Dreams and Memories

Today I finally finished the book "The World is Flat" in which Thomas Friedman outlines the extreme flattening -- his term for increased interconnectedness and mobility -- of the world, describing a series of "flattening events" (i.e. fall of the Berlin Wall & rising of the internet browser) and talks about the implications that the flattening world has for American society. A few interesting examples, but nothing new to those of us paying attention to and participating in the flattening. One idea, however, that caught my attention was that of dreams and memories. In the last chapter of his book, he summerizes his previous remarks about a country's political and cultural climate and their affects on willingness to change. The more a country is focused on dreams (hope for the future), the more they constructively respond to changes while the greater a country is focused on memories, the more they respond with humiliation and hatred.

Dreams and memories...it makes for an eloquent comparison. Is it true that the more memories you have (the longer you live), the fewer dreams you have? Is the goal to die with no dreams and with many memories? Who knows. I hope to die with a lot of both.