Live from the Aspen Institute: Tom Friedman Speaks at The Socrates Society's Annual Fundraiser

Last night the Socrates Society of the Aspen Institute had their annual fundraiser. It was an outstanding success. Founded 13 years ago by Silicon Valley venture capitalists Gary and Laura Lauder, this group is a forum in which emerging leaders from various sectors of society come together to explore contemporary issues through moderated dialogue. The members, who tend to be in their 30s and 40s, form a diverse group representing leaders from all over the globe.

As in previous years, the main attraction was Tom Friedman, who spoke informally with Aspen Institute CEO Walter Isaacson from the stage. Tom is not only one of the world's greatest journalists, he is also a marketing genius. He can take a simple idea for the betterment of mankind and distill it into a brilliant sound bite that communicates in a millisecond.

In the soon-to-be-released paperback of his book Hot, Flat, and Crowded, he has added the word "Broke" to the title to communicate what is new in our world since the bestseller was printed. Tom warns us that the market and Mother Nature have hit the wall. The reasons are similar: greed and avarice in the financial community, and abuse of our natural resources, something most Americans are guilty of. In time, Tom warns, we can fix our economy, but we can never fix our ecosystem once we reach the tipping point.

To avoid disaster, the current generation must be followed by the "re-generation generation." Our generation should be called the "grasshopper generation," because we ate through everything put before us. We haven't had a Pearl Harbor wake-up call like our parents or grandparents, but we must consider the crash of 2008 a "heart attack warning" for our time.

I hope Tom forgives me for paraphrasing his words. As always, he is full of hope, which is what makes his messages uplifting in the end. "Remember," he said, "recessions are a time of great innovation." So, get busy. We all must do our part.

Comments

[Balzac]

Sounds like he's getting the right message out. It's ideal when self-interest and resource conservation and activism for the greater good are aligned. Governments and NGOs can't get the job done all by themselves.

The social-progressive, natural resource-c­onservatio­n area must be and is being opened up to big business. We must take advantage of the production capacity and economy of scale of large commercial operations to get things done.

There must be an economy based on individual self-interest working within a framework built to harness that competition for the greater good.

[pros54]

One of World's greatest journalists my a$$. Which world are you talking about? It must be the world of the deluded. Definitely not the world I live in.

[fiduciaryatlarge]

Hey Resnick, brilliant satire!

[jmpurser]

Well I hope so. I'm afraid after 30 years of Reaganism I'm not sure I can tell the difference between reality, sarcasm, and cynicism any more.

[faceplant]

Tom Friedman is a master of butchered prose and fatuous ideas. That's about as far as I'll go in praising him.

[adamnb]

He was a big booster of Bush's Iraq war.

[FTP]

Aspen Inst - just another name of for all the problems - Manidesto's gone wild.

[Gudrun]

I had to read your article to discover, you're not kidding about this!

[HelloFunnyWorld]

Dear Miss Resnick,

Quite obviously you have not read Malcolm Gladwell's Outliers. Thankfully a number of us have.

As for "betterment of mankind", "brilliant sound bite" with the words 'Thomas Friedman' in the same sentence - well, it made my friend come up with so many one liners, she laughed so hard, and made everyone else laugh so hard, they threw her out of the store.

[Konstantine]

One of the "world's greatest journalists"? Try one of the
"world's most energetic corporate and government mouthpieces."
He is infamous for his perpetual "the next six months
will be crucial for Iraq". When he's not busy aiding
and abetting bloody imperialistic wars (such as the criminal
invasion of Iraq), he likes to spout off an unending
stream of corporate platitudes concerning globalization
(yes, those third-world sweatshop workers really WANT
to be taken advantage of, outsourcing is good, competion
is god, the earth is now flat, yada yada yada).

Great journalists are supposed to challenge power.
Friedman relationship to power is that of a Hoover
to dirt.

[Snowball]

When I read the bi-line for this post, I first thought is that it must be in jest. How dismaying. BTW, The Aspen Institute, isn't that how Judith Miller met Scooter Libby? What are you people up to really?

[VinnieG]

Tom is very interested in what is good for Tom. He was an unabashed cheerleader for the Iraq War. Fact. He and his buddy George were simpatico. Take a look back at some of Toms articles from back in 2002, 2003. Judge them against what we now know as fact. "Worlds Greatest Journalist"? Hardly, check the facts.

[BluestateGuyInTX]

By what criterion are you judging his ideas "for the betterment of mankind"? As far as I can see his ideas have been concerned with the benefit of the small group that profits from globalization, the off shoring of American manufacturing and now even software development, and let's not forget the Iraq war. The man may indeed be a marketing genius but to call him a one of the worlds great journalists is only indicative of how corporate mass media has debased journalism.

[ezeflyer]

Tom Friedman's recipe of lowering taxes on corporations and increasing inventiveness to compensate for it sounds like BS to me.

[HelloFunnyWorld]

You should pull up Richard Florida's $2 million plus report/rec­ommendatio­n on the future of Ontario done for the premier of this province, for a look at more 'inventiveness' or as Florida calls it -The Creative Class

[in10se]

If he is not credible then who is buying his books? His sales numbers are remarkable,

[Snowball]

Well, if you happen to be a corporate brown noser such as Friedman, there's big money in telling fanatical, free-market ideologues what they want to hear. Friedman puts the cherry on top of far right, elitist ideology to make it palatable for mass consumption.

[HelloFunnyWorld]

"Cherry on top" - what a nice way to put it and you may be, probably are, right

[Konstantine]

So are the sale numbers of Fabio romance novels and
Brittney Spears. Does that prove they're good
literature or good music, as opposed to pre-fabricated,
corporate-packaged, unoriginal and soul-less rehashes
of contentless cliches? You're confusing popularity
with quality.

[pros54]

Credibility and the bottom line may be linked but not directly as criminal entities do have a lot of profit for much less expenditure. so people may be buying Friedman not because of his credibility but so they can figure out what is the next subterfuge to loot the world?

[BluestateGuyInTX]

Who is buying his books? That's easy: the credulous, of course. And there are plenty of those. As H.L. Mencken said: "No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of Americans".

[Sauron21]

Sorry dear, but Tom Friedman lost all credibility during the build up to the Iraq War. Its time to wake up.

[Paul]

Agreed.

[Ganapati]

Tom Friedman Neocon Maximus

[Balzac]

He was playing out of tune back then, but now he's playing a good solo that's right in tune.