Future Shock

Anyone who spent a part of 1971 reading ‘The Greening of America’ by Charles A. Reich probably had a copy of Alvin Toffler’s ‘Future Shock’. The two books went hand-in-hand as America was experiencing some very tumultuous times – the Cold War, the Kennedy assassination, the Viet Nam war, the hippie culture, hallucinogenic drugs. Plus race riots and student protests that led to dozens of Americans being killed.

‘The Greening of America’ dawdled on the pollution of individuality by the manipulative influences of the Corporate State, touted then-present day smoke-enhanced communal love-ins and proclaimed a social revolution would be forthcoming to salvage mankind from a contrived molding of society by Big Business, the Big Brother partner of Big Government.

‘Future Shock’ drew a chalk line before the reader’s eyes and before you could say, “Go!” fate would prove the checkered flag to be an illusory goal in a progressively changing world. Defined by the author, future shock is “too much change in too short a period of time”. An appropriate sub-title would have been ‘Freak Out - Get a Grip’!

A renowned futurist, Toffler foresaw the break-up of the 22 Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) under the AT&T umbrella, which became the cornerstone settlement of the 1984 antitrust case by Federal District Judge Harold Green who set up the seven “Baby Bells”.

A personal episode of drastic change occurred in the ‘80s while employed as a technician analyzing and coordinating the repair of data communications circuits leased by large corporations, such as aerospace and defense contractors Rockwell, General Dynamics, Northrup and Lockheed. In 1982, Pacific Bell, my employer, had three mega test centers in the LA area, each with over 250 employees. Due to deregulation, by 1987 each office held less than 80 positions, with company exit strategies in place for laggards-on. Now, twenty years on, telecom innovations still generate shock talk, with consumers seeking ever more wireless enhancements.

Relocation to Florida found temporary security as a service representative to consumer, then business customers. Little more than ten years later, as RBOCs like BellSouth lost long distance revenues and large shares of local service to independent providers, I was affectively nudged to early retirement as younger employees found the value of selling add-on services (too often without customer consent and other times misrepresented with misquoted charges and unspoken terms of acceptance) rather than providing customer service as had been ingrained into us old-timers. Whether addressing billing discrepancies or service outages, the goal was to Sell! Sell! Sell! Compromising integrity was never negotiable.

Toffler professed that the momentum of change accelerates until ‘information overload’ leaves individuals, social networks, businesses and governments disoriented and confused with a breakdown of decision-making. Sound familiar? Healthcare, war, drugs, terrorism, the environment, globalization, digital technologies, immigration… and banking.

Toffler has been adamant that the answer to the challenges of rampant change is through education. I quote: “The illiterate of the future are not those that cannot read or write. They are those that can not learn, unlearn, relearn."

As if to highlight the failings of education in the United States, according to ACT, a nonprofit organization that institutes college entrance exam tests, only 26% of high school students are prepared for college-level studies; 19% aren’t adequately prepared in the core areas of English, math, science and social studies. Shocking!

The New York Times reported, “A recent study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected B’s just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading.” Sounds shockingly like future executives of institutions and their views on self-deserving bonuses despite their failures!

This entitlement of mediocrity among Americans has long been a reason for corporate recruitment of foreign intellectuals, whose visas are quickly revoked at the loss of employment, subjecting them to deportation. And yet, millions of illegal immigrants with high levels of ignorance remain willfully undocumented foreign homesteaders. Shocking!

With March unemployment figures exceeding 660,00 and with all appearances suggesting a sustainable decline of American jobs, the current 5 million jobless may double. Perhaps the March unemployment rate of 8.5% will top 10% by year’s end? A truly shocking outlook of the future.

‘The Greening of America’ was a smorgasbord of social tidbits foreseen to bring a revolution to the consciousness of the populace to such levels that there would be a reinvention of the self in society. Well, the leaves that were green have all turned brown.

‘Future Shock’ continues to provide the self a reward for having the intuition to serve up a balanced diet of constant learning. The just dessert is a future less shocking to the individual’s consciousness. Still, future shock will always be before us.