What autos a society depends on says a lot about that society too, and the gas-guzzling SUVs and pickups that have made up the backbone of American transportation indicate our indifference to global problems, including the problems the country is creating itself.
What is so disturbing about America's role in the five-gas-stations theory is the message it sends quite openly to the rest of the world. Friedman notes in his essay that this message breeds resentment because the United States is not content to spread technology and industrialization. In addition, it is spreading democratization, capitalism, fast food, and even Hollywood values to the rest of the world, and many of them strongly resent America for its presumption that everyone would be better off following her example, whether they want to or not (Friedman 134). The country feels the need to drag everyone down the same "righteous" path, and that is paving a path of worldwide prosperity for many. However, for those who do not prosper, or who choose not to follow that path, they are rapidly becoming bitter enemies of the country, and they pose a threat. They hate the country enough to attempt to destroy it, just at the terrorists of September 11, 2001 wanted to destroy lives and the fabric of the country. That is Friedman's underlying message in this essay, that it is dangerous to spread globalization, it could come back to bite the country even harder than it already has.
The tongue-in-cheek aspect of Friedman's essay is clear by its conclusion. He ends his essay by stating, "We want the world to follow our lead and become democratic, capitalistic, with a Web site in every pot, a Pepsi on every lip, Microsoft Windows in every computer and most of all - most of all - with everyone, everywhere, pumping their own gas" (Friedman 134). That is amusing, to be sure, but there is another underlying message here, as there is throughout this work. This lead the country wants the world to follow is tied to capitalism, to be sure, but it is tied to some...
The truth is that the forefathers were actually quite surprised at the effect that the signing of the Constitution had created in America; at the democratic society and government that resulted after the ratification of the Constitution. The ratification in itself was a long one, and it involved in essence the perusal of the written Constitution by each state for ratification purposes, for which each state was required to create
U.S. History Historical Book Review: Moretta, John Anthony. William Pitt Ballinger, Texas A&M University Press: 2000. John Antony Moretta's biography of William Pitt Ballinger attempts to put in an historical perspective the career of a legendary Texas lawyer. Throughout this text, the author stresses the multifaceted nature of his subject. A kind of 19th century Thomas Jefferson in the breadth of his accomplishments, Ballinger's various interests and occupations included not only his
The South Vietnamese authorities had been fighting the Vietcong communist guerilla forces from the North which were later replaced by the more powerful North Vietnam army. The U.S. had entered the war with the intention of stopping the North Vietnamese communist regime from overtaking South Vietnam. During the 1959-1975 period millions of Vietnamese and tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers had been killed as a result of the war. The
The 16th Amendment was the first to be passed in the 20th century. It allowed incomes to be taxed as a clear response to the Supreme Court decision in the Pollock v Farmers' Loan and Trust Company (Fonder and Shaffrey 2002). Congress previously passed an income tax law in 1894, which the Supreme Court found to be unconstitutional, not being divided among the states by population. Before the 16th Amendment,
history of China's importance to the U.S., from Nixon's visit to China in 1972 to the present, which contributed to the implementation of Obama's 'U.S. Pivot to Asia Strategy'? The Cold War represented one of the most important periods in the history of the world. It did not only changed the way in which the political world was configured following the end of the Second World War, but, at the
So who is an American and what an America can or cannot do are questions which are critical to the issue of legalizing immigrants. Does being an American mean you cannot show allegiance to any other country? The images of people raising and waving Mexican flag had enraged many but it need not have. It should be accepted that people who come from different countries would forever hold in their
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