What are the Two Ages?
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Historians frequently divide the past into different periods or "ages." Thus in Western history we speak of the Middle Ages or the Renaissance or the Industrial Age. Each era is defined by certain characteristics. The time between one phase and the next can be both disruptive as well as full of the promise of new possibilities. Today, we are living in just such an "in-between" period, between two ages. The following outline suggests the characteristics of the age we are leaving, as well as the distinctiveness of the age that is emerging.
Some Characteristics of the Two Ages
| From | To | |
| Dominance of print communication | Emergence of electronic communication | |
| American immigration coming primarily from Europe | Immigration coming primarily from | |
| The nation state as outer limits of political identification | Emergence of a global awareness | |
| A relatively slow pace of change | Change at an exponential rate | |
| An age whose myths, religion and culture were formed within a limited awareness of time and space | An epoch whose myths, religion and | |
Concepts such as civil society, legal safeguards governing business, due process, and equality of women are primarily Western beliefs | Western concepts are adopted by the rest of the world | |
Majority of world’s population lives in rural areas (natural environment) | Majority of world’s population lives in urban areas (artificial environment) | |
Ultimate destructive power held only by states | Ultimate destructive power held by | |
| Epoch of being Earth-bound | Exploration of other bodies in Space | |
Atlantic-based economic, political, military world dominance | Global age of shared power | |
Economic development a national endeavor | Economic development part of a global system | |
| Information and knowledge as | ||
Parents control information environment in which children are raised | From earliest age, children have access to all information and cultural expressions | |
Continual numerical expansion of the Caucasian race | Barring a reversal of trends, the shrinkage of the Caucasian race | |
Traditional world cultures as stabilizing social force | Homogenized world tastes and attitudes lacking historic meaning, | |
Birth as a result of natural means of conception | Human manipulation as artificial means of conception | |
| Nature as isolated phenomena | Nature as an integrated system | |
Absorbing information in small amounts, thus allowing it to be integrated into a larger schema | Information overload that prevents formation of cohesive worldview | |
| Sustainable population growth | Population pressures threatening capacity for civil society and | |
The natural environment as the context of life | Technical environment as the context of life | |
| The masculine/patriarchal epoch | Feminine instincts play major role in shaping events | |
Manipulation and dominance of external nature | Manipulation and dominance of | |
Human beings as Earth’s supreme intelligence | Artificial-computational-intelligence greater than that of humans | |
Psychological projections seen as independent realities | Psychological projections seen as | |
Traditional religions express shared sense of life’s meaning | “Meaninglessness” becomes primary cultural/philosophical theme, | |
