Chapters 22-24

Chapter 22 deals mostly with the disintegration of states – as seen through secessionist movements in the USA, Canada, Australia and former European empires’ colonies and so on. Moreover, due to internal pressures and external interventions, the national power of governments is more and more often redirected to local or regional institutions and to international organizations, such as the UN and the IMF. An increasingly significant contribution to this systematic development is brought by transnational and multinational corporations, who are present on different continents and different countries, meaning that their interest is global, as is their influence.

When it comes to the development of First Wave countries (or third world, for a better understanding), advocates of the moribund Second Wave civilization suggest introducing more and more machinery to modernize the nation. Conversely, the First Wave attitude and mentality might have involved the rejection of machines and the introduction of more man-power in order to reduce unemployment and to make sure the social benefit is higher. However, the Third Wave society tries to balance these two elements, making sure that production is not wasting energy that would be better in addressing social, cultural, ecological, familial and psychological issues.

Towards this end, the new approach favours local energy suppliers, and, even more, the introduction of domestic/home-based/small scale energy generators, be them solar or otherwise. Furthermore, with the advent of electronics, the new civilization needs to ensure the technological progress does not prove destructive and that social and cultural values are maintained.

What is certain about the future is that it will be built around a matrix and not hierarchy, meaning that there will be multiple streams of information and different ways to go around any given problem, resulting in a “practopia”, caused not by one factor, but by a complex combination.

Chapters 20&21

While the Second Wave generated a division between producer and consumer, revealing the visible economy, the Third Wave acts in the opposite way, emphasizing the “prosumer” and the invisible economy, in a way turning to a First Wave-influenced economy. More self-services means people will be more independent, but the economic perspective will be altered, since prosumption and trade cannot be measured by the same token in terms of efficiency, productivity, minimum income, social security, health plans and insurance schemes.

Although the Second Wave markets have been completely edified and extended, the Second Wave has ended its “mission”, which corresponds to the markets shrinking due to prosumption. Therefore, the Third Wave will do maintenance, reconstruction and reorganization work, also implying that hitherto blocked resources will be given a different trajectory, a more present-efficient allocation.

Concerning mentality, nature is seen by the Third Wave from a different standpoint: not an enemy, but an ally that needs to be protected. Evolution, previously viewed as a smooth process, is now under our influence and projection, as genetic engineering proves us. Similarly, time and space become relative in the modern holistic approach. This is not to say that the reductionist approach is taken out of the equation, but that it is integrated in a method that sees both the overview and the details. It might seem that the law of causality is subject to alteration, but the Third Wave evolution incorporates the idea of entropy, inherent in a dying Second Wave civilization, to produce advancement through restructuration and the installation of order from fluctuations and general chaos.

Chapters 18&19

These pages analyze the effects of the Third Wave on the corporations that have dominated our destinies in the past years, with escalating importance throughout the 1970’s, with all their crises and the most important (and different) one, that of stagflation – simultaneous high inflation and high unemployment. Similarly, the rising importance of external currencies circulation led to the increase in the quantity of “Eurodollars” and other supra-national currencies, which, in turn, brought about unlimited credit loans and the subsequent problems.

In terms of what happens to corporations, they suffer an identity crisis as they search for a new place in the new context. Thus, the decision-making process is sped-up, while corporations become more varied and specialized on the market to satisfy demassified needs. In these new circumstances, companies have to be a mixture of economic, political, social, ethical, racial, sexual and ecological points of view, in order to ensure an actual social benefit. Moreover, these organizations are both economic and informational producers, with multiple purposes, which have to be classified according to a social outturn index.

Next, Alvin Toffler searches to prove how the main principles of the Second Wave are now being turned over, as even the most important resource, time, is being demassified, with the introduction of the sliding schedule, the flexible schedule, part-time jobs and more night shifts. This warrants the transition from a 9-to-5 society to a 24/7 society. Post-standardized/de-standardized mentalities, needs, tastes and the consequent consumption and production now account for the introduction of new hierarchies/organizational patters, leading from the pyramid complex to the matrix, a multiple command system.

Decentralization also occurs, both in businesses as microcosms and in the economy as a whole, giving birth to sub-national/regional/local economies and new sectors of activities. From this perspective, the conclusion is that nearly the entire structure and ethic of the Second Wave civilization are challenged and will probably be overhauled.