Summer 1999 – Issue 55 - Stanford Lawyer - Stanford University

A BIBLIOGRAPHYPraise for "The HorizontaL Society"Lawrence Friedman's 20th book has earned the praise ofreviewers impressed withits fresh perspective on how society has reorganized itself.Friedman argues that technology, migration, and the push for individualfreedoms has led to a new paradigm in which society is horizontally structured,moving away from the top-down organization of the past. Traditional sources ofauthOlity no longer hold sway over people whose identities are tied closely to thosewhose backgrounds and attitudes mirror their own, Friedman writes.Moreover, an entertainment-drenched society has spawned a culture ofcelebrity worship in which fame is a proxy for achievement. Because so many celebritiesemerge from modest beginnings, other ordinary persons can relate easily tothem and can imagine themselves being similarly successful. Birth, rank, or socialclass have less to do with common notions of pedigree than do the trappingsof celebrity.Friedman, Marion Rice Kirh.rwood Professor of Law, writes: "Worship ofcelebrities is thus deeply rooted in modern culture and is tighdy bOlmd to thestructure ofauthority and society; it has, in turn, an obvious impact on the structureofauthority. To begin with, celebrities have displaced other role models. Whenpeople (especially young people) adopt idols today, these idols come from the worldof the celebrities rather than from the world oftraditional authority. At least thisis so in Western societies. In one study, American teenagers, in 1986, were askedwhom they admired the most. Out of the top ten names, no less than nine were"stars" or celebrities-movie and TVfigures, for the most part. No religious leader,no business leader, no scientist or scholar, made the list."Todd Gitlin, in the New lork Times, called Friedman's "small but useful book"an important analysis on the eve ofthe millennium. "Friedman is onto somethingimportant," Gitlin writes. "The drift of d1e horizontal society is in many waysmore powerful than the overt ideologies of our time---or, rather, the tendencytoward horizontal relations is d1e master ideology beneath all rival options.Because oftechnology, relentless horizontal momentum is irreversible. The verticalcannot hold. Restorationist movements only succeed in adding more horizontalbands to the general tendency. Rollover, aud10rities-the culture of thenext millennium is not going your way."OF FACULTYWRITINGSPUBLISHEDBETWEEN JULYMAY 1999~ ,1IMMI·R 199')