Knowledge, not violence nor money, is the essence of power in the information age, claims Toffler ( Future Shock ) as he observes "info-wars" raging in such arenas as computers, high-definition TV, electronic networks, and industrial espionage, and the fight for control of customer data by retailers, manufacturers, banks and credit-card issuers.
He hails the emerging "flex-firm," a company open to many types of free-form "counterbureaucratic" organization.
Toffler credits junk-bond salesman Michael Milken with making finance more competitive and less monopolistic.
Assessing the "power triad" of the U.S./Japan/Western Europe, he deems European nations the least stable link, with Germany gaining ascendancy.
He looks warily at "Global Gladiators"- drug cartels, Khomeini, multinationals, the Pope - who challenge the boundaries of the nation-state.
Toffler's inflated, slogan-slinging probe entertains as it serves up bytes of information and insight, some provocative, some facile.
Why should you read a book written almost 30 years ago?
Because there are special people like the Toffler's that can see the future.
This book I read when it was released and just re-read it.
When I read it for the first time, my painful conversations with my blue-color friends, on why it was okay to be in a service economy vs. a manufacturing economy led to a painful breakdown on why we were moving toward a knowledge economy.
This book needs to be read, so that, we all can understand, that just as it is ignorant to forget the past, it is just as erroneous to ignore the future.
Toffler's book is an amazing seminal reading of how special people can see into the future.
When you read it you will be amazed as to how almost everything predicted happened over the last 30 years did happen in retrospect.
And it will lead you to understand why time is being compressed and what took 30 years to unfold will likely happen in 1/10 of the time.