“Dave Winer” writes on “Scripting News” about the lessons of 9/11. He talks about how we can’t close our borders, how the concept of national security is obsolete.
This echos the comments I heard earlier this week during the interview by Don Imus of Thomas Friedman. Friedman’s major theme is that we’re totally in a “world without walls” — as demonstrated over and over again of late but particularly by 9/11.
Actually, the tearing down of walls has been his theme for a few years. From an interview in 1999:
Now, the Cold War system was characterized by one overarching feature: Division. The world was a divided, chopped-up place, and all your threats and opportunities in that system grew from who you were divided from. And it was symbolized by one overarching symbol: The Wall.
The globalization system is characterized by one overarching feature: Integration. In this system, all your threats and opportunities flow from who you’re connected to. And it’s also symbolized by one overarching symbol: The Web. So we’ve gone from a world of division and walls to a world of integration and web.