The Lexus And The Olive Tree

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. The Cold War has controlled the international affairs since 1945. The Cold War was later replaced in 1989, by another system, the new era of Globalization. The internet plays a huge role in Globalization. In the Cold War only two people were in charge The United States and The Soviet Union, but now since we have the internet nobody is really in charge. Globalization is not frozen like The Cold War was. Globalization as to what Friedman clarifies for us, globalization it is enabling individuals to reach out and get everything cheap and faster. Globalization is the spread of free-market capitalism to virtually every country in the world. Unlike the Cold War globalization has its own dominant culture, which is why it tends to be homogenization to a certain degree. Globalization has it's own defining technologies: computerization, miniaturization, digitization, satellite communications, fiber optics and the internet, this is how the book explains the components of globalization. The role of information helps other world cultures get to know things quicker. The internet has helped a lot and has a major impact on getting information. For example instead of waiting for a letter for days at a time, or you can get an email, text message, or watch the news, it's as simple as that. Within seconds you get your information. The system of globalization has come upon us faster then our ability to retrain ourselves to see and comprehend it. People are able to reach out because of technology, not only in developed countries but in poorer countries. Walls and borders limit movement, so many smaller countries cannot see the outside world. The three democratizations are; the democratization of technology; the democratization of finance; and the democratization of information. Technology is how we communicate with everyone. It's what is enabling more people to discover other information, it is becoming cheaper and faster. For an example, back then we had to wait for film to upload for maybe a couple of days, but now within a blink your photos are uploaded onto your home computer. Now onto finance, it began in the late 1960's, but in the 1980's is where