:: blame the extended gestation.... ::

:: Friday, March 26, 2004 ::

I'm going through some of my old political Science readings because, well because I'm a pack rat but I want to throw away stuff; and what better way to keep something you're actually trashing in about five minutes then by blogging on it so that it remains eternal while at the same time no longer accumalting dust in your room.

Anyways i'm reading this old Thomas Friedman article, DOSCapital, which is on globalization, and something struck me. It was written in a 1999 Foreign Policy. But what strikes me is this major point:

"The third balance in the globalization system--the one that is really the newest of all--is the balance between individuals and nation-states. Because globalization has broughtdown many of the walls that limited the movement and reach of people, and because it has simultaneously wired the world into networks, it gives more direct power to individuals than at any time in history. So we have today not only a superpower, not only supermarkets, but also super-empowered individuals. Some of these super-empowered individuals are quite angry..."

He goes on to mention Ramzi Ahmed Yousef and the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993. What hits me is this argument from the Bush adminisration, that no one saw 9/11 coming. And here we are, 1999, talking about super-empowered individuals. We had a target on our backs, and we knew that. No we didn't know the exacts, but details are filled in by experts. Yes our experts failed us in getting the details before it was too late, but we knew what was aiming for us.

:: Jim Nichols 3/26/2004 10:40:00 AM [+] ::
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