The World is Flat (Socially)
My hat’s off to Tom Friedman and his business focused book THE WORLD IS FLAT. I think Mr. Friedman makes a great point of how goods and services are being bid, contracted for, and the work done by freelance workers around the world. I’ve published over 20 books and 19 of them have been handled by a self-publishing service in Australia that gets the cover work done in Pakistan. Yes, if you want a subdivision in Norphlet plated out, you can put it on freelancers.com and get bids from all over the world to do the work. That’s great, but I want to focus on the social aspects of a ‘flat’ world.
In 1965, Vertis and I were living in Benghazi, Libya, and I had built up enough vacation days for us to spend a long weekend in Athens, Greece. East African Airways had a route from South Africa to Athens that stopped to refuel in Benghazi, and if you didn’t mind boarding at 3:30 A. M. you could fly nonstop to Athens in an hour and a half. We decided to spend our 5th wedding anniversary there and leaving Libya at 3:30 in the morning was a no-brainer. Our wedding anniversary is January 17, so it was cold in Athens when we arrived, but we jumped right into trying to do everything possible in the few days we were going to be there. Of course, we hit the Archeological Museum first and then late in the day, when we were ready for dinner, we asked the desk clerk where he would go for dinner. He seemed surprised that so called “rich” Americans would eat where Greeks would, but since we really weren’t “rich” we weren’t about to stop at a fancy tourist restaurant. He gave us directions and after walking deeper into the old city, we found the little holein-the-wall restaurant. We walked in and the Greek customers seemed surprised, but not as surprised as we were when the waiter handed us an all Greek menu. However, the waiter just smiled and motioned for us to come to the front display case where it was to point and pick our dinner. Well, looking around, if we were from Mars, we couldn’t have been more noticeable. Yes, we stood out, and the next night when we ventured deeper into the old city and stopped in a large Greek restaurant with live Greek music. Well, not only did we standout, but every person in a nearly full restaurant was dressed in black. Of course, that was the night Vertis decided to wear all white, but even if we had been wearing black, we would have stood out. Greek clothing and ordinary American wear was miles apart.
That’s not the case today. A few weeks ago we were on a driving trip through western Greece on vacation, and stopped in Patas, a Greek town well away from Athens. Vertis and I walked across the street from our hotel to have a light lunch at just an ordinary local place with counter service, and an all Greek menu. Of course, we were lost as a goose trying to read Greek, but after help from a waiter, owner, and a customer, we dined on lamb k-bobs, fries, salad, and drinks for under $12. However, the lunch was an open display of how the social world has become flat. First the clothes: if you had picked up the crowd of locals who came by while we were eating and dropped them in the Dallas, Texas Galleria shopping mall they would have blended right in with torn jeans and all; and not only the younger ones. After we started really taking notice, we were amazed. But the clothes were only part of the social scene we noticed. Virtually, every customer held a cell phone and seemed glued to it, the television featured a random selection of American fare as American music blared background music. The USA has clearly dominated the social world, and whatever is hot fashion-wise or leading the music charts dominates the tastes of
nearly every European and West Asian person. America culture is so all encompassing that there is no second, third, etc. It’s an all American social imprint on the rest of western culture, and that social style is rapidly encompassing the rest of the world. Of course the root of the influence is the American internet that now pervades every country in the world, and our lifestyles are being copied worldwide. That social scene, combined with the use of English as the language of trade and tourism, puts even a stronger American imprint on the rest of the world. If a Japanese and a Greek converse, it’s in English, etc.
Well, it’s obvious, that for better or worse, our country has a tremendous worldwide influence on the social life of the average person. However, it seems to me, it is impossible for that influence to just be regulated to the social aspects of life. American internet, cell phones, and movies are penetrating every corner of the world, and I think, not only is the penetration commercial, but the democratic values of United States are having a global influence that goes far beyond just social, and with all our wrinkles, it makes the world a better place to live. As Thomas Freedman noted in his book, it also makes the world a safer place to live. You are not going to war with your major customer, so the deeper the world becomes dependent upon the United States for commercial and intellectual items, the safer we become, and the less conflict we will have in the world.