The Lexus And The Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman

To start off Lexus and the Olive Tree is not only the title of a great book, but it is a metaphor to the book. The Lexus in the title is how everybody in the globalized world wants the top of the line product. Just to have the newer and better product. Once someone has that in their procession, somebody else wants better, it becomes a competition without people even realizing it. The Olive Tree, on the other hand is more viewed to smaller towns. They stay within their own country, and keep to themselves. They don't buy products from other countries, because they are afraid they would be looked down upon. The smaller countries usually have a dictator, and that dictator will "brainwash" his people. He makes them think smaller, and he doesn't let them know that there is a better way of living out there. The smaller countries fight amongst themselves over territory. Friedman uses these items to describe globalization, because they describe communication, and let all that communication go over borders to inform other countries as to what is going on in the world. In the Lexus and the Olive Tree Friedman believes that the world is only ten years old. He explains, "When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 we understood it a decade later. The world was born when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989." As to what I understand, he is telling us once the Berlin Wall fell, the democracy around the world changed. The growth of free markets were permitting more and more people to turn to their ambitions, and actually achieve them. This is what is leading into globalization, as what is defined as the process in which social institutions become adopted on a global scale. We had a similar era of globalization in the mid 1800's-1920's it was preceding to the Word War I. It is very identical to the one we are living in today. What is new in today's globalization is the degree and intensity with which the world is being tied together into a single globalized marketplace and village. What is also new in the globalized world is the number of people and the countries able to partake of today's globalized economy and information networks. The technology has hanged since last globalized era, and politically it has change. Friedman tells us that Globalization has replaced the Cold War.