ABSTRACT
The principal analogy in Thomas Friedman’s The Lexus and the Olive Tree (2000) is the juxtaposition of time enduring opposites. His basic argument is that “globalization . . . has replaced the old Cold War System . . . (and has) . . . its own rules and logic that today directly or indirectly influence the politics, environment, geopolitics and economies of virtually every country in the world.” Alas, the world is made up of far more than microchips and markets and this is where Friedman’s comparison of the Lexus, the symbol for technology, and the Olive Tree, the symbol for ancient forces, cultures and people, surfaces. The author contends that “world affairs today can only be explained as the interaction with what is as new as an Internet web site and what is as old as a gnarled olive tree on the banks of the river Jordan” (p. 30).
