Our new word for today: hyperintegrated

Read a fascinating article in the Lakeland Ledger recently, from Thomas Friedman, one of my favorite authors. Friedman gave me a new word in his column: hyperintegrated.

Hyperintegrated, says Friedman, means that "all aspects of production -- raw materials, design, manufacturing, distribution, fulfillment, financing and branding -- have become commodities that can be accessed from anywhere by anyone."

In other words, as Walt Disney himself best said it, "It's a small world after all."

Two things, Friedman writes, that can't be hyperintegrated, one of which is imagination. (Again, a Disney theme...)

"America," Friedman writes, "is still the world's greatest dream machine." Better than China, better than Britain, better than Japan, better than... fill in the blank.

The other item that can't be a commodity is good government "which can harvest creativity." In that arena, Friedman writes, "we may be losing" the battle.

Friedman then goes on to talk about six things that have "fractured our public space and paralyze our ability to forge optimal solutions." (How's THAT for business-speak?) In this area, Friedman points out how narrow-casting has become standard operating procedure for the United States: "cable TV (that)... segregates people into their own echo chambers"; "The Internet... which at its worst provides a home for every extreme view and spawns digital lynch mobs..."; "A U.S. business community that has become so globalized that it comes to Washington to lobby only for its own narrow interests."

Friedman's column gives voice to my feelings that the world is becoming more and more self-centered, more and more "silo-ed," and more and more disconnected.

With that message in mind, it appears the church--as usual--has its work cut out for it. But what do we do when the church finds itself mirroring the world?