Lexus And The Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman

The Lexus and the Olive Tree, written by Thomas L. Friedman, investigates the phenomenon of globalization in our world and how it has established a new international system that has replaced the cold war. This new system of globalization connects people from all over the world from Southeast Asians fighting a recession to Thai bankers to entrepreneurs in the United States. Friedman credits that the democratization of technology, information, and finance has shrunk our world from small to tiny where people all over the world can now transfer information cheaper, deeper, and faster. The walls that once separated our world have now been torn down with the development of the Internet and the television.

Friedman uses the Lexus and the olive tree to symbolizes the balance that a country or company must maintain in order to thrive. The Lexus represents modernization and technology the olive tree represents the uniqueness in communities. It signifies the core values that are dependable and solid. Societies must aim for the Lexus but should recognize the need for the olive tree.

According to Friedman, “globalization is the inevitable integration of markets, nation-states and technologies to a degree never witnessed before – in a way that is enabling individuals, corporations and nation-states to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before and in a way that is enabling the world to reach into individuals, corporations, and nation-states, farther, faster and deeper, cheaper than ever before.” (XXXXX)

The book is broken up into four major sections. The first section of the book explains today’s globalization system and how it functions. The second section explains how countries, communities, compa...

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...ensions that we as individuals can adopt. On the right side, there is the integrationist who welcomes globalization and on the left there are the separatists who want to cut off globalization. On the down side who are the social-safety-netters who was globalization only if it make economic and political sense, and then on the up side there the let-them-eat-their-cakers who have the winner take all mentality. This chapter also explains that the benefits of globalization tend to be measured in the long run for societies as a whole but we will see the disgruntled individuals immediately if they have been hurt from it therefore, due to the mismatched measurements, there must be a broader strategy to measure the costs and benefits. The chapter concludes with the question of God’s presence in cyberspace and takes a deep look at globalization being a divinely influenced.