The Industrial Age

Toffler's Waves

• First Wave - Agrarian Age
• Second Wave - Industrial Age
• Third Wave - Information Age

First vs. Second Wave Societies

• Technology sphere
  • "Living batteries" vs. irreplaceable energy
  • Custom vs. mass production
• Sociology sphere
  • Extended vs. nuclear family
  • Individual wealth vs. corporate wealth
• Informational sphere
  • Communication of the elite vs. mass communication
  • Spoken word/parchment vs. "paper blizzard"
• War Between the States - The perfect example
  • Conflict between 1st wave south, and 2nd wave north
  • The north's victory propels U.S. into a 2nd wave nation
    • Eleven of first twelve amendments limit federal power
    • Six of the next seven (post war) amendments expand federal power

The Industrial Code

• Standardization
  • light bulbs
  • prices
  • time
• Synchronization
  • punctually is a virtue
  • school bells
  • factory whistles
  • rush hour
• Specialization
  • division of labor
  • factory
  • professions
  • consumer vs. producer
• Concentration
  • populations in cities
  • prison
  • nursing homes
  • nation's capital
• Centralization
  • management
  • government
  • bureaucratic machines
• Maximization
  • big is better
  • skyscrapers
  • government
  • corporations
  • GNP (Gross National Product)

The Industrial World View

• Three general principles of Indust-Reality
  • Nature to be overcome/conquered
  • Progress principle - history always progresses toward a better life
  • Darwinism expands - Social Darwinism, natural selection
• Concept of Time and Space
  • Precise
  • Linear
  • World wide interaction
• The Atom obsession
  • Emphasis on subdivision and precise order of parts
    • Descartes
    • One man/one vote democracy
  • Cause and effect Newtonian physics

Humanities Resource of Mark Hunter