I'm going way back, for a classic comedic look at the factory worker's life in the Industrial Age. Charlie Chaplin trying to get through the day in Modern Times, from 1936.
The Big Freakin' Transition is my concept, an extension of The Third Wave idea put forth by futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler, and published in Alvin's 1980 book, The Third Wave *.
This is a big idea, and involves a lot of different aspects of our society. But at it's core, my concept of The Big Freakin' Transition is two basic ideas:
One: We are not IN the Industrial Age anymore, but we are not IN the Information Age, either. We are in an 80 to 90 years transition period where American society morphs from the Industrial Age into the Information Age. This transition period began in 1956, according to futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler, and I estimate the end will be about 2035-2045.
Two: To remain viable in modern society, EVERY business, industry, organization, institution, and individual must make the transition from an Industrial Age living and working model, to an Information Age living and working model. When pretty much all of society has made the switch, then we will be fully in the Information Age. The world seems so crazy these days because we are in this huge, long, major transition phase.
There are tons of details and factors, but that is The Big Freakin' Transition concept at its core.
To grossly oversimplify things, originally humans were tribal people that we usually refer to as hunter/gatherers. The First Wave of civilization was the transition from hunter/gatherer society to an agricultural society People began to plant crops and farm, stay in one place, and villages became permanent, and turned into small towns, and eventually into cities. That began about 10,000 years ago, probably in the region that is now Turkey. It took a couple of thousand years for agriculture to travel the Earth, and become the dominant form of human society.
The Second Wave of civilization was the transition from agricultural society to an industrial society. This, the Tofflers tell us, began about 350 years ago, and took a couple of hundred years to circle the Earth, to become the dominant form of society. The factory based Industrial Age continued well into the second half of the 20th century.
The Third Wave, as the Tofflers saw it, is the transition from an Industrial-based society to an Information-based society. As it's called now, the transition from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. Alvin Toffler's book on this came out in 1980, four years before the Apple Macintosh computer, the first personal computer for "regular people." He also wrote it right as the thousands of American factories began to either outsource jobs to other countries, or replace human workers with industrial robots and other technology. So most people who did read The Third Wave when it was knew thought, "OK, the factories are shutting down or moving overseas, we have Silicon Valley, high tech, computers and cell phones, we're in the information-based age now."
Of the people alive today, the Greatest Generation, the Baby Boomers, and Generation X were born at times when the Industrial Age was still going strong. The Millennials, Generation Z (you'll get a new nickname, don't worry), and today's kids, were born into times when the Industrial age was fading fast, and the Information Age was (and still is) coming on strong. So to our older generations the Industrial Age is "normal," and to the younger generations, the Information Age is "normal." That alone explains a lot in today's culture.
The Big Freakin' Transition is my idea that the Toffler's Third Wave concept is still playing out. I think that we didn't jump right into the full blown Information Age when all the factories shutdown, or moved overseas in the 1980's, 1990's, or 2000's. I believe we are actually in an 80 to 90 year long transition period BETWEEN the Industrial Age and the Information Age. We have a lot of the technology of the full Information Age now, but a lot of our businesses, industries, and institutions are still working from Industrial Age models, and have not fully integrated their business or working models to ones that work in the Information Age. The Tofflers put the beginning of this transition period at 1956, the first year "white collar" office workers outnumbered "blue collar" factory workers in the United States. I believe this transition period will last at least until about 2040, maybe longer.
Very simply, we are about 2/3 the way through this long, crazy, chaotic period of transition from one type of society and lifestyle, to another. No other civilization has had to make this big of a social transition in the span of a single lifetime. We are going from one way of life to another, and it's weird, scary, crazy, and chaotic. We are in between the Industrial Age and the Information Age, and have aspects of both working in our world right now.
That's the Big Freakin' Transition, in a nutshell. For the record, I've been referring to this idea as"The Big Transition" in my personal and online writing, for 3 years or so. I figured that I'd come up with a catchier name at some point, but I never did. When I decided to write this blog, and go into more detail on all that the idea ties into, I finally googled "The Big Transition." There's one religious book by that name, on totally different ideas, and several other things that came up in my search. So I added the word "freakin'" to set it apart, and to not make it too serious and boring. I think this concept, as a context for the craziness of today's world, can help us explain and understand what's going on.
In future posts I'll go into much more depth on this general idea, and into the details of the various aspects of it. The basic idea to get right now is, yes, the world seems crazy for a reason, we're in a huge transition period that is crazy and chaotic, by it's nature. It's OK to be freaked out by all that's going on. I hope this concept can help other people understand this transition, and then find their own way to work within it.
* Not a paid link.
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