an upraised middle finger from the American people towards their elites, and I think Ms Le Pen's rise is somewhat similar.
And it is mostly about immigration and anti-elitism as can be shown by the fervent devotion being shown Donald Trump by many on the right, when he is, by any rational yardstick, the most liberal candidate on the GOP line on every issue but that. His popularity stems from his vehement position on building a wall to stop immigration and from his continual in-your-face flouting of the rules of political correctness.
Someone recently said that Donald Trump's candidacy is an upraised middle finger from the American people towards their elites, and I think Ms Le Pen's rise is somewhat similar.
15
"Someone recently said that Donald Trump's candidacy is an upraised middle finger from the American people towards their elites, and I think Ms Le Pen's rise is somewhat similar."
Is Trump one of the "elites?" If not, why not?
Is Trump one of the "elites?" If not, why not?
There's nothing like certainties in the changing phenomena around us, it was as true of the seemingly stable cold war period, or the hope arousing post-cold war decade, or the awe inspiring technology driven inflection point of today that Friedman describes as the post-post-cold war period. The chaotic confusion built around the multitude of conflict situations ranging from the sectarian wars in the Middle East to the cyberspace violations, climate change threat to the global terrorism if appear to be the result of consensus breakdown, these could also be the reason which necessitates redefining the content and practice of politics according to the changing societal needs and aspirations. For, it's only when the inclusive politics takes the command, the many uncertainties staring in the face could be tackled, not through the anger exploiting rhetoric and vitriolic outbursts by the revivalist Right.
7
Apart from petroleum, the Middle East is insignificant from a global view, except for the attachment to ancestral religions that originated there, and, of course, the State of Israel. If we are to beat global climate change, petroleum will have to become insignificant, too. If we are to be civilized, it would seem that the attachment to religions also has to abate.
131
The Abrahamic cousins misunderstand each other deeply. Their distrust is misplaced. Just because they call their monotheistic God by different names does not mean they have to fight like uncivilized medieval belligerent fools who think war and violence is the only way to force people to convert to their God. The Palestinian cause becomes an excuse, who has been there longer, who came first ...it's like watching little kids fight over lollipop, it's mine, no mine, I got it first, God gave it to me first.
1
1.4 billion Chinese and 1.2 billion Indians, unlike 300 million Americans, it appears, are hopeful of a better future. It would seem that national confidence, too, is subject to the state of the economy.
5
The small populations in China and India who have such optimism is proportionally meaningless to the majority.
What we have here in America is complacency and ignorance. That part of the middle class who are declining economically and are white, are also uneducated, reflexive, and self destructive in their electoral loyalties. Complacent people don't vote, angry people vote against their own interests.
What we have here in America is complacency and ignorance. That part of the middle class who are declining economically and are white, are also uneducated, reflexive, and self destructive in their electoral loyalties. Complacent people don't vote, angry people vote against their own interests.
1
Its Asia's century.
1
Regarding all the hacking exploits - this is a result of software engineering not being engineering at all. We would not build our cities with such abandon. But who has the time to build software well?
34
Have to agree. When I went to school for engineering (mechanical, not computer) we had to put a lot of thought behind any program we wrote, since each character was a strain on the 64K of RAM we were limited to.
A lot of today's software is cobbled together from multiple files, and problems are corrected with 'patches' instead of replacing errant source code, basically providing a road map for those who have both the skill and the motivation to do damage.
Worse, we have made the internet accessible to all, the majority of which don't know how to do the basic steps needed to keep their data safe and how to keep their computers from becoming the host to attack others. The ISP's could do a better job of making sure their customers systems have installed the basic protections, like charging more for unprotected machines, but they're too afraid of losing customers.
I fear the big crash is coming, and there's no way to prevent it.
A lot of today's software is cobbled together from multiple files, and problems are corrected with 'patches' instead of replacing errant source code, basically providing a road map for those who have both the skill and the motivation to do damage.
Worse, we have made the internet accessible to all, the majority of which don't know how to do the basic steps needed to keep their data safe and how to keep their computers from becoming the host to attack others. The ISP's could do a better job of making sure their customers systems have installed the basic protections, like charging more for unprotected machines, but they're too afraid of losing customers.
I fear the big crash is coming, and there's no way to prevent it.
Your last sentence should have included "when we are trying to make money as fast as we can."
What troubles me is that the two largest religions in the world both have apocalyptic end stories. I am a little unclear on the details but it seems that each might interpret the other as the bad guys in their version.
This is the only explanation I can imagine for the on-going obsession of W Bush and his would be successors and followera with wading into the sectarian quagmire of the Middle East with the US military leading the charge with a vision of permanent occupation.
As this article points out, there is no center in the diffuse terrorist threat that we can drop bombs on. Better to develop international strategies and cooperation to isolate, contain and degrade physically and financially those movements like ISIS that have no functioning economy of their own but hope to survive and grow on pillage, plunder and rape.
To the Right this international business is called "weakness". They know a "final battle" when they see one and are eager to engage.
This is the only explanation I can imagine for the on-going obsession of W Bush and his would be successors and followera with wading into the sectarian quagmire of the Middle East with the US military leading the charge with a vision of permanent occupation.
As this article points out, there is no center in the diffuse terrorist threat that we can drop bombs on. Better to develop international strategies and cooperation to isolate, contain and degrade physically and financially those movements like ISIS that have no functioning economy of their own but hope to survive and grow on pillage, plunder and rape.
To the Right this international business is called "weakness". They know a "final battle" when they see one and are eager to engage.
51
We (meaning Americans) all understand the hate for a group of people intent on killing Americans, but the vast majority don't give a second thought to how people in foreign lands ravaged by death, destruction and occupation by the U.S. military machine are going to react. Does anyone believe the U.S. would welcome another nation bombing our Country, sending in tens of thousands of occupying forces?
No, they don't hate us because of our freedom. They hate us because we represent death and destruction within their borders.
No, they don't hate us because of our freedom. They hate us because we represent death and destruction within their borders.
330
@ScottW, To the case in point, just how does the US represent death and destruction within the borders of Kosovo, Malaysia and Great Britain (which are the countries of these hackers)? Do tell!
4
Obama's hair has "gone early gray"? Obama is 54. At that age Thomas Friedman's hair had roughly the same degree of gray, more now of course that he's a little older, 62.
Reading Thomas Friedman column is a matter of counting the times you say to yourself "what in the world is he talking about?"
Reading Thomas Friedman column is a matter of counting the times you say to yourself "what in the world is he talking about?"
27
Obama's hair went gray within his first six months of office. Everyone noticed it.
1
All my friends who are the same age as Obama's have gray hair. Mine is a bit slow to change but then I am not shouldering the kind of humungous weight that Mr Obama is, on behalf of all of us. Thank you Mr President.
1
Prof. Friedman is eminently challenging, but not difficult to understand. It may be your own ideology prevents you from heeding his warnings in this article.
1
Yes, they are false and dangerous prophets. They attempt to do the impossible, to keep the lid on the way things were. But those ways no longer work, primarily because the technology changes you mention are fundamentally economic in their impacts and the world body politic needs to come up with a new economic paradigm. Using long wave economic models that typically take a lifetime to play out the future is clear and not that daunting. The new economic paradigm centers on resource management and getting off the fossil fuel merrygoround. Greater security resides in moving forward, relatively quickly, not going back to the post war era and will take some fortitude, which is the substance notably missing in all the leaders you mention.
19
So true and so scary, especially for new graduates to the world. I think to beat protectionist fear propaganda, left leaning liberal need to develop an antithetical propaganda of their own. Fight fire with fire! (while maintaining human dignity)
2
Mr. Friedman notes that "When you are advancing, you buy the system; you don’t care who’s a billionaire, because your life is improving. But when you stop advancing, added Dobbs, you can “lose faith in the system."
This is not all that new notion. When the economy is expanding and "all boats are rising" nobody cares who is on the top rung because the economy is not perceived as a zero-sum game. Instead it is seen as one in which al parties can win. But when the ladder of opportunity and growth is being pulled from under one's feet and the economy becomes a zero-sum game - you win, therefore I lose - then we begin to look at the guy on the top rung of the ladder with disdain and anger.
The anger that results from lack of opportunities in a system that seems rigged for the rich and against the average man can be dangerous and lead to seismic changes. If only the top 1% is smart enough to recognize this and willingly agree to pay a higher share of their income as taxes that can be used to advance everyone's interest, this anger can be blunted.
The top tier cannot be eating cake while denying bread to the remaining 99%. That is a dangerous recipe fraught with explosive potential.
This is not all that new notion. When the economy is expanding and "all boats are rising" nobody cares who is on the top rung because the economy is not perceived as a zero-sum game. Instead it is seen as one in which al parties can win. But when the ladder of opportunity and growth is being pulled from under one's feet and the economy becomes a zero-sum game - you win, therefore I lose - then we begin to look at the guy on the top rung of the ladder with disdain and anger.
The anger that results from lack of opportunities in a system that seems rigged for the rich and against the average man can be dangerous and lead to seismic changes. If only the top 1% is smart enough to recognize this and willingly agree to pay a higher share of their income as taxes that can be used to advance everyone's interest, this anger can be blunted.
The top tier cannot be eating cake while denying bread to the remaining 99%. That is a dangerous recipe fraught with explosive potential.
227
The current situation is overwhelming. Constructive, immediate, positive changes protecting our country from heinous outside sources must be our first priority. Technological advances have intensified the heinous trajectory of enlisting disgruntled youth to the netherworld of doom. I am saddened by the state of our affairs.
chickenlover, I don't disagree with you. But we should note that in the United States, sadly, the insight that led working- and middle-class people to fight against those who sit on top of the economic pile no longer exists. Instead of rising against the ogre with its foot on our necks, we lash out at the guy next to us whose neck is under the ogre's other foot.
That's why the plutocrats have worked so hard to take over the judicial branch as well, to build a police state that they control.
Really Tom? They want the job because it pays well, offers travel to themselves and their families, and brings big attention, particularly when looking for a home and work post-presidency, as citizen Obama soon will be.
There is absolutely no consequence for getting the job, and then not performing as promised. None.
There is absolutely no consequence for getting the job, and then not performing as promised. None.
7
Got to have a very thick skin.
6
Despite the perks, it's a thankless job!
13
I still recall the euphoria of the sudden fall of the Soviet empire, exemplified by the Berlin wall coming down, and thinking it was ushering in an era of world peace. Who could or did foresee the situation Friedman so accurately describes? GWB certainly didn't when he set fire to the powder-keg with his invasion of Iraq. It may have blown up anyway, but we'll never know.
287
I did foresee this, at least at the time I thought the Russians and Eastern Europeans wanted air conditioners. Not actually peace or freedom. They were sick of not having stuff we had.
Wasn't much said about this in "Back to the Future."
The horrors of the Cold War era are being modified and updated and by dint of the Freedom Fighter mentality and other radical elements, the United States is no longer able to sanely evaluate and oversee the whole world picture much less act on it.
If the world picture is being evaluated on a bell curve, it would be wonderful if it was bottoming out, as bad as it was going to get, but that is far from the case.
To deal with world affairs in a sane manner we need sane people.
The horrors of the Cold War era are being modified and updated and by dint of the Freedom Fighter mentality and other radical elements, the United States is no longer able to sanely evaluate and oversee the whole world picture much less act on it.
If the world picture is being evaluated on a bell curve, it would be wonderful if it was bottoming out, as bad as it was going to get, but that is far from the case.
To deal with world affairs in a sane manner we need sane people.
12
When the Soviet Union broke up a friend remarked that it was a great time to be alive. I immediately turned to her and said that she needed to hold on to her hat and temper her optimism because we were about to enter the tornado. The Soviet system was repressive and brutal but chaos always ensues when large systems fail.
William Butler Yeats knew this: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," (The Second Coming)
William Butler Yeats knew this: "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world," (The Second Coming)
61
I was thinking that we were better off with one nuclear enemy, the USSR, than what we face now.
7
I was reaching the same concnclusions but just thought I was getting old and falling into the same old mantra that its the fault of the media and things really aren't that bad. My initial thoughts are correct though now. Its getting very scary, I don't envy my son's generation trying to work through so many impossible seeming challanges.
127
I am amazed at my kids in their 20s. Saddled with the inherited problems they have seen their parents and grandparents' generations create, they seem to be aware of the responsibility fully and seem accepting of the challenges ahead. They keep assuring, we will be ok. NO anger no resentment, just we will fix it. They are the Can Do generation.
1
"...My initial thoughts are correct though now. Its getting very scary, I don't envy my son's generation trying to work through so many impossible seeming challanges."
For a dash of hope, I try to remember that, upon learning my mother was pregnant with me in 1948, my grandmother asked, "Who would bring a child into this terrible world?" and I've (very luckily) had a great life. Maybe it won't be so bad for our kids and grandkids, if.... (Go Bernie.)
For a dash of hope, I try to remember that, upon learning my mother was pregnant with me in 1948, my grandmother asked, "Who would bring a child into this terrible world?" and I've (very luckily) had a great life. Maybe it won't be so bad for our kids and grandkids, if.... (Go Bernie.)
1
Reading your column alongside that of Thomas Edsall has me gazing longingly at the bourbon bottle, and it's only 7 AM EDT. Seriously though, as you so presciently state, when millions of people here at home and around the planet are utterly disenfranchised and thus see themselves as having absolutely nothing to lose, there can be no stability, only increasing chaos. And you're right - only a lunatic or an egomaniac could want "the job".
32
There are 2 people I can name that only want to make things better, because they think they can. Is that egoism? maybe but without these 2 what are the other choices, because then you know for sure that it is a matter of lunacy and egoism for the others to want the white house.
You certainly got the part about Obama's greying hair right. Since Republicans presently own the House, unless Democrats retake it, the current crop of right wing neo-fascists like those running the investigating committees trying to intimidate Hillary will ensure his hair will be even whiter than Bill Clinton's when his term ends.
50
I thought that globalization was supposed to end all these problems. I will take this column as a confession of being very wrong.
Where this column is still very wrong is in confusing the Cold War's existential nuclear threat with the threats we face today. Apart from Putin, nobody can blow us off the face of the earth. ISIS is evil, but it, like post-9/11 terrorism, is not an existential threat. Getting that wrong has consequences.
Where this column is still very wrong is in confusing the Cold War's existential nuclear threat with the threats we face today. Apart from Putin, nobody can blow us off the face of the earth. ISIS is evil, but it, like post-9/11 terrorism, is not an existential threat. Getting that wrong has consequences.
39
The Chinese could do as good a job as Putin.
Matt: A little more nuance would be appropriate, please.
Free trade has and will keep us safer - in the long run, albeit with an adverse effect on U.S. jobs in the meantime. While that is unfortunate (and, ultimately, remediable), a rising tide of productive economic activity will make the whole world more secure.
The only "existential" threat we face is climate change. There are also many serious threats, however, including use of nuclear arms (which the President's Iran agreement does lessen somewhat), warring groups in the mid-east and elsewhere (often using arms obtained from the US), and the "know-nothing" anti-government rhetoric and "American exceptionalism" nonsense which will reduce the U.S.'s ability globally to act as an influencer and peace-maker.
Free trade has and will keep us safer - in the long run, albeit with an adverse effect on U.S. jobs in the meantime. While that is unfortunate (and, ultimately, remediable), a rising tide of productive economic activity will make the whole world more secure.
The only "existential" threat we face is climate change. There are also many serious threats, however, including use of nuclear arms (which the President's Iran agreement does lessen somewhat), warring groups in the mid-east and elsewhere (often using arms obtained from the US), and the "know-nothing" anti-government rhetoric and "American exceptionalism" nonsense which will reduce the U.S.'s ability globally to act as an influencer and peace-maker.
1
Matt, what if ISIS gets hold of a nuclear weapon? Or a supply of sarin? Poisoning the DC subway system isn't the same as "blow us off the face of the earth," but getting close.
Sometimes people's egos know no bounds...
4
The lunatics of ISIS are a byproduct of 62 years of self defeating near perpetual US war in the Middle East.
Eisenhower deposes the elected government of Iran, radicalizes and destabilizes Iran which leads to the rule of the ayatollahs.
Reagan arms the Afghan fundamentalists who change their name to Taliban, then give bin Laden sanctuary and Al Qaida an entire country.
Bush, the prep school guy cheerleader, a coward who dodged Viet Nam, leads the Mother of All Foreign Policy Disaster's The Charge of The Fools Brigade into Iraq, giving AQ another Field of Dreams, makes torture USG policy, subcontracts torture to, among others, Bashar al Assad of Syria and builds the prison that becomes the University of ISIS.
It was US actions that has destabilized, radicalized the entire Middle East and empowered the barbarians we now face.
Eisenhower deposes the elected government of Iran, radicalizes and destabilizes Iran which leads to the rule of the ayatollahs.
Reagan arms the Afghan fundamentalists who change their name to Taliban, then give bin Laden sanctuary and Al Qaida an entire country.
Bush, the prep school guy cheerleader, a coward who dodged Viet Nam, leads the Mother of All Foreign Policy Disaster's The Charge of The Fools Brigade into Iraq, giving AQ another Field of Dreams, makes torture USG policy, subcontracts torture to, among others, Bashar al Assad of Syria and builds the prison that becomes the University of ISIS.
It was US actions that has destabilized, radicalized the entire Middle East and empowered the barbarians we now face.
337
Amen. It did not happen overnight.
6
Thank you for your comments. Yes, I was reading TF nodding my head till I get to, "we entered the post-post-Cold War era.. blowing the lid off nation-states in the Middle East and Africa, unleashing sectarian conflicts that no dictator can suppress." Whoa, no mention of our long-time western involvement - the dictators we created and supported to "suppress," no, the dictators we created and supported to control. Ultimately it's all "blow" back on us.
4
"........it comes with Afghanistan, ISIS and The Republican Freedom Caucus....." How can Tom Friedman be so sure the next president will be a Democrat?? Is he privy to inside information that the rest of us mere mortals don't have access to?? Whenever I shake my Magic Eight Ball to find out about what's going to happen in 2016 it just responds "Try again later."
1
We cannot imagine a Cruz presidency but we will regret it more than Bush's presidency. Think grey clothing, dull eyed, shambling people, with the likes of false prophets calling for Holy War in the Middle East and horrific karma for centuries.
19
I think Friedman's point is that, Cruz aside, the RFC will be an obstacle to whoever wins regardless of party.
Agreed, being president of the USA is a tough job, and it is going to get a lot tougher. But I would much rather have someone in the Oval Office to face these increasing challenges, who is committed to rational thinking, someone who believes in logic and science and math. If you can cast all of these aside and only believe in the Old Testament (Ben), anarchy (Ted), greed (Jeb) or Donald (Donald), then you might want the job a lot more, but once you get to the presidency you will have a completely impossible task ahead of you.
112
A strong self secure Russia is a more well behaved Russia. We have an opportunity to collaborate with Putin to put an end to the devastation in Syria.
Putin is now in the role of world leader, that role usually assumed by the US but not this time.
Putin is now in the role of world leader, that role usually assumed by the US but not this time.
11
Excellent analysis until linked with Trump, Cruz, & Co. Their right-wing-nut base is not angry about current global geopolitical strife and technological disruption, but about the issues raised by Nixon and Reagan, with continued imprudent stoking by Republican leaders since. Today's Republican primary demagogues are not well-informed about, nor interested in, current global geopolitics either; they just want power and the perks that come with Air Force One. Hillary and Bernie know what they're getting into, but I think they do it for the serious patriotic reasons they are articulating. That's an issue worth discussing.
155
Some of the candidates, i.e., Trump, want the job because they are out sized egos, who do not understand the job. Trump seems to genuinely believe that he can simply walk into DC and begin telling everyone what to do. Statements he has made indicate that he thinks he can order other countries around at will (Hey, Mexico, build a wall). He also seems to think that he can "good ole boy" with men like Putin and come to a guy understanding so that Putin backs off and Trump trumps all. Carson, for all his medical skill and brilliance, seems similarly naive about how the government works and about how to govern on the world stage.
The supporters of those two and the others of like mind might think it's just fine that they don't know "how the government works" because they all hate government. Still, on the day after the inauguration the new POTUS will go to the Oval office and find ISIS, the latest cyberattack, Iran, Putin, the Freedom Caucus, and (here's the fun part) who knows what crises awaiting his/her urgent attention. He/she will work with/in the government or drown quickly. When, like Obama, a new POTUS is faced with two wars and a tanking economy (just for the first cup of coffee), focusing on reforming the government is not an option. The myth of the "outsider who will reform Washington" lives on, but it is just that - a myth.
The supporters of those two and the others of like mind might think it's just fine that they don't know "how the government works" because they all hate government. Still, on the day after the inauguration the new POTUS will go to the Oval office and find ISIS, the latest cyberattack, Iran, Putin, the Freedom Caucus, and (here's the fun part) who knows what crises awaiting his/her urgent attention. He/she will work with/in the government or drown quickly. When, like Obama, a new POTUS is faced with two wars and a tanking economy (just for the first cup of coffee), focusing on reforming the government is not an option. The myth of the "outsider who will reform Washington" lives on, but it is just that - a myth.
171
The ISIS’s caliph wants to build a wall against the “superempowered angry men”? Sublime.
1
"“Up until the year 2000, over 95 percent of the next generation were better off than the previous generation"
And then 5 Republican appointees on the Supreme Court handed the U.S. Government over to Bush/Cheney, who ignored clear warnings of a major attack on The U.S. and responded by exploding the Middle East in a conflagration, while spending trillions of dollars, angering an entire generation against the U.S., and changing our tax code to continue the Reagan- initiated shift of wealth away from the shrinking middle class.
Just imagine if the budget surpluses left by the Clinton administration had been used to invest in infrastructure and education here at home, while some of the trillions of dollars spent on war had been spent on building schools and microenterprise lending and other projects around the world ( while an attentive President had rushed back to Washington in the summer of 2001, pushing agencies to connect the dots, the would-be 20th hijacker who already was in jail, and who an attentive FBI agent was trying to warn higher ups about, would have become a focus of attention, and Sptember 11 would have remained a beautiful blue sky September day with a tiny footnote in history.)
And then 5 Republican appointees on the Supreme Court handed the U.S. Government over to Bush/Cheney, who ignored clear warnings of a major attack on The U.S. and responded by exploding the Middle East in a conflagration, while spending trillions of dollars, angering an entire generation against the U.S., and changing our tax code to continue the Reagan- initiated shift of wealth away from the shrinking middle class.
Just imagine if the budget surpluses left by the Clinton administration had been used to invest in infrastructure and education here at home, while some of the trillions of dollars spent on war had been spent on building schools and microenterprise lending and other projects around the world ( while an attentive President had rushed back to Washington in the summer of 2001, pushing agencies to connect the dots, the would-be 20th hijacker who already was in jail, and who an attentive FBI agent was trying to warn higher ups about, would have become a focus of attention, and Sptember 11 would have remained a beautiful blue sky September day with a tiny footnote in history.)
435
so the 2,403 Americans killed at Pearl Harbor was all Franklin Roosevelt's fault
"No one is worthy not one...all are evil Romans 3
So who will be left standing, Ted Cruz?
"No one is worthy not one...all are evil Romans 3
So who will be left standing, Ted Cruz?
2
Since climate change most bothers me,
I'll take my chances with Bernie,
For Billionaires,Bankers,
Increased taxes hankers,
A start on Inequality.
Nonagenarically speaking
Repubs too much havoc are wreaking
New faces like Trudeau
Show a new way to go
Not the doomed path on which we've been streaking!
I'll take my chances with Bernie,
For Billionaires,Bankers,
Increased taxes hankers,
A start on Inequality.
Nonagenarically speaking
Repubs too much havoc are wreaking
New faces like Trudeau
Show a new way to go
Not the doomed path on which we've been streaking!
124
If Bernie gets the Democratic nomination, a GOP landslide is assured, and the subsequent permanent destruction of the Supreme Court will hurl us back to the 19th century.
Be careful what you wish and rhyme for.
Be careful what you wish and rhyme for.
16
If Bernie gets the nod he wins. You obviously are very careful about what you wish for.
3
The country is at a precipice. One more bad step and we may find ourselves in freefall. It will take a smart, reflective president to steer us (or carry us kicking and screaming, if need be) back from the edge.
I don't see one Republican candidate who could slow or reverse this decline. I see a number could might very well hasten it.
If I could vote for Mr. Obama again, I would. He seems to find his best self in times of adversity.
I'm not happy with Mrs. Clinton. I think she is an honorable woman who grew so used to the notion of being the nominee that she has forgotten her message, and I can't remember the last time she said something that inspired me. She needs to find her core, and she'd better do it fast.
And I'm watching Mr. Sanders, who seems our best hope. But I find myself haunted by Deep Throat's line to Bob Woodward in "All the President's Men":
"They were frightened of Muskie, and look who got destroyed. They wanted to run against McGovern. Look who they're running against."