Future SHock
Future Shock was a bestselling book written by futurist, Alvin Toffler in 1970. His basic premise was the the pace of change, in contrast with earlier times, was accelerating at an ever increasing speed and that this was having and would continue to have an unsettling effect on individuals and society. After I read the book, i looked out for signs of this phenomena and nothing much seemed to me to be happening until 1989 when the fall of the Berlin Wall became the symbol for dramatic changes which were happening all over the world and continue to happen ever since then. The widespread proliferation of the internet in the years that followed exacerbated the situation so we have now arrived at a place in history where instability is the norm and the stability of the past is but a distant memory
|
Future Shock
In 1989, the spies came in from the cold The Berlin Wall came tumbling down A new world began to unfold We were leaving the past behind The way that things used to be And we headed for the future And all its uncertainties Stop the world I want to get off That’s the way we’re beginning to feel This global village is spinning too fast We’re all beginning to reel It’s spinning faster everyday In oh so many ways This constant change Has us nearly deranged And it’s not going to go away Chorus Now we’re in future shock We can’t turn back the clock To the way we'd like things to be We’re spending so much time on the internet And more time watching TV And we’re living in our virtual worlds Divorced from reality We’re in future shock We can’t turn back the clock To the way we’d like things to be Their downsizing our jobs In the interests of efficiency And where there used to be a smiling face There’s more new technology Oh I don’t understand Can anyone explain it to me? Will our lives have any meaning? In this brave new reality Chorus This world is shrinking fast And I can talk easily To someone on the other side of the earth Who doesn’t mean a thing to me But I find it hard to talk To those nearest and dearest to me I’ve a pain in my heart My world is falling apart What’s going to happen to me Chorus |
Documentary featuring Orson Wells exploring the the concepts dealt with in "Future Shock"
Recording Notes
Contact Studios, Tallaght, Dublin 24. Engineer and Instrumentalist Gerry Horan. Guitarist and Vocalist Tony Bardon Backing Vocals, Danai Kelleher and Andrea Brink Siem |