The Post-industrial Interregnum

Soon after the end of world war two, some sociologists and budding futurists realized that America was no longer an industrial society. Uncertain as to what might be coming next, it was initially identified simply as being a post-industrial society. Though its origins were in the late 1940s and early 1950s—one of the dullest and conformist periods in American history—it soon blossomed into one of the most dynamic, innovative, and progressive while being preeningly self-confident, expansionist, and globally-aggresssive: fighting a bloody and wholly unnecessary proxy war against “communism” in southeast Asia and at home while also endeavoring to become a Great Society by ending racism, sexism, poverty, and diseases by throwing money at them. As information became the economic driver via the voodoo of Reaganomics, industry hollowed out as production of goods moved to foreign shores. It was the heyday of literacy—mass consumption of newspapers, magazines, and books at its peak—while also sparking the embers that eventually flamed into the dream society via rock music and powerful, provcative movies. What began with dreams of the lambs lying down with the lions ended with the lions passing gas while watching television, after feasting on the lambs.