e-Claire

The Super-Empowered Individual

The driving idea behind globalization is free-market capitalism -- the more you let market forces rule and the more you open your economy to free trade and competition, the more efficient and flourishing your economy will be. Globalization means the spread of free-market capitalism to virtually every country in the world. Globalization also has its own set of economic rules -- rules that revolve around opening, deregulating and privatizing your economy. ...The symbol of the Cold War system was a wall, which divided everyone. The symbol of the globalization system is a World Wide Web, which unites everyone. The defining document of the Cold War system was "The Treaty." The defining document of the globalization system is "The Deal." ...The Cold War was about Einstein's mass-energy equation, e =mc 2. Globalization is about Moore's Law ... ...If the defining economists of the Cold War system were Karl Marx and John Maynard Keynes, who each in his own way wanted to tame capitalism, the defining economists of the globalization system are Joseph Schumpeter and former Intel CEO Andy Grove, who prefer to unleash capitalism. ...Those countries that are most willing to let capitalism quickly destroy inefficient companies, so that money can be freed up and directed to more innovative ones, will thrive in the era of globalization. Those which rely on their governments to protect them from such creative destruction will fall behind in this era. In the Cold War we reached for the hot line between the White House and the Kremlin -- a symbol that we were all divided but at least someone, the two superpowers, were in charge. In the era of globalization we reach for the Internet -- a symbol that we are all connected but nobody is totally in charge. The defining defense system of the Cold War was radar -- to expose the threats coming from the other side of the wall. The defining defense system of the globalization era is the X-ray machine-to expose the threats coming from within. ... The globalization system, by contrast, is built around three balances, which overlap and affect one another. The first is the traditional balance between nation-states. ...The US is the "Super-power." The second balance in the globalization system is between nation-states and global markets. ..."the Supermarkets." ... The third balance that you have to pay attention to in the globalization system -- the one that is really the newest of all is the balance between individuals and nation-states. Because globalization has brought down 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 power to individuals to influence both markets and nation-states than at any time in history. So you have today not only a superpower, not only Supermarkets, but, ... you have Super-empowered individuals.

[Thomas] Friedman"super-empowered" individual who can affect change on the world stage simply by possessing a modem. "Thus you have people such as Judy Williams, who was a kind of 'super-empowered nice lady' who waged an e-mail campaign to ban land mines, and had incredible success doing it. "On the other hand, you have someone like Osama bin Laden, who is like a cross between Charles Manson and Jack Welch (the former CEO of General Electric), who uses the new culture of globalization for much more pernicious means."

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