By launching a vast process of social learning – an experiment in anticipatory democracy in many nations at once – we can head off the totalitarian thrust. We can prepare millions for the dislocations and dangerous crisis that lie before us. And we can place strategic pressure on e xisting  political  systems to  accelerate the necessary changes. Some unusual, far-seeing politicians or officials will lend their early support to the struggle for political transformation. But most will move only when the demands from outside are irresistible or when the crisis is already so advanced, and so close to violence, that they see no alternative. The responsibility for change, therefore, lies with us. We must begin with ourselves, teaching ourselves not to close our minds pre-maturely to the novel, the surprising, the seemingly radical. This means fighting off the idea-assassins who rush forward to kill any new suggestion on grounds of its impracticality, while defending what-ever now exist as practical, no matter how absurd, oppressive, or unworkable it may be. It means fighting for freedom of expression – the right of people to voice their ideas, even if heretical.

Alvin Toffler – The third wave