Alvin Toffler and the shock of the future

Alvin Toffler is a sociologist, philosopher, journalist ... He was born in 1928. In 1949 he graduated from New York University, then worked for about two years in a factory, believing that this gave him an opportunity to gain insight into the connections in the work process, the connections in society. He worked at Fortune magazine, then taught at a university.The books that Alvin Toffler became popular and representing the most finished his teachings: "The shock of the Future" (1970), "Third Wave" (1980), "Changes in the government" (1990).

Toffler himself defines these books as "proctopia" - with this concept he wants to distinguish himself and his beliefs from positive and negative utopias.Tofler tries not to create ideal societies (utopias), but a future in which there are both positive and negative traits. Proctopia - from practical utopia - is neither utopia nor anti-utopia for the future. It is not utopia because there are no idealizations for the future. It aims to orientate, prepare society, mitigate potential future stress (ie create a long-term vision of the future).

According to Toffler, there are two dominant perspectives for the future - one related to the notion of the modern world as chaos; the second is about the predominance of the development of society. The first worldview of the future (about the image of the modern world as chaos) is largely related to the media. The media brimming with versatile information. One has to orient himself before acting purposefully, and the media create the impression of chaos. One creates the attitude that chaos is a normal state for the world.

Toffler's second notion is that the world is designed - this view is seen beyond the newspaper news."On the surface, these two concepts look different, but both lead to paralysis in society," and both of us are stunned by inactivity, as they are full of doom, causing inaction. Ie. people do not participate in the formation and construction of the world.How does Alvin Toffler approach these ideas? IBM has commissioned him to describe the consequences of massive deployment of computers. According to him, there will be a deep disorientation in the people, as they are not ready for such a rapid renewal of society. So he writes "The Shock of the Future" - it describes the fear of the changes in the future. Why shock? Because, according to Toffler, society has never so quickly and radically changed today. If a change does not become smooth, it brings fear, a state of helplessness.