Longitudes and Attitudes

American journalist Thomas Friedman’s Longitudes and Attitudes: Exploring the World After September 11 (2002) comprises diary entries and articles he published in The New York Times between December 2000 and July 2002. In addition to discussing the September 11 attacks, Friedman also reflects on the 2000 presidential election, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and globalization.

The book begins with a prologue titled "The Super-Story" in which Friedman examines the events that led to the September 11 attacks. He pinpoints the 1980s as the beginning of a chain reaction that started with globalization. Friedman defines globalization as "the inexorable integration of markets, transportation systems, and communication systems to a degree never witnessed before." Contrary to the world order during the Cold War, which was defined by division, the new world order is one of integration. This has lead to a weakening in the power of nation-states—aside from the United States, of course—which has given individual actors, like the terrorists behind the September 11 attacks, more power than ever before. He writes that modern wars are fought not between superpowers and other superpowers, but between superpowers and small groups of angry individuals led by people like Osama Bin Laden.

The first of the book's three major sections is titled "Before: December 15, 2000 – September 11, 2001." In the essay "Medal of Honor," Friedman reflects on the injustice of the Bush v. Gore ruling in which five conservative Supreme Court justices ruled that Florida must stop its recount and award its electoral votes to Republican candidate George W. Bush, thus also awarding Bush the presidency. Friedman writes that the Supreme Court professes to care more for arbitrary deadlines than a fair accounting of votes in a democratic election. "You don't need an inside source to realize that the five conservative justices were acting as the last in a team of Republican Party elders who helped drag Governor Bush across the finish line." In the face of this extreme injustice, Friedman hails Gore's graceful concession speech, which put country above party. He can only hope that Bush abides by the same respect for institutions and the rule of law.



In other essays from the "Before" period, Friedman discusses such varied topics as Secretary of State Colin Powell's confirmation hearing, the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On Israel, Thomas Friedman bemoans the fact that the dangers of being in Israel at this time in history, coupled with some of Israeli's retaliatory behavior against Palestine, is alienating an entire generation of young American Jews. A Jew himself, Friedman writes, "A hardcore of Orthodox Jews and Middle East nuts like myself will continue to visit Israel, but no matter how many solidarity marches they hold in New York, the next generation of American Jews will not share an intimate connection with the Israeli state.

The next section is a collection of New York Times columns published under the banner, "After: September 13, 2001—July 3, 2002." In his first post-9/11 column, Friedman questions whether the U.S. government realizes in full the implications of the attack. He is struck by Transportation Secretary Nelson Mineta's proclamation that curbside check-in will be discontinued at American airports: "There was something so absurdly futile and American about the curbside ban that I couldn't help but wonder: Does my country really understand that this is World War III? And if this attack was the Pearl Harbor of World War III, it means there is a long, long war ahead."

Later, Friedman recalls a conversation with an Israeli military official in which the author marvels at the hijackers' ability to fly the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The official's response is, "It's not that difficult to learn how to fly a plane once it's up in the air. And remember, they never had to learn how to land.''



The last section, published under the header "DIARY," is titled, "Travels in a World Without Walls, September 11, 2001—July 3, 2002. Here, Friedman travels to the Middle East and other locales with Muslim majorities to speak to dignitaries and editorial boards. He describes the "poverty of dignity" felt by many Muslims over having been relegated to third-class world citizens over the horrific actions of a few Islamic fundamentalists. These fundamentalists do not exist independent of powerful nation-states and institutions. Saudi Arabia, he writes, funnels much of its oil wealth to foreign fundamentalists, conducting a shadow war against the West.

Longitudes and Attitudes is a deep and thoughtful book that provides a snapshot of a world in turmoil.