I read https://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Shock-Alvin-Toffler/dp/1982584424 many years ago, among many the other weird Sci-fi books like 'Level 7' - but never expected to find the reality when I joined HMG War Office in the 1960s and was posted to Bicester RAC Ordinance Depot ( St Georges barracks).
Upon my arrival, I was duly processed and signed the Secrets Act more than once (to be sure). On my first day, I witnessed a steam train appearing out of the ground! My trainer told me that there were underground cities beneath this 20 sq mile site and it has 7 levels!
My skin crawled, but I had no desire to tell him about the book! Just another anecdote of my diverse life experiences. :-D
Thanks so much KWN - you are forever bringing a wisdom beyond my imagination. These murals are not confusing from where I am looking - their symbols are in fact everywhere. They love to play a game of "see we are in control" - and go on to prove it through their various publications and public symbols - it is a sign of their arrogance and hubris which will be their downfall in the end IMHO. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/german-man-sentenced-3-years-prison-pro-russian-rhetoric-symbols
As one of our former drummers used to say “wasn’t me”. At least the internet is good for something. :-) Can’t travel through Denver and not be struck by symbolism. Used to commute through that airport.
I belonged to the Doubleday Sci-Fi book club. Level 7 struck such a chord with me that, although I had read it through three times, I still considered taking it when I finally left my parents' home at the age of 21.
Many years later I was at the Aldermaston nuclear research establishment: https://www.awe.co.uk/about-us/our-locations/ on a contract when a scientist slipped me a cassette tape and suggested I listen to it. (I still have it). It has some revealing information about HMG preparations for nuclear war. The tape is a pre-recording of a BBC announcement for when the bombs drop.
There are various actors reading from scripts and interviews with military personnel and a general. One bit stuck in my memory when the interviewer asked a general that if they would shoot looters on sight, asked how you would tell a looter from a forager. He replied that "a looter has a gun - but forager has a cabbage."
I read this book in 1970. 13 I guess looking back, did not read it again. However in later years I encountered Paul Virilio. Three interrelated concepts from Virilio’s unique lexicon stand out as uniquely relevant for political theology: dromology, accidentology, and revelation. Writing in the late 70s on trends that have proliferated, Virilio declares that “there is no democracy, only dromocracy,” the rule of speed (Speed and Politics, 69). For Virilio, speed itself is neither good nor bad, and there can be a non-oppressive, voluntary multiplicity of cohabitating speeds. But today we are all drawn into a dangerous acceleration, filtered through and motivated by the logic of militarization, a dialectic of attack and defense. “In fact, history progresses at the speed of its weapons systems,” says Virilio (Speed and Politics, 90). For Virilio, then, the primary driver of modern politics is not the secularization of theology into law, nor even the dialectic between the bourgeoisie and proletariat; the key to social domination is speed and the battle over movement, the militarized governance of mobility, which immobilizes populations not only with tear gas and batons, but by making them sedentary, passive, and aloof through fast travel and the captivation of screens. https://politicaltheology.com/paul-virilio/
Time–space compression occurs as a result of technological innovations driven by the global expansion of capital that condense or elide spatial and temporal distances, including technologies of communication (telegraph, telephones, fax machines, Internet) and travel (rail, cars, trains, jets), driven by the need to overcome spatial barriers, open up new markets, speed up production cycles, and reduce the turnover time of capital.
According to Paul Virilio, time-space compression is an essential facet of capitalist life, saying that "we are entering a space which is speed-space ... This new other time is that of electronic transmission, of high-tech machines, and therefore, man is present in this sort of time, not via his physical presence, but via programming" (qtd. in Decron 71[5]). In Speed and Politics, Virilio coined the term dromology to describe the study of "speed-space". Virilio describes velocity as the hidden factor in wealth and power, where historical eras and political events are effectively speed-ratios. In his view, acceleration destroys space and compresses time in ways of perceiving reality. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%E2%80%93space_compression
Thank you so much for your comment and appreciation. I like to look back on earlier work with a sense of humor. I do agree that we get better at what we do - including writing!
My sense is, a writer's work is never done. I'm editing work I did years ago, that I'll be publishing in book form. It's hard to resist tweaking it to make the words better match the pictures in my head more precisely than when I first attempted it. Then again, I'm loosening my grip on being perfectionistic. :~) I think as We develop, our Writing does too. Kind of like re-watching a film we viewed when younger, which has new meaning to us now that we're older and have a broader vantage point. In any case, I think we do the very best we can, at any stage of life~ which perhaps is worth honoring.
I loved reading this. I never read Future Shock but do remember the fuss around it. One of the most influential people in my life was one of my Grandads. He was a communications officer in the Royal Navy during ww2. He was glad to retire to civilian life. It's thanks to him I'm aware of what the slave construct of government has done to us all, and just how far they'll go to protect their own and what they perceive as their particular ideology. People of the past who tried to even hint that things were not as they appeared to be, and that hidden, shadowy events shaped our lives into ways we wouldn't necessarily have chosen for ourselves, were often ridiculed and ignored. I can't off hand think of any one particular person who managed to convey just how bad things would become as they have over the past four plus years.
Now, I recognise the precipice Humans stand on and that we have run out of time to walk back from it. The overwhelming apathy of most folks to this dystopian future we're faced with is incredible imo. I often can't deal with it without feeling like I'm going to break something inside...
I "get" that shock at too many changes in too short a time thing. I think like many we used to smile at older folks of the past who'd bemoan similar things..that life had sped up too fast, or that things, no longer being the same as in their day, were worsening.
They were right though. I'm old and remember how things used to be and though far from perfect we did, I feel, have the sense of control over much of our lives that we no longer have.
I suspect I'm not making much sense....
They used to say back in the seventies, stop the world, I want to get off.
I just want to say, stop the technocrats, I want to shove them off it. The future could have been what we wanted to make it. Instead we left it in the hands of a few who pretended they'd do it for us. And they killed what future we might have had.
Someday you MUST tell us if there was a followup to the shot book. If I'd found BRAVE NEW WORLD in my mailbox with a bullet hole in it, I'd be packing (both ways).
I must take you to task for your words about Aldous Huxley. That book about Soma and a pharmaceutically numbed society was written by one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. A friend to Timothy Leary, as he died he had his wife inject LSD into his veins. I read B.N.W. as a 7th grader and I think that Junior High Boys were his target.
Now, regarding FUTURE SHOCK, I had a blue copy. My then-wife and I read it as excitedly as we read CHARIOTS OF THE GODS. Toffler (or anyone in the sixties) could not have imagined the lawless and tribal state of the USA in the 21st century.
My second comment here is that how did it happen that the forces we work against here were able to retroactively shoot our future full of holes. Delusional even for science fiction.
But no , no one could have imagined this current fascist totalitarian international state. The bullet damaged book is a one off so far. There were lots of things to fear in those times but bullet holes in a book were not one of them. The future was the only victim.
Now, KW, you shouldn't take things so personally. You said, "I thought the book was less than brilliant and a kind of obvious way to get rich for someone who could still type and think. The writer and publishers made a killing." The book WAS less than brilliant. But then, so were the Hardy Boys, Tarzan, and Nancy Drew.
A guy's gotta make a buck in this world. Remember: Huxley wrote it in 1931.
I read https://www.amazon.co.uk/Future-Shock-Alvin-Toffler/dp/1982584424 many years ago, among many the other weird Sci-fi books like 'Level 7' - but never expected to find the reality when I joined HMG War Office in the 1960s and was posted to Bicester RAC Ordinance Depot ( St Georges barracks).
Upon my arrival, I was duly processed and signed the Secrets Act more than once (to be sure). On my first day, I witnessed a steam train appearing out of the ground! My trainer told me that there were underground cities beneath this 20 sq mile site and it has 7 levels!
My skin crawled, but I had no desire to tell him about the book! Just another anecdote of my diverse life experiences. :-D
Makes me think of the Denver Airport murals and reported underground cities. Not to mention the message of 9/11 and all that has followed.
https://mtnweekly.com/travel/denver-airport-paintings-2/
https://designyoutrust.com/2020/03/whats-up-with-the-creepy-apocalyptic-paintings-in-denver-international-airport/
Thanks so much KWN - you are forever bringing a wisdom beyond my imagination. These murals are not confusing from where I am looking - their symbols are in fact everywhere. They love to play a game of "see we are in control" - and go on to prove it through their various publications and public symbols - it is a sign of their arrogance and hubris which will be their downfall in the end IMHO. https://www.zerohedge.com/political/german-man-sentenced-3-years-prison-pro-russian-rhetoric-symbols
As one of our former drummers used to say “wasn’t me”. At least the internet is good for something. :-) Can’t travel through Denver and not be struck by symbolism. Used to commute through that airport.
I belonged to the Doubleday Sci-Fi book club. Level 7 struck such a chord with me that, although I had read it through three times, I still considered taking it when I finally left my parents' home at the age of 21.
My favorite book from these early years was Worlds In Collision. I didn’t own a library until much later
Charles my dear boy - we clearly walk a similar path. You are the first person I have ever met in over 60 years who has actually read 'Level 7'! For those interested: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Level-7-Library-American-Fiction/dp/0299200647
Many years later I was at the Aldermaston nuclear research establishment: https://www.awe.co.uk/about-us/our-locations/ on a contract when a scientist slipped me a cassette tape and suggested I listen to it. (I still have it). It has some revealing information about HMG preparations for nuclear war. The tape is a pre-recording of a BBC announcement for when the bombs drop.
There are various actors reading from scripts and interviews with military personnel and a general. One bit stuck in my memory when the interviewer asked a general that if they would shoot looters on sight, asked how you would tell a looter from a forager. He replied that "a looter has a gun - but forager has a cabbage."
Such is the mind of the military when exposed to extremes like 'Martial Law'. The Brits are particularly good at this having experienced the 'Black Hole of Calcutta' to name but one of many! Worth a short read: https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/The-Black-Hole-of-Calcutta/
Nothing is ever what it seems to be.
Man I tell ya’ the friends I keep.
LOL - they are a motley crew and beyond redemption! :-D
Fancy talking about redemption ina place like this.
I read this book in 1970. 13 I guess looking back, did not read it again. However in later years I encountered Paul Virilio. Three interrelated concepts from Virilio’s unique lexicon stand out as uniquely relevant for political theology: dromology, accidentology, and revelation. Writing in the late 70s on trends that have proliferated, Virilio declares that “there is no democracy, only dromocracy,” the rule of speed (Speed and Politics, 69). For Virilio, speed itself is neither good nor bad, and there can be a non-oppressive, voluntary multiplicity of cohabitating speeds. But today we are all drawn into a dangerous acceleration, filtered through and motivated by the logic of militarization, a dialectic of attack and defense. “In fact, history progresses at the speed of its weapons systems,” says Virilio (Speed and Politics, 90). For Virilio, then, the primary driver of modern politics is not the secularization of theology into law, nor even the dialectic between the bourgeoisie and proletariat; the key to social domination is speed and the battle over movement, the militarized governance of mobility, which immobilizes populations not only with tear gas and batons, but by making them sedentary, passive, and aloof through fast travel and the captivation of screens. https://politicaltheology.com/paul-virilio/
Time–space compression occurs as a result of technological innovations driven by the global expansion of capital that condense or elide spatial and temporal distances, including technologies of communication (telegraph, telephones, fax machines, Internet) and travel (rail, cars, trains, jets), driven by the need to overcome spatial barriers, open up new markets, speed up production cycles, and reduce the turnover time of capital.
According to Paul Virilio, time-space compression is an essential facet of capitalist life, saying that "we are entering a space which is speed-space ... This new other time is that of electronic transmission, of high-tech machines, and therefore, man is present in this sort of time, not via his physical presence, but via programming" (qtd. in Decron 71[5]). In Speed and Politics, Virilio coined the term dromology to describe the study of "speed-space". Virilio describes velocity as the hidden factor in wealth and power, where historical eras and political events are effectively speed-ratios. In his view, acceleration destroys space and compresses time in ways of perceiving reality. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time%E2%80%93space_compression
Yep. Foreshadowing of a fast onrushing slow train.
https://youtu.be/LQUXuQ6Zd9w
It is all there metaphorically speaking
https://youtu.be/7hx4gdlfamo
Future, what is the future.
We have repeated the errors of the past so many times we are stuck there.
The present becomes our onrushing slow train future?
Good writers are born. GREAT writers are heavily practiced. I seriously doubt you were EVER a "sophomoric" writer. Lovely, reading your offerings. :~)
Thank you so much for your comment and appreciation. I like to look back on earlier work with a sense of humor. I do agree that we get better at what we do - including writing!
My sense is, a writer's work is never done. I'm editing work I did years ago, that I'll be publishing in book form. It's hard to resist tweaking it to make the words better match the pictures in my head more precisely than when I first attempted it. Then again, I'm loosening my grip on being perfectionistic. :~) I think as We develop, our Writing does too. Kind of like re-watching a film we viewed when younger, which has new meaning to us now that we're older and have a broader vantage point. In any case, I think we do the very best we can, at any stage of life~ which perhaps is worth honoring.
Great comment and so true that we evolve as we engage in life.
Being perfect is not in our nature - but being fully alive and engaged is a choice.
the story has two parts? This "to delineate becoming free of the matrix or remaining trapped within it.." Very much gives the feeling of entrapment.
There are definitely two parts - many actually - if all futures have bullet holes!
ok… please post, as and when.
???? Unclear comment.
Oh i thought there would be a part two? I think i got confused..
I loved reading this. I never read Future Shock but do remember the fuss around it. One of the most influential people in my life was one of my Grandads. He was a communications officer in the Royal Navy during ww2. He was glad to retire to civilian life. It's thanks to him I'm aware of what the slave construct of government has done to us all, and just how far they'll go to protect their own and what they perceive as their particular ideology. People of the past who tried to even hint that things were not as they appeared to be, and that hidden, shadowy events shaped our lives into ways we wouldn't necessarily have chosen for ourselves, were often ridiculed and ignored. I can't off hand think of any one particular person who managed to convey just how bad things would become as they have over the past four plus years.
Now, I recognise the precipice Humans stand on and that we have run out of time to walk back from it. The overwhelming apathy of most folks to this dystopian future we're faced with is incredible imo. I often can't deal with it without feeling like I'm going to break something inside...
I "get" that shock at too many changes in too short a time thing. I think like many we used to smile at older folks of the past who'd bemoan similar things..that life had sped up too fast, or that things, no longer being the same as in their day, were worsening.
They were right though. I'm old and remember how things used to be and though far from perfect we did, I feel, have the sense of control over much of our lives that we no longer have.
I suspect I'm not making much sense....
They used to say back in the seventies, stop the world, I want to get off.
I just want to say, stop the technocrats, I want to shove them off it. The future could have been what we wanted to make it. Instead we left it in the hands of a few who pretended they'd do it for us. And they killed what future we might have had.
Great comment thanks. Yes, it is high time for us to change - from the inside - and thus change our culture.
Thanks KW. Eye opener indeed.
Someday you MUST tell us if there was a followup to the shot book. If I'd found BRAVE NEW WORLD in my mailbox with a bullet hole in it, I'd be packing (both ways).
I must take you to task for your words about Aldous Huxley. That book about Soma and a pharmaceutically numbed society was written by one of the foremost intellectuals of his time. A friend to Timothy Leary, as he died he had his wife inject LSD into his veins. I read B.N.W. as a 7th grader and I think that Junior High Boys were his target.
Now, regarding FUTURE SHOCK, I had a blue copy. My then-wife and I read it as excitedly as we read CHARIOTS OF THE GODS. Toffler (or anyone in the sixties) could not have imagined the lawless and tribal state of the USA in the 21st century.
Bob Dylan - Slow Train (Official Audio) - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSYzDDlI3WA
My second comment here is that how did it happen that the forces we work against here were able to retroactively shoot our future full of holes. Delusional even for science fiction.
What did I say about Aldous Huxley?
But no , no one could have imagined this current fascist totalitarian international state. The bullet damaged book is a one off so far. There were lots of things to fear in those times but bullet holes in a book were not one of them. The future was the only victim.
Now, KW, you shouldn't take things so personally. You said, "I thought the book was less than brilliant and a kind of obvious way to get rich for someone who could still type and think. The writer and publishers made a killing." The book WAS less than brilliant. But then, so were the Hardy Boys, Tarzan, and Nancy Drew.
A guy's gotta make a buck in this world. Remember: Huxley wrote it in 1931.
Good observations. I don’t even take bullet holes in a birthday gift personally.