Chapters 2-9

As Toffler suggests it, although the First Wave had not completely ended, the Second Wave replaced most of its institutions and mechanisms. From the use of human, animal, wind and water energy, all of which were renewable, the industrial civilization moved to the use of non-renewable fossil fuels. Similarly, instead of small markets, problematic in terms of stock and management, the Second Wave needed larger markets, with new stores, whose supply of various items – all mass-produced – was huge. Conversely, the family transformed from being large (with all the relatives usually living under the same roof) to being nuclear (parents & children), less complicated, given the fact that education was now provided by schools and health was being dealt with by special services.

Moreover, the Second Wave gave way to the division between producer and consumer, with a market interposed between them. The governing principles were to:

- Standardize: produce identically, regulate & reduce differences;

- Specialize: everybody producing the items for with they had the competitive advantage;

- Synchronize: time is money;

- Concentrate: work, people, resources, capital, industries gathered in well-drawn areas;

- Maximize: the idea that big=efficient;

- Centralize: a central unit could manage & impose regulations.

However, a new ideology emerged, that of INDUSTRIAL REALISM, according to which there were three essential views: that man is involved in a struggle against nature, which he has to exploit, that people are the apex of evolution, as a conclusion of social Darwinism and a reason for imperialism, and that life and civilization move towards the “better”.

Also, the Second Wave brought the triumph of linearity over cyclic development, in time and space, and the introduction of precise time measures, architectures and space management policies took place. Since both philosophy and physics revolved around atoms, people were now perceived as atoms, while votes where the atoms and founding particles of politics. In the end, the universe comes across as an ensemble moving according to the law of causality.

"The Third Wave" - Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1.

It does not come as a surprise that Toffler's theory is generally accepted; however, Ionita Olteanu dares to make the assumption that the author's view of communism is actually wrong and confused, with an unjust social analysis. In his opinion, communism as a state of economy is totally different than capitalism, with no interfering points.

In Toffler’s view, the world functions as a collision of waves, of which there have been three:

- - The First Wave, beginning in 8,000 B.C., after the agricultural revolution and solely governing the world until 1750 A.D.;

- - The Second Wave, beginning in 1750 A.D., after the industrial revolution and continuing today;

- - The Third Wave, beginning in 1955, with a future development to be observed.

People usually find two suggestions for future progress:

1. - A straightforward approach, with an extended and expanded Second Wave (as seen in China and S-E Asia);

2. - An apocalyptic approach, with the world going towards Armageddon, collapse and self-destruction, leading to the paralysis of imagination and will, towards individualism and passivity.

However, Toffler suggests that despite all the changes we will not completely self-destruct, but rather take one quantum historic leap after the crash between the dying civilization of the Second Wave and the in-birth civilization of the Third, which would liberate the intellect and the will.

These waves are actually simultaneous, but moving at different speeds and being pushed by different forces. The year 1955 is the start of the shock of superimposed waves, when the new economy tried to force its way onto the “rusty” Second Wave economy and institutions.

While the visions of the future organize people’s actions and define their options, when more waves work at the same time, social tensions, dangerous conflicts and weird political tendencies occur, leading to the conclusion that the industrial system needs to be replaced.