Among other things, Toffler proposes that the third wave will include alterations in human interpersonal relationships and family life; in economic and political systems; in technology and how technology is implemented. The changes that accompany the third wave resonate on all levels of human society: the microcosmic and the macrocosmic.
Toffler also suggests that as with all major shifts in consciousness, the third wave brings with it immense challenges and conflicts. These conflicts, Toffler believes, stem not so much from the changes themselves but from resistance to those changes, to believing that the world will remain on the same course. Toffler urges his readers to be aware and conscious of the implications of the third wave and consciously choose how to react to and incorporate the new paradigm in their lives.
In a post-September 11 world, readers can find Toffler's work particularly poignant. The author touches on terrorism here and there in the book but...
Perhaps in future writings Toffler will address the "war on terrorism" as an integral part of the third wave and maybe show how the human race can extricate itself from some of the darker manifestations of the new world order.
Toffler's theses are well-supported by examples and research but it is written for a lay audience. One of the major ways that Toffler's theses have proven correct twenty-five years after the book was written is in the budding new technologies that have transformed lives and continue to do so. Moreover, shifts in social policies are on the horizon, even though the recent elections proved that American culture might be resisting some of those social changes and thus resisting the third wave.
Works Cited
Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave. New York: William Morrow, 1980.
