Why does Thomas Friedman hate the middle class so?
It is hard to read the news from Japan to the Persian Gulf and then reflect on American politics and not conclude, as scientists would say, that we’re running an uncontrolled experiment on the only country and planet we have. And what is that experiment? We’re basically taunting — there is no other word for it — the two most merciless forces on earth: the market and Mother Nature.
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If that’s your worldview, you need to set an example for the rest of us and live up to it, Tom. Let me know when your mansion is on the block, and you’ve stopped writing for a newspaper that uses vast swatches of timber for its “dead tree” edition, rack upon rack of air-conditioned space for its servers, jets its reporters all over the world, and houses them in a building with an enormous carbon footprint.
Because otherwise, you’re making the Gray Lady sound like Marget Dumont getting the vapors yet again.
I see where he made his mistake. We are not “running an uncontrolled experiment.” I hate to break his delusions but we are the mice in this experiment. That’s why it appears uncontrolled. No matter what we do, Nature and the Market are going to happen.
The experiment is to see if we can continue to be resilient and develop means to ride out in relative comfort what Nature throws at us. Interestingly, the Market has been a big part of our resilience, whereas, the Government tends to create weaknesses when unconstrained by the Market. Or as we saw recently, the Government gains undue influence over the Market.
Self-awareness, like taxes, is for the little people.
Thomas Friedman looms large in the Obama Brackets.