The section “Bombarded by the Future” in Toffler’s essay The Powershift Era begins to explain the transition between the industrial age and the information age.  He mentions that when a change in “wealth” occurs, then a powershift will occur.  The powershift in this particular case is one from brute labor to knowledge and information, where knowledge is the new wealth. Toffler mentions that the Japanese recognized this powershift as early as 1970.  It is for this reason that Toffler believes the Japanese have such an advantage over the United States as we near the information age.  They have substituted information technologies for their “smokestack industry”.  He cites an example of the General Motors Company in the US.  General Motors followed the industrial mindset where manual labor was the process used, whereas in Japan, new robots were being employed to do the work of manual labor.  This allowed the people who would normally be working manually to explore the wealth of knowledge that was becoming available to them.  Toffler states that all aspects of society will be transformed due to the increased importance of the “mind.”

Analysis

 In this section of his essay, Toffler makes it very clear that he feels society is being driven in the direction of information technologies.  He expects a powershift from the industrial based society brought about by the Industrial Revolution to the information technologies based society called the Information Age.  He brings up some points and arguments that support his theory, but does not adequately expound upon his statements.  Due to this lack of support and reasoning in certain cases, his arguments are unclear at times, and therefore somewhat unconvincing.  He relies on the reader's knowledge of society and technology to provide his support, and this can be dangerous if he misjudges the type of audience reading the essay.

 By “planting” his ideas about the way that present day industrial technologies are failing due to the information age takeover, Toffler relies on the reader to fill in the examples to justify the statement.  For example, he mentions the downturn of the General Motors company in the United States as his only real example through the essay.  Toffler states “the substitution of information or knowledge for brute labor, in fact, lies behind the trouble of General Motors and the rise of Japan as well” (21).  The paragraph that follows this doesn't necessarily explain his reasoning behind this statement, it merely states that the Japanese people “were being bombarded by books, newspaper articles, and television programs heralding the arrival of the ‘information age’” (21)  To me, this seems like a very generalized statement.  I think Toffler would be better to contrast GM to an actual Japanese company who made progress using information technologies.  This would provide the hard evidence by showing the specific differences between the companies of the two countries.  After the reader has seen the specific differences, he or she may then make an educated decision to agree or disagree with the author.

 Another impression that Toffler gives in this section of his essay is one that the industrial technologies will simply cease to exist.  He touches upon an “end of industrialism concept” (21), which implies that industry will be no more.  I'm not sure this is such a strong argument.  His only justification to the end of industry is that knowledge will be the key to economic growth.  Although industry may not be as economically profitable as information technologies, it will still be a necessity to society.  There has to be some amount of industry to produce the plastics, metals, polymers, computer chips, and other accessories that the information technologies utilize.  Toffler ignores this aspect entirely in his argument.  Finally, he does provide a consequence of the “end of industrialism” in that developing nations will have to alter their economic approaches.  This is a very valid conclusion, but it is separated from the main idea that it is associated with.  This jumping from topic to topic can be confusing, as I had to look back to find what he was associating with this consequence.

 In this section, Toffler brings a couple good points to the forefront.  Points such as the advancement of society and industry based on new information technologies, and the changing economic scheme of many nations due to the added importance of knowledge.  However, he fails to back his points up with hard evidence or observations, relying on the readers knowledge and experiences to do the work for him.  For some people, this approach may work, but when people read an essay and continuously say to themselves “show me the proof”, the argument becomes weak and ineffective.
 
 
 
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Works Cited
        Toffler, Alvin.  "The Powershift Era"  Technology and the Future.  Ed. Albert H. Teich.  New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997.  Pg. 15-23.