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April 22, 2005

More Thomas Friedman; More Matt Taibbi; More John Ralston Saul

Here's more from Matt Taibbi's review of Thomas "The Bleeder" Friedman's book The World Is Flat:

On an ideological level, Friedman's new book is the worst, most boring kind of middlebrow horseshit. If its literary peculiarities could somehow be removed from the equation, The World Is Flat would appear as no more than an unusually long pamphlet replete with the kind of plug-filled, free-trader leg-humping that passes for thought in this country...

The book's genesis is conversation Friedman has with Nandan Nilekani, the CEO of Infosys. Nilekani causally mutters to Friedman: "Tom, the playing field is being leveled."

Yes, the "level playing field"—otherwise known as the world's most cretinous ideological metaphor. Here's how John Ralston Saul defines it in The Doubter's Companion: A Dictionary of Aggressive Common Sense:


Posted at April 22, 2005 01:14 PM | TrackBack
Comments

If Matt Taibbi is secretly Jesus, what does that make John Ralston Saul?

Posted by: Sam Mc at April 22, 2005 01:29 PM

Sam,

That's an good question. I believe John Ralston Saul may secretly be the Holy Ghost.

Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at April 22, 2005 01:33 PM

Perhaps he's the Mahdi(sp), who in Islam would come before the return of Jesus and prepare the world for his return.

Posted by: LamontCranston at April 23, 2005 02:01 AM

Nell,

Thanks for the Body and Soul suggestion. It's now added.

Lamont,

That's an interesting possibility. Clearly this is a vexing theological question that requires further study.

Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at April 23, 2005 12:25 PM

This may sound like a dumb question but I ask for some slack as I'm from Outatown. Does Thomas Freidman by any chance have an uncle Milton and did he go to Halls of Rationality aka University of Chicago as well?

Posted by: Jim Shanahan at April 27, 2005 03:55 AM

Well, there goes my opinion of THAT institution of higher learning.

Posted by: mk at April 28, 2005 10:23 PM