Today, Tom Friedman’s column, titled A Theory of Everything, finds the connections among a number of contemporary events in the world from London to the Arab Spring to the Israeli Summer to European protests to the Tea Party. He writes:
So let’s review: We are increasingly taking easy credit, routine work and government jobs and entitlements away from the middle class — at a time when it takes more skill to get and hold a decent job, at a time when citizens have more access to media to organize, protest and challenge authority and at a time when this same merger of globalization and I.T. is creating huge wages for people with global skills (or for those who learn to game the system and get access to money, monopolies or government contracts by being close to those in power) — thus widening income gaps and fueling resentments even more.
Put it all together and you have today’s front-page news.
While Tom Friedman’s column is focused on macro events in the world — various examples of society-wide turmoil and collective anger around the world — several trends fueling the discontent on a macro level are important on a micro-level as well. They can be forces for good on an individual level for those of us who want to be innovative and don’t want to wait around.
First, is the importance of mastering technology and new forms of communication:
Why now? It starts with the fact that globalization and the information technology revolution have gone to a whole new level. Thanks to cloud computing, robotics, 3G wireless connectivity, Skype, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, the iPad, and cheap Internet-enabled smartphones, the world has gone from connected to hyper-connected.
This is the single most important trend in the world today. And it is a critical reason why, to get into the middle class now, you have to study harder, work smarter and adapt quicker than ever before.
If you can do that, you can super-empower yourself.
This globalization/I.T. revolution is also “super-empowering” individuals, enabling them to challenge hierarchies and traditional authority figures — from business to science to government.
There is a window of time to use this mastery, to break down hierarchies in whatever your field is and leap frog yourself faster and higher than possible. The message for those of us with that innovative attitude — and it does not matter what your age is — is to use this opportunity in whatever your niche, profession, or area of interest is.
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