Waking up to a brand new world
By Liam Satre-Meloy
Last week, I attended a conversation with University President Paul Locatelli, S.J., and a number of students about Thomas Friedman's recent best-seller titled "The World Is Flat," an exhausting portrayal of the way in which intersecting technologies, particularly the Internet, are "leveling the playing field" between industrial and emerging market countries.
The conversation was engaging, enlightening and disturbing. We talked about the need to create a worldwide governing body -- similar to the United Nations -- to oversee multinational corporations' activity on foreign soil. We discussed the social and cultural ramifications of our newly "flattened" world -- specifically considering the clash of disparate religious viewpoints engendered by technology. We talked about the increasing importance of ethics in economics and what to do about the majority of the people on this earth who remain in poverty and without access to new technologies and opportunities.
And then the conversation turned to the situation in America. People voiced their concerns that our current educational system is stagnant and underachieving. A number of students expressed their frustration with teachers who did not push them to their limits or those who could not explain the relevance of math or physics.
While the majority of the participants directed their criticism toward the institution, I quietly worried that we should pay equal attention to ourselves. Many of us have grown up in the comfort of preeminent American citizenry; many of us, simply by birth, feel entitled to a white-collar job. Has this sense of privilege made individuals more self-absorbed or more apathetic? Perhaps, instead of blaming our teachers, our government, our parents or even those passionately angry people in other countries, we should question how much energy and time we devote to video games, television and binge-drinking, while affording only token attention to studying and acting in the real world. What are we as individuals doing while the world is becoming flat?
It's time for a wake-up call, people. If our generation wants to remain remotely competitive in this new world economy, we better start getting more serious about pursuing a real education rather than just getting by. No longer will an apathetically pursued degree in management or communication score you or me that sweet job. There are 300 million people in China and India bearing down on every high school and college graduate in this country. And it should scare the shit out of us.
Before I shut up, I'd like to cite a dismayingly funny quote from Friedman's book: "In China, Bill Gates is Britney Spears. In the United States, Britney Spears is Britney Spears, and that is our problem."