The Weaver Reads reviewed After Shock by John Schroeter
Not in the Same League as Future Shock
2 stars
I'm sorry, but I wasn't impressed. In short, this lengthy anthology is a collection of responses and reflections to Alvin and Heidi Toffler's 1970 classic Future Shock. While there were some good essays in here, the bulk are either far too optimistic or borderline insane. There was one essay that discusses the solar system entering a part of the galaxy with "weird energy" as contributing to climate change--which the author of the piece claims is actually us entering a new ice age, although in differing words.
The essays also lean much more conservative than the Tofflers' book ever was. I suspect that this is partially due to John Schroeter being the man responsible for selecting the authors. His own piece urges us to look past social categories and see each of us as individuals. While yes, we are all individuals, human society--including American society--is structured above all by social …
I'm sorry, but I wasn't impressed. In short, this lengthy anthology is a collection of responses and reflections to Alvin and Heidi Toffler's 1970 classic Future Shock. While there were some good essays in here, the bulk are either far too optimistic or borderline insane. There was one essay that discusses the solar system entering a part of the galaxy with "weird energy" as contributing to climate change--which the author of the piece claims is actually us entering a new ice age, although in differing words.
The essays also lean much more conservative than the Tofflers' book ever was. I suspect that this is partially due to John Schroeter being the man responsible for selecting the authors. His own piece urges us to look past social categories and see each of us as individuals. While yes, we are all individuals, human society--including American society--is structured above all by social groupings. We can push for groups to experience emancipation and other forms of liberation, but the dissolution of social categories--whether racial, gendered, national, class, or any other ontology--strikes me as impossible.
If you want a good sense of techno-utopian insanity, this is a great place to start. For serious, cautious, and calculated futurism, it's better to look elsewhere.