PrintSeptember 25, 2010
Tom Friedman's Totalitarian Temptation
Thomas L. Friedman's recent New York Times column, reporting from the World Economic Summit in Tianjin, China, is another iteration of his theme that democracy is poorly equipped to address a "catastrophe" like global warming. "Aren't we clever?" argues without much cleverness that "while America's Republicans turned 'climate change' into a four-letter word -- J-O-K-E -- China's Communists also turned it into a four-letter word -- J-O-B-S."Last May on "Meet the Press," Friedman fantasized about a government that could implement the "right solutions" without all that bothersome democracy:What if we could just be China for a day? I mean, just, just, just one day. You know, I mean, where we could actually, you know, authorize the right solutions, and I do think there is a sense of that, on, on everything from the economy to environment.Friedman appeared to resist the totalitarian temptation in his next line: "I don't want to be China...(Read Full Article)
