A Brief Theory of Very Serious People
crookedtimber.org
crookedtimber.org
"Friedman supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, writing that the establishment of a democratic state in the Middle East would force other countries in the region to liberalize and modernize."[1]
"Nevertheless, until his piece dated August 4, 2006, his columns remained hopeful to the possibility of a positive conclusion to the Iraq conflict [...] Friedman chided George W. Bush and Tony Blair for "hyping" the evidence, and stated plainly that converting Iraq to democracy "would be a huge undertaking, though, and maybe impossible, given Iraq's fractious history"."[1]
"his recurrent assertion that "the next six months" will prove critical in determining the outcome of the conflict. A May 2006 study by Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting cited 14 examples of Friedman's declaring the next "few months" or "six months" as a decisive or critical period"[1]
Anywho, just a bit of explanation for why they might be noting him, since the article doesn't strictly require him to make the theory work.
Friedman is such a genius of literary incompetence that even his most innocent passages invite feature-length essays. I'll give you an example, drawn at random from "The World Is Flat." On page 174, Friedman is describing a flight he took on Southwest Airlines from Baltimore to Hartford, Connecticut. (Friedman never forgets to name the company or the brand name; if he had written "The Metamorphosis," Gregor Samsa would have awoken from uneasy dreams in a Sealy Posturepedic.) Here's what he says:
"I stomped off, went through security, bought a Cinnabon, and glumly sat at the back of the B line, waiting to be herded on board so that I could hunt for space in the overhead bins."
Forget the Cinnabon. Name me a herd animal that hunts. Name me one.
Or possibly the raptors I keep hearing so much about at the movies?
If we're going to critique Friedman, I agree that his verbosity is fair game, but hardly the best criticism. How about his just being plain wrong about almost everything? How about his not including the proliferation of the English language through developing India as a flattener, especially as the language adopted by virtually all programming languages?
Anyway, I'm not a particular Friedman fan either, but sometimes the critics seem to miss just as much of the point as he does (unless, of course, I'm the one missing the point - which is always possible).