Voyeuristic Thrill

Le Style, c'est I'homme. And Toffler's style is that of a model technocrat. His book is replete with design and invention, extending into 'designing new men' and 'inventing new rituals'. A voyeuristic thrill attends Toffler's citing of figures of speed and size, testifying eloquently to Toffler's acceptance of the myth that figures matter most.

His technique in the first hall is to illustrate in as many ways as possible the points he has to tick off. He has done a massive sub-editing of a biased sample. The turn-over rate of British prime ministers has the same significance to him, and gets the same degreee of analysis, as the total number of Barbie dolls, and both illustrate that we throw away people.

To Toffler, each 'bit' of information is an item for the collage and he argues by continuing to paste bits on. If we were to grab his arm and say, 'Now hold it, that point...', Toffler would reply, 'What point? Forget it, here's another.' And most of his points are forgettable. He is not concerned whether or not 12,000,000 Barbie dolls represents a cultural or even technological advance. To a man to whom figures matter most, the only reply can be to ask why there aren't 20,000,000.