IntroSums are Dynamic explanations that connect and expose The Static Surface with The Static Core of the present Western culture. In the upcoming book there is a chapter with IntroSums and on this blog I will also publish IntroSums occasionally.
Around fifty years ago Heidi (1929–2019) and Alvin Toffler (1928–2016) wrote books together that were very famous at the time. Their messages described very well the stupidity of the Static ideals and especially the terror of the Hierarchic order.
In this one hour speech made in 1996 Alvin delivered the main aspects of their books. That was 27 years ago and every formulation about the fundamentals is still valid as absolutely nothing has changed.
The video below will load slowly.
Cyberspace and Society, C-SPAN, 5 August 1996
Some essential wikipedia links to stuff mentioned
Hillary Clinton
Newt Gingrich
Unabomber
...
Even if their basic critique and observations were not unique; were the Toffler's unique as they made distinctive conclusions and their formulations were also unique as they were directed to the general public.
However even if their overall perspective is Dynamic there are here and there Static residues that confuse the message. Or like this. The Toffler's probably had no idea that the present Western culture is based on the Static ideals of Platonism.
The Toffler’s understood somehow that the basic problem was that the established Static ideal eliminated Dynamic efforts. But they never formulated “Why is it like this?” at the highest level. So, they were restricted to blame, for example, the traditions of politics. I write about “Why?” at the highest level.
So, by combining my stuff with the messages of the Toffler’s you get a complete picture. I think it is possible to boil down all the Toffler’s messages to this central quote from one of their books.
... By instructing students how to learn, unlearn and relearn, a powerful new dimension can be added to education. Psychologist Herbert Gerjuoy of the Human Resources Research Organization phrases it simply: "The new education must teach the individual how to classify and reclassify information, how to evaluate its veracity, how to change categories when necessary, how to move from the concrete to the abstract and back, how to look at problems from a new direction—how to teach himself. Tomorrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn." …
A System of Skills, Chapter 18 Education in The Future Tense, Future Shock (1970)
As the Toffler's messages are integrated into each other it is difficult to make specific quotes from this speech. Nevertheless, here are some of the formulations from the beginning of the speech.
… the American political system resists any radical change. The system itself, the structure of collective decision making, the architecture of American politics, is itself ultra stable.
... The idea that the U.S. political structure is ultra stable should in fact give pause to everyone, because by fueling a global shift from a Second Wave smokestack society to a Third Wave knowledge-based society, Americans are opening a path to tremendous benefits not only for America but for the world. The benefits will range from higher standards of living, economic standards, to better health, cleaner environment, etc. But Americans -- and the populations of many other countries are being battered by the very acceleration and the pace of life that the knowledge revolution, instant communication and the Third Wave of change bring with them. Most Americans now feel hard pressed, stressed out, upset with conditions in the country. Many are angry. Most wish change would slow down and let them catch their breath. The Second Wave smoke-stack world that they knew is vanishing as the Third Wave future invades every aspect of American society today. Daily life is suffused with higher and higher levels of uncertainty and unpredictability. ...
... the stress levels rise. We call it future shock, which is the distress and disorientation brought on by trying to adapt to too much change at rates faster than people can handle. ...
... Among these are the frightening fanaticism that we see in many corners of society - racial and religious intolerance, the spread of paranoia and conspiracy theories, anarchic terrorism, the purposelessness and moral paralysis among so many young people - or the technophobia that was so perfectly symbolized by the Unabomber (whose Luddite manifesto would have found many more supporters if its author had not, it appears, punctuated his paragraphs with blood). What we really see are two ways of life, two civilizations, in collision. One is the fading Second Wave industrial civilization. The other is its fast spreading Third Wave replacement. The collision of these two will result in enormous and politically dangerous dislocations of various kinds. ...
... Do we want a political system that in all its basic structures was designed for the past to remain unchanged? Or do we want one that changes in sync with the changes in society? ...
From the text version of Future Shock in the Present Tense Keynote Address at the Aspen Institute Summit 1996 by Alvin Toffler
Note, the order of the arguments are different in the text version of the speech than in the video.
Earlier Post: Alvin and Heidi Toffler – In Memory of the Deceased Future Part 1, 12 January 2018
