September 18, 2005

Rev. Henry Ticknor
Unitarian Universalist Church of the Shenandoah Valley

The World Is Flat

Each August, as students start to arrive at Beloit College in Wisconsin, Beloit's Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Director of Public Affairs Ron Nief release the Beloit College Mindset List, which offers a world view of today's entering college students.

According to the school's web page, "This year's entering students have grown up in a country where the main business has become business, and where terrorism, from obscure beginnings, has built up slowly but surely to become the threat it is today.

Cable channels have become as mainstream as the 'Big 3' used to be, formality in dress has become quainter than ever, and Aretha Franklin, Kermit the Frog and Jimmy Carter have become old-timers."

"Each year," according to Nief, "When Beloit releases the Mindset List, it is the birth year of the entering students that is the most disturbing fact for most readers. This year will come as no exception and, once again, the faculty will remain the same age as the students get younger."

The list is distributed to faculty on campus during the New Students Days orientation. According to McBride, "It is an important reminder to think about the touchstones and benchmarks of a generation that has grown up with CNN, home computers, AIDS awareness, digital cameras and the Bush political dynasty.

We should also keep in mind that these students missed out on the pleasures of being tossed in the back of a station wagon with a bunch of friends and told to keep the noise down, walking in the woods without fearing Lyme Disease, or setting out to try all of the 28 ice cream flavors at Howard Johnson's."

According to Nief, "This is not serious in-depth research. It is meant to be thought-provoking and fun, yet accurate." So what are some of the items on this year's list?

Let's remember that most students entering college this fall were born in 1987 and that fact alone is scary enough to those of us who were born in the first half of the previous century. But these are some items from the Beloit College list:

Heart-lung transplants have always been possible.

With little need to practice, most of them do not know how to tie a tie.

Pay-Per-View television has always been an option.

Al-Qaida has always existed with Osama bin Laden at its head.

Car stereos have always rivaled home component systems.

Voice mail has always been available.

They don't remember when "cut and paste" involved scissors.

"Whatever" is not part of a question but an expression of sullen rebuke.

The federal budget has always been more than a trillion dollars.

They have always had the right to burn the flag.

For daily caffeine emergencies, Starbucks has always been around the corner.

Southern fried chicken, prepared with a blend of 11 herbs and spices, has always been available in China.

The Starship Enterprise has always looked dated.

Scientists have always been able to see supernovas.

"Baby M" may be a classmate, and contracts with surrogate mothers have always been legal.

They do not remember "a kinder and gentler nation."

The TV networks have always had cable partners.

Digital cameras have always existed.

CNBC has always been on the air.

They have always been challenged to distinguish between news and entertainment on cable TV.

And the one which I found to be the saddest, they never saw a Howard Johnson's with 28 ice cream flavors.

Now clearly I selected these examples from the list to be humorous but also to hint at some of worldwide cultural and technological changes that in most cases have occurred during their lifetime.

This summer I read an interesting book titled The World is Flat by the New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman.

In his book Friedman tackles some of the major issues related to the on-going evolution of technology and how advances in communication will change everything from how our favorite brand of detergent gets on the shelf of the grocery store to which nations will be able to participate in the challenges of a global economy and which may loose ground over time.

Friedman describes three eras in the history of globalization.

The first, what he calls "Globalization 1.0." This period lasted from 1492 when Columbus set sail until around. 1800. He writes this time period, "Shrank the world from a size large to a size medium.. Globalization 1.0 was about countries and muscles...How much horsepower, wind power or, later, steam power your country had and how creatively it was deployed.

The second great era in globalization, "Globalization 2.0," lasted roughly from 1800 to 2000 and shrank the world from a size medium to a size small.

The first part of this era was driven by the Industrial Revolution and improvements in transportation systems like the railroad and later the automobile and the second half was fuelled to by the rapid developments in the telecommunications field--the telegraph, the telephone, radio and T.V. and ultimately personal computers, fiber optics and the development of the world wide web.

The driving forces behind this era were developments in hardware--initially the steam engine and ending with mainframe computers and the rise of the personal computer.

But now, Friedman suggests we are entering a whole new era--Globalization 3.0.

Globalization 3.0 is further shrinking the world from a size small to a size tiny and in the process a major shift is occurring in global economics. Friedman suggests that the eras of Globalization 1.0 and 2.0 were engineered largely by European and American enterprise--from global exploration to the trading of goods and services.

He goes on to say that going forward:

"this will be less and less true. Globalization 3.0 is going to be more and more driven not only by individuals working cooperatively--as opposed to multinational corporations--but much more diverse--non-white, non Western--group of individuals.

Individuals from every corner of the flat world are being empowered. Globalization 3.0 makes it possible for so many more people to plug and play (to take advantage of computer technology) and you are going to see every color of the human rainbow take part."

To illustrate his point he tells the following story which I have shortened considerably from the original. Friedman writes, "Let me tell you about the computer I wrote this book on.... it was a Dell Inspiron 600 notebook."

This computer was conceived when he phoned Dell's 800 number on April 2, 2004. A sales representative in Bangalore, India, took all the information on the type of computer he wanted, what special features he desired along with his credit card number, billing address and shipping address. Immediately his order was communicated to Dell's production system.

Now Dell has six factories around the world--in Ireland, China, Brazil, Nashville, Tennessee, Austin Texas and Penang, Malaysia. His order was sent to the factory in Malaysia.

The parts needed for his computer were ordered from a Dell supplier logistics center and they were delivered to the assembly plant within two hours. So where did the parts come from?

The notebook computer was designed in Austin. Texas. The microprocessor came from the Philippines, Costa Rica, Malaysia or China. The memory card came from Korea, Taiwan, Germany or Japan. The battery came from an American owned factory in Malaysia or a Japanese owned factory in Mexico. The power cord came from India and the portable memory device came from Israel.

10 days later all the parts were assembled and the computer was delivered to the Penang airport. Six days a week Dell charters a 747-cargo plane that leaves with 25,000 computers. He received his computer thirteen days after he paced his initial order and he ends his story with this footnote: Had it not been for a parts delay in Malaysia the time between when I phoned in my order and it's arrival would have been only four days.

And finally, Friedman concludes, "If I am right about the flattening of the world, it will be remembered as one of those fundamental changes--like the rise of the nation state or the Industrial Revolution--each of which, in its day...produced changes in the role of individuals, the role and forms of governments, the way we innovated, the way we conducted business, the role of women (throughout the world), the way we fought wars, the way we educated ourselves, the way art was expressed, the way we applied political labels to ourselves and others and the ways religion responded."

Now I'll admit to having shared with you this morning my favorite parts of this book and I think I have done a passable job of communicating its central themes. And I will admit that there were parts that proved to be an excellent aid to sleeping and I may have missed one or more truly salient and original thoughts. But wait a minute. What was in that last paragraph I read? Something about religion? Mr. Friedman are you suggesting that in some way religion has a role in these economic and political developments? I think perhaps you are and if you are I think you have the basis for another book--it's title could be something Zen-like such as the Oneness of All.

But if we think about it economic globalization and communication technology have indeed allowed most members of the global village to be linked by the world-wide web. When we can't make our computer work and we call customer support most likely the person who tries to help us lives and works in Bangalore, India.

Everyday consumer products come from all over the world and are the result of global collaboration, global creativity and global economic cooperation.

But at the same time the world is moving from small to tiny in terms of the marketplace, we seem to be headed in just the opposite direction when it comes to the role of religion in the various nations of the world.

Fundamentalists in every country are making the case that there is only one way to live one's life and that is according to their set of beliefs. I don't need to recite the litany of wars fought for religious causes to make my point.

But as we all participate in the shrinking the world of commerce and communication shouldn't we also work to shrink the religious and cultural ideologies that so divide the peoples of the world?

Throughout history the sacred writings of most cultures have generally proclaimed that humanity is one great family. Now I acknowledge that there have been terrible excesses committed in the name of religion; but I also think we may be approaching a time when people of different religious faiths must begin to see that what they share in common is more profound more healing than what they disagree on is separating them from one another.

For example most of us are at least passingly familiar with the Biblical admonition to "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." But consider this from the writings of Confusious, "Tzu-Kung asked: 'Is there one principle upon which one's whole life may proceed?' The master replied, 'Is not reciprocity such a principle?--what you do not yourself desire, do not put before others."

And according to Hindu writings, "This is the sum of all true righteousness--Treat others, as thou wouldst thyself be treated. Do nothing to thy neighbor, which hereafter though wouldst not have thy neighbor do to thee."

Again, in Christian writings we are instructed that it is more blessed to give than to receive. Muslims are encouraged to act according to these words, "The poor, the orphan, the captive--feed them for the love of God alone, desiring no reward, nor even thanks."

And this same sentiment can be found in the writings of Taoism. "Extend your help without seeking reward. Give to others and do not regret or begrudge your liberality. Those who are thus are good."

And from the Torah, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble."

Buddhists believe that "When righteousness is practiced to win peace, whoever so walks shall gain the victory and all fetters utterly destroy."

According to the Koran, "Shall I tell you what acts are better than fasting, charity, and prayers? Making peace between enemies are such acts; for enmity and malice tear up the heavenly rewards by the roots."

And in the Gospels, Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the children of God."

And perhaps my favorite along these lines comes from the Torah, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of that person who brings good tidings, who publishes peace."

Beneath the differences that separate us from others culturally, politically and economically there are some basic truths that I believe we can all agree to.

Indeed, there will be extremists on all sides who claim that their teachings are the only truth but in time I hope we come to see that the commonalities of those beliefs, those beliefs that inform how we live and inform our worldview, will win out.

In time the smaller the world gets the greater the opportunities for ecumenism--the religious initiative towards world-wide unity will be. For beneath the worlds religions their lies a vast resource of universal truth.

Friedman said that the era of Globalization 3.0 was taking an already small world and making it tiny.

"There are certain pivot points or watersheds in history," Friedman writes," That are greater than others because the changes they produce are so sweeping, multifaceted, and hard to predict.... And that is why the great challenge of our time will be to absorb these changes in ways that do not overwhelm people but also do not leave them behind."

The challenge for all religious traditions during this transition will be to seek ways of living in unity. Just as technology is creating a world where economic opportunities are more level than at any other time in our history; religion must also rise up and speak to the greater harmony and peace between nations. "Do not forget," says the Shinto scroll, "Do not forget that the world is one great family."

Amen