Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth, and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century

553 Pages·1990·1.53 MB·English

by  Alvin Toffler

Bantam Books by Alvin Toffler
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FUTURE SHOCK THE
THIRD WAVE
POWERSHIFT

POWERSHIFT: KNOWLEDGE, WEALTH, AND

VIOLENCE AT THE EDGE OF THE 21ST CENTURY
A Bantam Book Bantam hardcover
edition published November 1990
Bantam export edition I June 1991
Bantam paperback edition I December 1991
All rights reserved.
Copyright © .7990 by Alvin Tqffler and Heidi Toffler.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 90-1068.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage and retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher. For
information address: Bantam Books.
Foreign Editions of Powershift (a partial list)
Bulgarian Narodna Kultura
Chinese The China Times Publishing
Danish Holkenfeldts Forlag
Dutch Veen Publishers
English (UK) Bantam Press
Finnish Otava Oy
French Librairie Artheme Fayard
German Econ Verlag
Indonesian P.T. Pantja Simpati
Italian Sperling & Kupfer Editore
Japanese Fuso Sha
Korean Korea Economic Daily
Malaysian Dewan Bahasa Dan Pustaka
Portuguese (Brazil) Distribuidora Record
Portuguese (Portugal) Livros do Brazil (trade):
Circulo de Leitores (bkclub)
Norwegian J. W. Cappelens Forlag
Spanish Plaza y Janes
Swedish Bokforlaget Bra Backer
Turkish Altin Kitaplar
If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware
that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and
destroyed" to the publisher and neither the author nor the publisher
has received any payment for this "stripped book."
ISBN 0-553-29215-3 Published
simultaneously in the United States and Canada
Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam
Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the
words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered in
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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
OPM 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
PART ONE: THE NEW MEANING Of POWER_________________

1 THE POWERSHIFT ERA
The End of Empire
God-in-a-White-Coat
Bombarded by the Future
The Making of a Shabby Gentility
2 MUSCLE, MONEY, AND MIND
High-Quality Power One
Million Inferences Facts,
Lies, and Truth The
Democratic Difference

PART TWO; LIFE IN THE SUPER-SYMBOLIC ECONOMY

3 BEYOND THE AGE OF GLITZ
The Business Commandos
Dale Carnegie and Attila the Hun
The Consultant's Hidden Mission

4 FORCE: THE YAKUZA COMPONENT
Blood and Snow-Money
On Zeks and Goons A
Monopoly of Force The
Hidden Gun The
Trajectory of Power
5 WEALTH: MORGAN, MILKEN ... AND AFTER
The X-Shaped Desk
Milken versus Morgan
Opening the Gates
The Counterattack
Tampons and Car Rentals
The Post-Wall Street Era
The Zigzag of Power
The Looming Fight for Global Control
6 KNOWLEDGE: A WEALTH OF SYMBOLS
Inside the Skull
An Epitaph for Paper
Designer Currencies and Para-Money
Power Failures
21st-century Money
7 MATERIAL-ISMO!
The New Meaning of Joblessness
The Spectrum of Mind-Work
Lowbrows versus Highbrows
Lowbrow Ideology Highbrow
Ideology

8 THE ULTIMATE SUBSTITUTE
The Alchemy of Information
Knowledge versus Capital
PART THREE: THE INFORMATION WARS________________
9 THE CHECKOUT BATTLE
Behind the Shoot-outs The
Scent of Miss America The
"Push-Money" Ploy Beyond
the Supermarket The Double
Payment The Intelligent
Supermarket A Threat to the
"Shoguns"
10 EXTRA-INTELLIGENCE
Bach, Beethoven, and Wang
The Telephone Fad Secrets and
Secret-aries Electronic
Highways The Self-Aware
Network Messing with the
Message
11 NET POWER
The Search for Denim The
Bingo-ed Wholesaler Real
Estate and Rails Mobilizing for
Electronic War The Customer
Loop Business Blitzkrieg The
Rise of Info-Monopolies?
12 THE WIDENING WAR
The Half-Trillion-Dollar Stake
Strategic Standards
The Main Bout
Computer Democracy
The Paradox of Norms
The Beer and Sausage Minuet
13 THE EXECUTIVE THOUGHT POLICE
Levels of Combat The
Two-Party Campaign
Strategic Retreat The Giant
Brain Era The Ethics of
Information The Paradox
Bomb
14 TOTAL INFORMATION WAR
Rusty Tracks and Hotel Love-Sounds INs
and OUTs Wholistic Espionage A 75-
Cent Error
PART FOUR; POWER IN THE FLEX-FIRM _______________
15 THE CUBBYHOLE CRASH
The Bureaucracy-Busters An Infinity of
Cubbyholes Power versus Reason
"Camelephants" and Hot Potatoes
Choked Channels Free-Flow Knowledge
Knowledge Is Power Is Knowledge
16 THE FLEX-FIRM
The End of the Cookie-Cut Company
The De-colonization of Business
Dancing on Tables Fam-Firms of the
Future
17 TRIBAL CHIEFS AND CORPORATE COMMISSARS
The Pulsating Organization The
Two-faced Organization The
Checkerboard Organization The
Commissar Organization The Buro-
baronial Organization The
Skiinkworks Organization
The Self-start Team A
Diversity of Powers The
Missing Panacea The
Limits of Control
18 THE AUTONOMOUS EMPLOYEE
Unblocking Minds
The Feckless Farmer
The New Chains
The Electronic Proletariat
Tomorrow's Work Regimen
The Non-interchangeable Person
Two Imperatives
The Demand for Access
19 THE POWER-MOSAIC
From Monoliths to Mosaics Meat-
Cleaver Management The
Monopolists Inside In the Belly of
the Behemoth Relational Wealth
Power in Mosaics Beyond the
Corporation
CODA: THE NEW SYSTEM FOR WEALTH CREATION
The New Economic Metabolism A
Hailstorm of Pleas Tomorrow's
Wealth
PART FIVE: POWERSHIFT POLITICS __________________
20 THE DECISIVE DECADES
Dynasties and Democracies
Shifting Levels
Earth Politics
An Explosion of Ethnics
Mosaic Democracy
Pivotal Minorities
21 THE INVISIBLE PARTY
The Ministry of the 21 st Century
The Global Buzzword Stripping for
Action Disappearance of the
Hierarchs Secret Teams and
Plumbers
22 INFO-TACTICS
Alfalfa Secrets and Guided Leaks
The Masked Source Back-stabbers
and Back-Channels The Double-
Channel Ploy On the Receiving End
Massaging the Message In-fighters
and Savvy Staffers
23 META-TACTICS
Eskimos and Mind-Workers
Truth versus Power The
Kidnapped Finger Chernobyl in
the Ballot Box Gimme a
Number! Data Base Deception
Phantom People
24 A MARKET FOR SPIES
Butterflies and Bombs
The Kremlin's Limousines
The Main Competitors
Swapping Secrets
The Looming Giants
Warplanes and "Watch Lists"
Line X versus James Bond
The Coming Eco-Wars
The Privatization of Spying
The New Meaning of "Private Eye"
Contradictions at the Core
25 THE INFO-AGENDA
A Hunger for Knowing Terrorist
Bombs and AIDS Victims The New
Global Feedback The Indiana Jones
Code
26 THE IMAGE MAKERS
The Multi-channel Society
The Arrival of Choice
The Coming Eurovision
The Global Sell
The New Barons
The Forging of Global Opinion
27 SUBVERSIVE MEDIA
The Nasty Little Man on TV
Three Media Modes
Media-fusion
Valleys of Ignorance
The Revolutionists' Media Strategy
The China Syndrome
28 THE "SCREENIE" GENERATION
The Slave Golfer A
Decadent Luxury More
Than Compassion
Electronic Activism The
Information Divide The
New Alliance
CODA: YEARNINGS FOR A NEW DARK AGE
Holy Frenzy
Eco-theocracy
The New Xenophobes