If Orlando Delogu is a policy wonk he should know and have read Thomas L. Friedman’s wonderful, thoughtful, intelligent book, “The World is Flat,” published in 2005. Friedman, hardly in anyone’s view a right-wing conservative, would perhaps agree with some of the assertions Delogu makes in his April 8 column, “Contrary to right-wing opinion, the world is not flat,” but he also wrote a 469-page book advancing his theory that the world has flattened three times: the first in 1492 with Columbus, which Friedman describes as “Globalization 1.0,” the second, “Globalization 2.0,” lasted from 1800 to 2000, when we entered “Globalization 3.0.” Each time Friedman asserts, the world was made smaller and flatter.

Friedman also asserts that “Globalization 3.0,” “because it is flattening and shrinking the world, will be driven, not only by individuals, but also by a much more diverse – non-western, non-white – group of individuals.” It seems to this old conservative that ideas and not ideology should drive policy discussion. We can get all the left- or right-wing ideology we can stand every day. All that does is add to the paucity of ideas that Maine and the country needs as the world does indeed grow flatter and flatter, and as a result we become less competitive, and poorer to boot.

Ronald G. Thurston
Falmouth

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