Future Shock, the Third Wave, Power Shift are all titles of international bestsellers by American futurist writer Alvin Toffler (1928-2016). Not surprisingly, few GenZ people know him. Allow me to recap. Back in the 1970s, Toffler published his first book in the series Future Shock. Excerpts from his book were pulled out for discussion during GP class in JC. He wrote about how humans are being overwhelmed by new developments in society. He introduced a phrase that was previously unknown – “Information overload”. A bigger shock and more information overload would follow. The Third Wave is about the 3 stages in the development of modern societies – agriculture, industrial and information. The most interesting for discussion purposes, is his third book, Power Shift. Power comes in three forms – the power of force, the power of knowledge and the power of wealth. Toffler argued that force can bring wealth, wealth can buy force, knowledge can bring wealth and wealth can buy knowledge. Toffler resented a very optimistic future for the masses. He postulated that while force and wealth can only be wielded by the elite, knowledge is accessible to everyone. There is also an infinite supply of it. Really?
30 years ago, I was sending out manuscripts in thick and bulky envelopes to publishers. They were the ones who decided whether my work could ever get any readers other than my friends and relatives.
Then desktop publishing came like a gift from God. Software like PageMaker and Ventura made it possible for anyone with a little money to print his own books.
Fast forward to the 21st century, digital diaries travelled faster and wider than any printed medium. Anyone can have a book published nowadays, be it printed or electronic. In fact, some AI platforms can even write it for you. The power that the new technology has put into the hands of the individual is unimaginable just 30 years ago. I can launch my book on Google or Kindle, so can anyone. I can illustrate my book with AI images without being an artist. So can anyone.
But technology is neither fair nor discerning. Just 5 years ago, this blog had about 200 visitors a day and they spent an average of 10 minutes reading. Today, I’m only seeing 10-20 visitors a day and the average time spent here is 20 seconds! If you’ve made it this far, congratulations. You’re extraordinary. So what if I have the power and freedom to publish? So what if there is a treasure trove of knowledge, all the information that the universe has to offer at our fingertips? There has been a power shift. The value of knowledge in the trinity of power has plummeted to such an extent that it’s probably the weakest in the trinity of power.
Never has it been more obvious than in recent conflicts. It doesn’t matter how many evidence-based and historically factual essays you can write. The majority of “readers” will only tune in to influencer channels on TikTok. It’s so easy to follow the chants of clueless people lecturing the word from their moral high horses. Books have become so outmoded. Nowadays, people are “educated” by minute-long TikTok videos. Wealth can buy 五毛 and power fake news factories in Russia. Force can coerce incarcerated keyboard warriors to troll, harass, deny and insinuate.
In the wake of 9-11, when everyone was mourning, almost nobody objected to the invasion of Afghanistan. When Iraq was invaded in 2003, very few people protested. Was Islamophobia a problem back then? I think it was. People were looking at Muslims as if they were all Al Qaeda members. Even the moderates were targeted. Americans were overly vindictive and bloodthirsty. That was tragic. Experts on the Middle East who dared suggest that the attacks were caused in part by America’s foreign policy in the Middle East were instantly shouted down or cancelled. Like them, I was sympathetic towards the moderates and the innocent people in Iraq and Afghanistan and we weren’t wrong back then. But the West was quick to correct such attitudes and perceptions to the point of overcorrection. They feel guilty of “White supremacy”, guilty of “Islamophobia” and passionately threw open their doors to folks they thought they had wronged – with horrific consequences. Guess what followed after the UK recognised the Palestinian state. Some folks got emboldened.
Wikipedia:
The Manchester synagogue attack was a terrorist attack that occurred on 2 October 2025, during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, when a man drove a car into pedestrians before stabbing worshippers at the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation, a synagogue in Higher Crumpsall, a northern suburb of the city of Manchester in North West England.
The most horrific part is not the terrorist attack per se but the feeble condemnation of the act of terrorism and the totally absent suppression of celebrations that took place even before the victims were buried. The UK is by no means alone in this. The poison has spread all the way to Australia and I’m not sure who the “moderates” are anymore.
Israel may have won the war on the ground but it seems to have totally lost the narrative on social media. What a major power shift since 9-11. The pendulum has swung almost completely to the other side with people now supporting terrorists, rebranding them as a resistance movement!
Toffler didn’t live to see the woke and the pro-Palestinian movement today. Knowledge is not that powerful when it can sit on the shelf collecting dust. Misinformation and manipulation are far more powerful. What next? Will America embrace diversity and allow people to celebrate 9-11 in NYC?
“They (Israelis) treated me badly because they didn’t let me say goodbye to my friends.”
Greta Thunberg. 16.3 million followers on Instagram. Israel should have let Greta Thunberg land in Gaza so that the cheering people will know that all the supplies on the flotilla have already been consumed by the 479 (Sky News Au) selfie-taking, livestreaming people who had been at sea for weeks.
But look at all her cheering supporters. I give up. I’m often left speechless when I hear an old Chinese man, playing his Chinese propaganda on the MRT, telling the world that NATO and Ukraine are a threat to Russia, North Korea is more democratic than South Korea and there are Singaporeans who believe that after a tour to North Korea. I give up.
So where is this power shifting? Where is knowledge that is supposed to be everywhere and within easy reach? Is knowledge really so powerful that it can get you power and wealth? I bet Alvin Toffler didn’t see this coming.
Whether it’s before or after retirement, my writing career is still not taking off at age 61. Reaching out to people is no longer a problem, but getting their attention is the real challenge. Whether it’s on YouTube or in writing, I’ve not done better in spite of new technology and with more time on my hands. Where do I go from here? Do I give up? No, I will continue to write, make a video every now and then without any deliberate act to please the algorithm or search engines. Perhaps the only thing I’ll give up on, is the “education” of the ignorant or brainwashed. Once a Putin fan, always a Putin fan. Nothing will convince him that Putin is wrong. The same goes for fans of the political idols out there. I’ve stopped debating the 五毛 and Sinophiles. When you try to show them the uncensored stuff, they’ll brusquely dismiss it and tell you not to trust everything you read, even though what they have been receiving is clearly propaganda. Of course, not debating with them doesn’t mean that I won’t talk about them.
But seriously, I give up. I give up playing Manjusri (Bodhisattva of Wisdom). I give up my sword against ignorance. From now till I pass on, I’ll just be me, continue doing what I enjoy doing and accept that I can never be an influencer like Xiaxue, Wang Lei, Simonboy etc. I’ve been caught in an anti intellectual power shift that greatly disadvantages content creators like me.