Things: the Throw-away Society

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Things the Throw-away Society

• Alvin Toffler

Background
Detailed study of the text
Organization and Development
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The Author Alvin Toffler (Oct.3, 1928- )

• An American writer, teacher and futurist, known
  for his work discussing the digital revolution,
  communications revolution, and corporate
  revolution. His early work focused on technology
  and its impact. Then he moved to examining the
  reaction of and changes in society. His later
  focus has been on the increasing power of 21st
  century military hardware, weapons and technology
  proliferation and capitalism.

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The Author his ideas

• Society needs people who take care of the
  elderly and who know how to be compassionate and
  honest. Society needs people who work in
  hospitals. Society needs all kinds of skill that
  are not just cognitive theyre emotional,
  theyre affectional. You cant run the society on
  data and computers alone.
• This text is taken from chapter 4 of Tofflers
  book Future Shock (1970)

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Alvin Toffler (Oct.3, 1928- )

• For more than four decades, Alvin Toffler has
  been one of the worlds most prescient(???),
  insightful and influential voices in business and
  intellectual life. With the publication of his
  seminal work, Future Shock, Toffler created an
  all-new discipline (futurism in Italy to
  liberate from the weight of the past and to
  glorify modernity, significant components of
  modern Western culture ) around the study of
  change and its impact on business and culture.
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futurism

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PREEMINENT GLOBAL FORECASTER

• Alvin Toffler has an unusual gift for defining
  the forces and trends that shape our future in
  ways that help a broad range of audiences, from
  companies to governments, shape their future in
  todays knowledge-based economy. He understands
  politics, economics, and changes in technology,
  society and the arts as few others do.

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• Future shock means the shattering stress and
  disorientation(??,????) that we induce in
  individuals by subjecting them to too much change
  in too short a time.
• Alvins subsequent book, the Third Wave(1980)
  is another significant book. The Shockwave Rider
  (1995) is a science-fiction novel inspired by his
  Future Shock.

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The Third Wave

• The first wave society after agrarian revolution
  and replaced the first hunter-gathers cultures,
  the age of agriculture began.
• The second wave society nuclear family,
  factory-type education system and the
  corporation. Alvin writes 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
• The third wave society the post industrial
  society (information age)

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• During the 1980s, Alvin was read and listened to
  across the world as people tried to make sense of
  the impact of new technologies and social change.

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Get to learn the usage of words or phrases with
the help of their contexts

• dramatic change/development/rise
• Terrified by the stranger, the girl clutched
  (onto) her mothers hand
• Feeling himself drowning, the man clutched a log.
• Keats, a famous English poet, expresses the
  notion of the permanence of art and transience of
  human life in his masterpiece Ode on Grecian
  Um.(?????)

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• a gold crown embedded with jewels
• That terrible day will be forever embedded in my
  memory
• embed in/with fix firmly and deeply in, cause
  to be an integral part of a surrounding whole
• a sumptuous palace/feast
• The guests turned up in sumptuous evening gowns.

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• Seeing his sons devil-may-care attitude
  towards the problem, he suddenly sank into the
  armchair.
• I cant understand his weird mentality. (state or
  quality of mental ability a way of thinking
  habitual or characteristic mental attitude that
  determines how one interprets and responds to
  situations)

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• Smith supplanted Miller as CEO after Miller
  retired.
• The new version of Barbie doll has a slimmer
  figure, real eyelashes and a twist-and-turn
  waist that makes her more humanoid than ever.
• Anti-materialists tend to deride the importance
  of things. Yet things are highly significant.

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• The first image She ?debuted(????) in the now
  famous black-and-white striped swimsuit and
  signature ponytail. And she was a hit.

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Detailed Study and Discussion Paras.1-3

• Question Whats the function of the example of
  Barbie doll? Is it isolated from the rest of the
  text?
• The example of the Barbie doll is given to
  introduce and illustrate his thesis mans
  relationships with things are increasingly
  temporary. The thesis is repeatedly illustrated
  and supported by more examples in the rest of the
  text.

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Paras.4-5
Language points

• ocean of man-made physical objects
• technologically produced environment
• the texture of plastic or concrete
• the staggering vision of a cityscape
• the intimate realities of his existence

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Paras.4-5
Language points

• Man-made things enter into and color his
  consciousness
• Their number is expanding both absolutely and
  relative to the natural environment.

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Paras.4-5
Questions

• How would you interpret the sentence Things
  affect our sense of continuity or discontinuity.
  They play a role in the structure of situations
  and the foreshortening of our relationships with
  things accelerates the pace of life.?
• Could you figure out the main idea of this part?

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• What are the two functions of things? Which
  does the author attach more importance to?
• Main idea of paras 4-5
• the psychological impact of the increasing number
  of man-made things on man.

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Para.6

• devoted to the difference between two generations
  in their value judgments, which is shown by means
  of comparison and contrast.
• Question
• What is the difference between two
  generations in their value judgments?

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Para.7

• It is devoted to the throw-away culture in
  which the younger generation are deeply involved,
  which is shown with a long list of throw-away
  objects for daily use a further illustration of
  the throw-away situation and increasing
  temporary man-thing relationship mentioned in
  previous paragraphs.

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Paras.8 and 9

• devoted to examples of other industrialized
  countries, in which the throw-away culture has
  been fostered (developed) gradually since the
  late 50s. U. S. and Sweden are contrasted to
  show how the latter was transformed into a
  throw-away society in the late 50s, which
  suggests an increasing tendency for the whole
  society to become dominated by throw-away
  culture.

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Questions for para.8
What is the topic sentence of para. 8? Is it
adequately developed and supported by the
evidence that follows in this paragraph?
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Paras.10-12

• devoted to the examples of the introduction of
  paper clothes products a further step towards
  disposability(to use products once or for short
  term and throw away) to show peoples
  psychological need for throw-away things and the
  trend to maintain a transient relationship
  between man and man-made objects.

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Questions for paras 10-12

• What does fashionable boutiques and
  working-class clothing stores(in para. 10)
  suggest?
• What, according to Alvin, has given rise to the
  popularity of paper products in the market?

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Exemplifications of Barbie dolls
Explosive increase Of man-made Objects Throw
away Products factors contributing to
throw-away mentality
Different attitudes towards dolls of Different
generations
a long list of throw-away objects for daily use
decreased Durations in man-thing
relationships
A throw Away society
the resistance of the French housewife towards
disposable products
the rapid shift to a throw-away society in
Sweden, Japan, England, and France
a set of radically altered values with respect
to property
the popularity of paper clothes
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Discussion

• Would you characterize Tofflers essay as
  subjective and interpretive or objective and
  factual? Why do you think so?
• In what ways does the author organize and
  development the text?
• Whats your key learning point from the text? Do
  you agree or disagree with the author? State your
  reasons.
• Summarize in one sentence the main idea of the
  text.
• What makes the authors writing significant?

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• Most people are aware of the impact this
  phenomenon of throwing-away things/ waste may
  have on our ecological environment, but not as
  many realize its impact on our mentality, which
  may be more far-reaching.