I glommed onto one particular sentence of today's Tom Friedman The New York Times op ed: "As the price of oil goes up the pace of freedom goes down."Contextually, Friedman's statement was in reference to Russia:
"Russia is a classic example of what [Friedman likes] to call 'the First Law of Petropolitics,' which posits that the price of oil and the pace of freedom operate in an inverse relationship in petrolist states — states with weak institutions and a high dependence on oil for their G.D.P."I couldn't help but ponder that statement in reference to our own recent rise in oil prices -- and simultaneous, unsettling, crackdown on liberties....
As for the factual basis for the rest of Tommy-Boy's article, I defer to Joshua Holland's excellent article, "Thomas Friedman runs into a brick wall of reality," which, with the help of Jonathan Weiller, offers an excellent take-down of Friedman.
Read Thomas Friedman's op ed "The Really Cold War" here.
Non-TimesSelect Subscribers, Donkey O.D. has graciously provided a reprint. (Thanks D.O.D.)
Photo credit: Thomas Friedman. (Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times)
Technorati tags: Thomas Frank, The New York Times, Russia, Oil, Petroleum, Gasoline, Europe, Vladimir V. Putin, NATO, EU, Petropolitics, free markets, news, commentary, op ed
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