Come to find out, Newt Gingrich and Al Gore have one thing in common-a mentor by the name of Alvin Toffler.
I'm not sure if I should be worried, but I am. Admittedly, not for the same reason others are.
Kelleigh Nelson has a provocative two part history of Gingrich, here and in the second part she details Gingrich's adherence to Toffler's theory of the Third Wave.
And this is not something that has just bobbed up to the surface. Enter Stage Right posted this article way back in 2001 about the implications of Newt Gingrich and the Third Wave philosophy of Toffler. Basically, Toffler states that time and progress is not linear, that it can move forward, backwards, or sideways, but that it moves in waves. According to Toffler, we first had an Agricultural Wave away from the original Hunter-Gather societies of the distant past. The Second Wave was the Industrial Age. The coming Third Wave, which has actually already commenced, will be Post-Industrial. He holds that it will be marked by technological advances, but also by many other aspects, in the fields of business, medicine, and education.
Some people see it as a capitalist tolerant version of communism. I don't know about that, but what I do know is it doesn't seem to have much to do with the ideals of Federalism and limited government.
One thing I've noticed over the years is that anytime anyone anywhere preaches the gospel of greater government power and control, they always couch it in terms of humanity, equality, fairness, and all the other buzzwords which imply you are a hateful bigot, racist, misogynist, etc., if you don't play along. Then they try to feed you the carrot of promised greater potential for prosperity, security, and independence. Later of course they play the patriot card.
If this is the kind of thing Newt Gingrich is selling, I'm not buying. The unfortunate thing is, as of now he might still be the best bet of a bad lot.
I used to think things were as bad as they could possibly get. And then I remembered something-
I'm not exactly sitting on top of the heap.
UPDATE-Thanks to Charles Martel, a commenter at The Other McCain who provided me with a link to an Ann Coulter article which goes into some detail about the Gingrich-Toffler connection. This might go a long way towards explaining the stridency with which she seems to oppose Gingrich, though I still strongly disagree with her support for Mitt Romney, to say nothing of uber-liberal Chris Christie. It makes you wonder why she doesn't point this out in her appearances on television. Is there some unwritten, unspoken rule that mention of the Tofflers is bad form or something?
