Call for Papers: Future Shock Revisited: Europe Facing the New Millenniu

APPROACHING A NEW MILLENNIUM: LESSONS FROM THE PAST - PROSPECTS FOR THE
FUTURE
The seventh conference of the International Society for the Study of
European Ideas
Bergen, Norway August 14 - 18, 2000

Call for Papers
Future Shock Revisited: Europe Facing the New Millennium
In his book Future Shock (1970), Alvin Toffler defines future shock [a]s a
time phenomenon, a product of the greatly accelerated rate of change in
society. It arises from the superimposition of a new culture on an older one
(p. 11). It occurs when individual[s are] forced to operate above [their]
adaptive range (p. 344). We are forcing them to process information at a far
more rapid pace than was necessary in slowly-evolving societies... What
consequences this may have for mental health in the techno-societies has yet
to be determined (p. 355). [O]ne widespread response to high-speed change is
outright denial. The Denier's strategy is to "block out" unwelcome
reality... A second strategy of the future shock victim is specialism. The
Specialist doesn't block out all novel ideas or information. Instead, he
energetically attempts to keep pace with change-but only in a specific
narrow sector of life... A third common response to future shock is
obsessive reversion to previously successful adaptive routines that are now
irrelevant and inappropriate... Finally, we have the Super-Simplifier, [who]
invests every idea he comes across with universal relevance... He trades a
host of painful and seemingly insoluble troubles for one big problem, thus
radically, if temporarily, simplifying existence (p. 359-361). [T]he future
shock victim who does employ these strategies experiences a deepening sense
of confusion and uncertainty. Caught in the turbulent flow of change, called
upon to make significant, rapid-fire life decisions, he feels not simply
intellectual bewilderment, but disorientation at the level of personal
values (p. 363). Social rationality presupposes individual rationality, and
this, in turn, depends not only on certain biological equipment, but on
continuity, order and regularity in the environment. It is premised on some
correlation between the pace and complexity of change and man's decisional
capacities (p. 366).

This workshop would like to revisit the future shock theme by discussing
those psychological factors that will impact Europeans as the European Union
and the respective nation-states attempt to establish it's own form of
tradition, philosophy and democracy during this Digital and Global Age.
Submission Deadline: December 1, 1999
Submit online at www.multifest.com/ISSEI2000/, or by snail mail to the
address below.
Edward K. Brown II
P.O. Box 2160
Philadelphia, PA 19103
ebrown@multifest.com
www.multifest.com