Editing Alvin Toffler (section)

===Ideas and opinions===
{{quote box|quote="A new civilization is emerging in our lives, and blind men everywhere are trying to suppress it. This new civilization brings with it new family styles; changed ways of working, loving, and living; a new economy; new political conflicts; and beyond all this an altered consciousness as well...The dawn of this new civilization is the single most explosive fact of our lifetimes."|source=Alvin Toffler, from ''The Third Wave'' (1980)<ref>Gilbert, Montserrat Gines. ''The Meaning of Technology'', Univ. Politèc. de Catalunya (2003) p. 157</ref>|align=right|width=25em|bgcolor = Cornsilk}}

Toffler stated many of his ideas during an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1998.<ref name=Australia/> "Society needs people who take care of the elderly and who know how to be compassionate and honest," he said. "Society needs people who work in hospitals. Society needs all kinds of skills that are not just cognitive; they're emotional, they're affectional. You can't run the society on data and computers alone."<ref name=Australia>{{cite interview| url= http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/lm/stories/s10440.htm |first= Alvin |last= Toffler |interviewer= Norman Swann |publisher= Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National| title=Life Matters| date= March 5, 1998| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20001020092245/http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/lm/stories/s10440.htm| url-status= dead| archive-date= October 20, 2000| access-date= May 4, 2016}}</ref>

His opinions about the future of education, many of which were in ''[[Future Shock]]'', have often been quoted. An often misattributed quote, however, is that of psychologist Herbert Gerjuoy: "Tomorrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn."<ref>{{cite book|last=Toffler|first=Alvin|title=Future Shock|url=https://archive.org/details/futureshoc00toff|url-access=registration|year=1970|publisher=Random House|location=New York|page=[https://archive.org/details/futureshoc00toff/page/367 367]}}</ref>

Early in his career, after traveling to other countries, he became aware of the new and myriad inputs that visitors received from these other cultures. He explained during an interview that some visitors would become "truly disoriented and upset" by the strange environment, which he described as a reaction to [[culture shock]].<ref name=interview>video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCXCDYj6U4E&t=1m48s Interview with Alvin Toffler]</ref> From that issue, he foresaw another problem for the future, when a culturally "new environment comes to you&nbsp;... and comes to you rapidly." That kind of sudden cultural change within one's own country, which he felt many would not understand, would lead to a similar reaction, one of "future shock", which he wrote about in his book by that title.<ref name=interview/> Toffler writes:
{{blockquote|We must search out totally new ways to anchor ourselves, for all the old roots—religion, nation, community, family, or profession—are now shaking under the hurricane impact of the accelerative thrust.<ref name=CBC/><ref name=AP>{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/alvin-toffler-author-obit-1.3659263|title=Alvin Toffler, Future Shock and Third Wave author, dead at 87|date=June 29, 2016|publisher=[[CBC News]]|agency=[[Associated Press]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160813081640/https://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/alvin-toffler-author-obit-1.3659263|archive-date=August 13, 2016}}</ref>}}

In ''[[The Third Wave (Toffler book)|The Third Wave]]'', Toffler describes three types of societies, based on the concept of "waves"—each wave pushes the older societies and cultures aside.<ref>video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgwVlsHxdWY&t=7m24s Alvin and Heidi Toffler interview with Brian Lamb], 1996</ref> He describes the "First Wave" as the society after [[Neolithic Revolution|agrarian revolution]] and replaced the first [[hunter-gatherer]] cultures. The "Second Wave," he labels society during the [[Industrial Revolution]] (ca. late 17th century through the mid-20th century). That period saw the increase of urban industrial populations which had undermined the traditional [[nuclear family]], and initiated a factory-like education system, and the growth of the corporation. Toffler said:

{{blockquote|The Second Wave Society is industrial and based on [[mass production]], [[mass distribution]], [[mass consumption]], [[mass education]], mass media, mass [[recreation]], mass entertainment, and [[weapons of mass destruction]]. You combine those things with [[standardization]], [[centralization]], concentration, and synchronization, and you wind up with a style of organization we call [[bureaucracy]].<ref name=Australia/>}}

The "Third Wave" was a term he coined to describe the [[post-industrial society]], which began in the late 1950s. His description of this period dovetails with other futurist writers, who also wrote about the [[Information Age]], [[Space Age]], [[Electronic computer|Electronic]] Era, [[Global village (term)|Global Village]], terms which highlighted a scientific-technological revolution.<ref name=Denver>[https://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/29/author-alvin-toffler-dies/ "Future Shock" author Alvin Toffler has died at age 87], ''Denver Post'', June 29, 2016</ref> The Tofflers claimed to have predicted a number of geopolitical events, such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the future economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.<ref name=Denver/>