Our society is so busy bickering over trivial matters it's akin to rearranging the deck chairs on a sinking Titanic. The clash between Second and Third Wave groupings is the crucial political conflict cutting through our society today. Regardless of what today’s political parties and candidates may say, the internal strife among them is really about the declining industrial system.
The central political question of our time is who gets to control and shape our new civilization. We get so caught up in short-range political battles we become exhausted and miss the big picture. Pitted on one side are the supporters of the industrial past; on the other, growing masses who know the world is in real trouble such as food scarcity, renewable energy, overpopulation, poverty, natural resources, ecology, climate change, the breakdown of urban and rural communities, and most of all the need for productive, rewarding work.
Yet none of these fit neatly into our broken industrial order.
This is the super struggle we face today on planet earth.
This clash between the special interests of the Second Wave and the people of the Third Wave is the central political fault line of our nation and much of the world. Even in the former Third World, the Third Wave is effectively rewriting old rules. The fight against industrial elites, either capitalist or socialist, takes on a new aspect considering the obsolescence of industrialism. Third Wave civilization is emerging and hopefully, with it comes emancipation from neocolonialism and deprivation.
It is only against this background that we can begin to look beyond the meme captions on social media, to sort out our main concern, to frame prudent policies for the management of change in our lifetimes.
As I write this, the internet is hysterical about a new Cold War with China, an Iranian nuclear deal, Bitcoin speculation, an Afghanistan troop withdrawal, forever chemicals in water, women protesting sexual violence, and a fight between the rich nations and the poor over COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Waves of religious extremist violence spread from the Middle East to the U.S. Capital insurrection; neofascist Proud Boys demand “fairness” from social media platforms. Meanwhile, Google fights against anti-trust regulations to remain the dominant big tech entity. Such disconnected stories beg for some analysis.
Now that we finally understand that a nasty battle is raging between the Neo-oligarchs trying to preserve industrialism and those of us who wish to move forward, we have a formidable new understanding of what is happening in the world.
My point is this— whether we are establishing national policies, a corporate strategy, or our own personal life goals— Third Wave ideas give us a powerful tool for changing our world on our terms.
Yet if we are ever to use this tool, the Third Wave way of thinking, we must be able to discern clearly how those in power continue the old outdated industrial civilization and suppress the arrival of the new. It is critical to know both the old and the new systems, especially the Second Wave industrial system of our parents and grandparents and the Third Wave civilization that we and our children will live in.
My blog for a time will dive deep into a closer look at both First Wave and Second Wave civilizations because these first two waves of change have prepared the way for the Third Wave of change. You will see how Second Wave civilization was not an accident, but a much larger system— and it used underlying patterns of industrial life, irrespective of the cultural or political system. This is the civilization that today’s reactionaries are fighting to maintain. It is this world that is frightened by the Third Wave of civilizational change.