Tom Friedman: A New Ayn Rand for a Dark Digital Future

[LongTomH]

The posts on the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies site are frequently 'off in the ozone,' talking about uploading your mind into a computer or other bits of esoteric futurism; but, not always. Sometimes their posts are very appropriate to the problems facing the majority of us as we approach what seems to be a dystopian future.

If Thomas Friedman didn’t exist, America’s high-tech entrepreneurs would have had to invent him. Come to think of it, maybe they did. The dark science-fiction vision he celebrates serves them well, at pretty much everyone else’s expense. Friedman’s vision is worth studying, if only because it reflects the distorted perspective of some very wealthy and influential people. In their world the problems of the many are as easily fixed as a line of code, with no sacrifice required of them or their fellow billionaires.

Case in point: Are 15 or 20 million Americans seeking full-time employment? To Thomas Friedman, that's a branding problem.

Ayn Rand with a human face ...
Friedman occupies a unique place in the pundit ecosystem. From his perch at the New York Times, he idealizes the unregulated, winner-take-all economy of the Internet and while overlooking human, real-world concerns. His misplaced faith in a digitized "free" market reflects the solipsistic libertarianism of a technological über-class which stares into the rich diversity of human experience and sees only its own reflection staring back.

Friedman is a closet Ayn Rand in many ways, but he gives Rand's ugly and exploitative philosophy a pseudo-intellectual, liberal-friendly feel-good gloss. He turns her harsh industrial metal music into melodious easy listening: John Galt meets John Denver. That make him very useful to those who would dismantle the engines of real economic growth, the ones which create jobs while protecting life and limb.

Friedman's column in this weekend's New York Times is, characteristically, a Panglossian panegyric to online technology as the salve for all economic problems. In it he paints the picture of a global dystopia where decent jobs are scarce, educational advancement is unattainable, and people must sacrifice their homes, their possessions, and their personal lives to serve and amuse complete strangers.

He can hardly wait.

Read more at: http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/eskow20130726

[Chan790]

1. Interesting read. Thank You. n/t

[LongTomH]

2. You're welcome!

The IEET.org site is frequently worth visiting, or maybe, worth visiting frequently.