Chapter 12: The Unflat World-- No Guns or Cell Phones Allowed

Friedman is trying to confuse me! He's admitting (quite comically, in fact) that the world is not flat. However, he's not saying that he's been lying this whole time (in which case I would stop reading now). He's basically acknowleding the fact that the world is not flat, but flattening, but there are many regions of the world that he says are unflat, because of one circumstance or another. There are people who are too sick due to a lack of healthcare. There are people who are too disempowered (or half-flat) due to a lack of a government responsible enough to notice them and help them. And there are people who are too frustrated by pressures of the flattening world to enjoy it, and it is these people, according to Friedman, who spawn the likes of Osama bin Laden and al Quaeda.