The American Institute of Stress HEALTH AND STRESS Your source for science-based stress management information VOLUME 28 ISSUE 4 October 2016 THE LEGACY OF FUTURE SHOCK October 2016 AIS Health and Stress www.stress.org The mission of AIS is to improve the health of the com- munity and the world by setting the standard of excel- lence of stress management in education, research, clini- cal care and the workplace. Diverse and inclusive, The American Institute of Stress educates medical practitio- ners, scientists, health care professionals and the public; conducts research; and provides information, training and techniques to prevent human illness related to stress. AIS provides a diverse and inclusive environment that fosters intellectual discovery, creates and transmits inno- vative knowledge, improves human health, and provides leadership to the world on stress related topics. 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All materials on AIS’ website and in AIS’ newsletters are the property of AIS and may not be copied, reproduced, sold, or distributed without permission. For permission, contact editor@stress. org. Liberal use of AIS fact sheets and news releases is allowable with attribution. Please use the following: “Reproduced from the American Institute of Stress website [or magazine], © AIS [year].” AIS Board of Directors Chairman: Paul J. Rosch, MD, FACP President: Daniel L. Kirsch, PhD, DAAPM, FAIS Distinguished Members: Robert Bisaccia Holger Wrede, Esq. Tracey B. Kirsch ALVIN TOFFLER AND THE LEGACY OF FUTURE SHOCK By Paul J. Rosch, MD, FACP Alvin Toffler, a Founding Trustee of the Ameri- Shock” and the book was the basis of John can Institute of Stress died on June 27 at the Brunnner’s 1975 “The Shockwave Rider” and age of 87. He became an international celeb- other science-fiction novels. A 1972 Future rity following the 1970 publication of Future Shock documentary, begins with a bearded Shock, which emphasized the dangerous and weary-looking Orson Welles, who explains: mental and physical effects of rapid socio- “In the course of my work, which has taken me cultural changes that were taking place, and to just about every corner of the globe, I see many the growing problem of informational overload. aspects of a phenomenon which I’m just begin- It is difficult to overestimate the influence this ning to understand. Our modern technologies book had here and abroad. Over 15 million copies were sold, including 5 million in the U.S.; have changed the degree of sophistication it has been translated into dozens of languag- beyond our wildest dreams. But this technology es, and is still in print almost a half century later. has exacted a pretty heavy price. We live in an It attracted millions of fans and followers, age of anxiety and time of stress. And with all our including business executives, politicians sophistication, we are in fact the victims of our and celebrities. Curtis Mayfield, Herbie Hancock own technological strengths –- we are the victims and other musicians wrote songs titled “Future of shock… a future shock.” October 2016 AIS Health and Stress www.stress.org Welles goes on to illustrate the bewildering They soon became disillusioned with various barrage of new technologies and choices we aspects of their leftist communist views, are constantly confronted with, and the lack including the promise of an impending social of permanence as we have morphed into a revolution in which oppressed workers would disposable, throw-away society. The video ends triumph. Toffler later told a reporter he would with a clip of Toffler warning college students have quit his factory job after two years, but it “We must begin to say ‘No’ to certain kinds of was during the McCarthy witch-hunt era, and technology and begin to control technological he felt obligated to stick by his organizing change, because we have now reached the point comrades, “It was one thing to change your at which technology is so powerful and so rapid ideology; it was another thing to change your that it may destroy us, unless we control it.” friends and rat on them.” He also experienced the dangers of physical labor when a steel Why Did Toffler Write Future Shock And How beam he was helping to unload twisted unex- Accurate Were His Predictions? pectedly and fell on him breaking one of his Alvin Toffler was born and raised in Brooklyn. vertebrae. At night, he wrote poetry and fiction, His parents were Jewish immigrants from and although the results were disappointing, Poland, his father was a furrier, and he had a he still aspired to be a writer. In 1954, soon after younger sister. They lived with an uncle, Phil the birth of their only child, Karen, he Album, an editor, and an aunt Ruth Album, a persuaded the editor of Industry and Welding, poet, both of whom had a strong influence. As a Cleveland trade magazine, to hire him as a Toffler later explained “They were Depression- reporter. In 1957, he was reporting for Labor’s era literary intellectuals and they always talked Daily, a national trade newspaper published in about exciting ideas.” He began composing Charleston, West Virginia on labor news in poetry and stories soon after learning to read, Washington. Two years later, Fortune and by age 7, had decided to become a writer. He entered New York University in 1946, but magazine hired him comment as its labor was not a stellar student since he was much editor and columnist. more interested and actively involved in political activism. During a 1948 trip back to He left Fortune in 1962, and with Heidi as his college from helping to register black voters editor and adviser, became a freelance writer in North Carolina, he met Adelaide Elizabeth covering politics, technology and social science Farrell, known as Heidi, the daughter of Dutch for scholarly journals, and writing long Jewish immigrants, who was enrolled in a interviews for Playboy magazine. His 1964 graduate linguistics program. They had similar interview with the Russian novelist Vladimir strong left wing political views and both Nabokov that explored the creation of Lolita dropped out of school to work for Henry as a nymphet, was considered one of the Wallace’s Progressive Party, in his failed bid for magazine’s best. the Presidency. In 1950, they moved to Cleveland, which was then the center of indus- The following year, he wrote an article for trial America, where they married and found Horizon, a glossy monthly, on “The Future as a employments in different factories. Alvin Way of Life,” in which he introduced the concept learned to weld and repair machinery, Heidi of what he called “future shock”. He described became a union shop steward in an aluminum this as “the growing feeling of anxiety brought foundry, and both spent the next five years on by the bewildering and ever-accelerating pace organizing workers in Ohio. at which life was changing.” It resulted in a October 2016 AIS Health and Stress www.stress.org $15,000 book contract from Random House, if I was aware of any recent developments in and he spent the next five years writing Future this field. I started to explain the exciting Shock. research of Lennart Levi, another Founding Trustee, who established the Laboratory for I first met the Tofflers shortly after the forma- Clinical Stress Research at Karolinska Institute, tion of The American Institute of Stress. I was but they were well aware of this and had invited to have dinner at their home in Ridge- recently met with him in Stockholm. It was a field Connecticut, which was only a 45-minute delightful and low-keyed evening, we talked drive. As acknowledged in Future Shock, both about many other things ranging from Selye, and their latest book, The Third Wave, to inter- had been strongly influenced by Hans Selye’s esting movies and cars. Alvin admired my BMW concept of “stress” and his “General Adaptation convertible, which was a few months old, got Syndrome”. I include Heidi since it soon became in to study the dashboard, and then asked if obvious that she should have been listed as he could drive it around the block. Apparently co-author. It was also obvious that they were enjoyed it, since when he returned, told me he very familiar with other pioneers in stress would discuss purchasing one with Heidi. They research, such as Harold Wolff, who had did everything together, and the tremendous emphasized that health depended on the success of The Third Wave that was largely due individual’s ability to adapt to environmental to Heidi’s efforts. She should have been changes. Wolff’s group at Cornell Medical included as co-author of this and probably also Center in New York included Lawrence Hinkle, Future Shock, but the following dedication who focused on environmental factors in heart acknowledges this and she was listed on disease and sudden death, Stewart Wolf, the subsequent books.