<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: if you're too busy to read THE THIRD WAVE....
Review: ...then this might be an option, because it's just a rework and condensation of its predecessor. It also sports an intro written by Newt Gingrich; I have no idea why unless he was selected to provide an unintentional but effective example of outdated Second Wave power politics.
Rating:
Summary: if you're too busy to read THE THIRD WAVE....
Review: ...then this might be an option, because it's just a rework and condensation of its predecessor. It also sports an intro written by Newt Gingrich; I have no idea why unless he was selected to provide an unintentional but effective example of outdated Second Wave power politics.
Rating: 
Summary: Something mean to be happen!
Review: Authors' Alvin and Heidi Toffler would have readers believe that the world is being carried along by an inevitable tidal force of events known as the 'Third Wave' which, in turn, will effect the creation of a new civilization. While the arrival of a 'knowledge culture' will no doubt affect and change life as we know it, the 'information age' is in and of itself no guarantor of an emerging world order. The prediction "that we are the final generation of an old civilization and the first generation of a new one" is based on the authors' unswerving belief in inevitable progress. Inevitable progress is the belief that the forward movement of history is certain to happen. They assert that the technological, economical, political and cultural upheavals that are now taking place are not random or chaotic occurrences but rather, "nothing less than a global revolution, a quantum leap". The basis of this analysis is the conviction that a "clearly discernible pattern" exists and thus warrants such a claim. How can the authors' be so certain that a revolutionary 'Third Wave' civilization is destined to arrive on planet earth? The Tofflers's use of the questionable assumption of inevitable progress to reach a conclusive view of the future is insufficient and regrettable. The book's nine chapters, of which seven are previously published, form an accessible introduction to the Toffler's views on where the world is going.
Rating: 
Summary: Just one Question....HOW?!?
Review: Since I had never read the previous three books maybe I was thrown into the deep-end on this one. I could read and comprehend everything they said, but the failure of the Tofflers to be speific of HOW this is going to happen plauged me throughout the book.
For instance, the book never delves into HOW specifically the third wave (information age for those who haven't read it) will affect families in a positive way. Instead it uses catch phrases like "empower the family" and "restore functions to the family" which mean....nothing. On top of that, numerous .../false assumptions cripple this book.
To say that "Naderites and Buchananites" are the same because they both think that NAFTA is wrong is false because Nader and Buchanan want to get rid of it for different reasons. Also when they say that NAFTA was a triumph for the 3rd wave and that the second wave (industrial age) is on a decline are also lies. The jobs for factory workers aren't simply going away - they're moving where labor is cheap and taxes are low.
Also, scare tactics and ... hurt this book for those who can see through it. The idea that American companies are being out-competed by samll businesses and foreign corporations and that is why companies are breaking up into smaller components, merging, and laying off workers are sheer lies. Keeping in mind that this book was wrote in the early to mid-ninties, and then looking at the stock market and the decline of small business, you can easily see why this was going on; Merge because two huge corperations working together can squash the copmetition, and layoff because that will bring your market value up.
Also the Toffler's idea that "it is knowledge, not cheap labor...that add value." - yeah well tell that to Nike. Their faulty logic that there isn't a majority class between upper, middle, and the lower classes are lies, as well as their idea that "You have 100 people chasing after the same bronze ring." - For me and others, while it would be nice, being a millionaire is not the only or main goal in life. Oh and their deal about 'Socialism' is actually Communism...you think that they could decifer the two.
Rating: 
Summary: Toffler is a man with a concept looking for a plan
Review: Toffler is a big thinker. His premise in this book as well as in his other books is that just as the agricultural first wave has given way to the second wave industrial age, that it in turn has yielded to the third knowledge revolution. He outlines the differences and prescribes the need for change. In that men have difficulty adjusting to change (see "Who Moved My Cheese"), Toffler outlines how these clashes will be resolved. Just as companies in growth industries altenate between spurts of growth and plateaus of consolidation, societies experience the same disruptions. The Austrian school of economics would call it "creative destruction". This book's core principles emanate from the mind of a visionary thinker. If you want a top-down view of the last couple of centuries it's worth the few hours of reading and thinking you'll have to invest.
Rating:
Summary: Toffler is a man with a concept looking for a plan
Review: Toffler is a big thinker. His premise in this book as well as in his other books is that just as the agricultural first wave has given way to the second wave industrial age, that it in turn has yielded to the third knowledge revolution. He outlines the differences and prescribes the need for change. In that men have difficulty adjusting to change (see "Who Moved My Cheese"), Toffler outlines how these clashes will be resolved. Just as companies in growth industries altenate between spurts of growth and plateaus of consolidation, societies experience the same disruptions. The Austrian school of economics would call it "creative destruction". This book's core principles emanate from the mind of a visionary thinker. If you want a top-down view of the last couple of centuries it's worth the few hours of reading and thinking you'll have to invest.
<< 1 >>
| 
