In a Revolution, People Get Hurt

So says Tom Friedman in this email exchange he has with Fareed Zakaria on the Amazon.com blog about Friedman's new book. He says we're not having a green revolution because no one is getting hurt:

What I always say to people when they say to me, "We're having a green revolution" is, "Really? A green revolution! Have you ever been to a revolution where no one got hurt? That's the green revolution." In the green revolution, everyone's a winner: BP's green, Exxon's green, GM's green. When everyone's a winner, that's not a revolution--actually, that's a party. We're having a green party. And it's very fun--you and I get invited to all the parties. But it has no connection whatsoever with a real revolution. You'll know it's a revolution when somebody gets hurt. And I don't mean physically hurt. But the IT revolution was a real revolution. In the IT revolution, companies either had to change or die. So you'll know the green revolution is happening when you see some bodies--corporate bodies--along the side of the road: companies that didn't change and therefore died. Right now we don't have that kind of market, that kind of change-or-die situation. Right now companies feel like they can just change their brand, not actually how they do business, and that will be enough to survive. That's why we're really having more of a green party than a green revolution.

Elsewhere in the exchange Friedman's genius at coining memorable phrases comes through, such as: "Change your leaders, not your light bulbs." Friedman has never really advanced original ideas. He has, however, given everyday folks catchy phrases and simple frameworks for thinking about important issues (middle east, globalization, now energy issues).

I have to confess that while I intellectually "get" all the talk about why we need to go green, I'm not emotionally fired up yet. (With the exception of water issues, mainly because I drink so much water -- about 20 liters last week alone.)

From an entrepreneurship perspective, the hot thing to do is to go start a green-related company, which is precisely why I'm not terribly interested in doing it.