From this point, no return
the Necessity of Sustaining Globalization
riedman coined the term 'bin Ladenism' in a
March 2002 New York Times column. He uses it to refer back to a
concept in his Lexus and the Olive Tree book - one of the most
frightening concepts to come out of all this discussion about globalization, and
the one concept that is nearly indisputable, as it has already partially come to
fruition.
While he doesn't see the power of the nation-state as
necessarily receding in absolute terms, Tom Friedman does acknowledge the
expansion of the power of the 'super-empowered angry men,' as he calls them.
Such people have the power to bring the world to a halt, he acknowledges.
Friedman suggests the example of Ramzi Yousef, the
mastermind of the original World Trade Center bombing. Yousef had the power to
destroy the Trade Center as a result of globalization - the reduced
transportation costs associated with globalization enabled the Mid-East
oil barons who supported him to get rich off the United States and its oil
consumption. Much like bin Laden, he was not poor, he was not destitute, but he
used his wealth and power to avenge the lives of his countrymen -- people who were
not, in absolute terms, negatively affected by globalization, but who in
relative terms were not economically equal with the United States.
Unfortunately, the super-empowered angry man is
only part of the problem.
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