My Review of - "The World is Flat" on Amazon

“The State Withers Away" ...not through communism but through capitalism

Fredrick Engel's words regarding the "withering away" of the state are so widely known, they are often quoted, and so clearly reveal the essence of the customary adaptation of Marxism.

Friedman’s "The World is Flat", gives a whole new dimension and meaning of the idea of withering away of a state. Contrary to Engel's idea of withering away of the state through proletarian dictatorship, Friedman’s idea of withering away of the state is through Public-Private Partnership, through the lobbying of the Private Sector, through global Supply Chains.
Many ideas in the book are quite thought provoking.

The "Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention" that Friedman talks about is good but takes time for Convincing. As Shashi Tharoor, Author and Under-Secretary UN, says, "In advancing what Friedman calls his "Dell Theory of Conflict Prevention", under which no two countries will go to war if they are both part of the same globalised supply chain, he forgets that most human conflict is fuelled by emotions rather than calculations. Economics cannot explain everything. As Francis Fukuyama discovered before him, it is not yet time for "the end of history". Culture, religion, and national pride all continue to play their part in world affairs. In the flat world, maybe geography is history, but history itself is not yet history. Friedman, intent on his high-tech crystal ball, ignores the rear-view mirror. "

Overall this is One Great Book. This is better than "The Lexus and the Olive Tree"

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