Children of Chaos: Surviving the End of the World as We Know it

Rushkoff, Douglas

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0006548792 ISBN 13: 9780006548799

Publisher: Flamingo, 1997

Our world is getting more complex every day. Faced by a media run amok, a rapidly expanding global economy, the collapse of national and social boundaries and the profound impact of technology on our lives, we all feel like immigrants to a very new territory. Gone is the predictability of an organized civilization, overwhelmed by a seemingly random wave of change. Like any new immigrants to an unfamiliar culture, we must look to our children for signs of how to act and think. Natives of chaos, they have already adapted to its demands. Douglas Rushkoff believes that this is the moment we have been wating for - not an apocalypse at all, but a renaissance in which children's culture will lead us through despair and powerlessness to a new sort of hope. In this text he deconstructs the culture of the generation he calls the "screenagers" - from Japanimation and Nintendo to rave and new primitives - in his search for strategies on coping with, and thriving amidst, the discontinuity of the post-modern experience.

From the Back Cover:

The Information Age is over. Welcome to the Age of Chaos. Our world is getting more complex every day. Faced by a media run amok, a rapidly expanding global economy, the collapse of national boundaries and the profound impact of technology on our lives, we all feel like immigrants to a very new territory. Gone are the predictability and linearity of an organised, hierarchical civilisation, overwhelmed by a seemingly random and disjointed wave of change.

Like any new immigrants to an unfamiliar culture, we must look to our children for signs of how to act and think. Natives of chaos, they have already adapted to its demands, and have the ability to recognise patterns in this new terrain.

Douglas Rushkoff, acclaimed as 'the brilliant heir to Marshall McLuhan', believes that this is the moment we have all been waiting for – not an apocalypse at all, but a renaissance in which children's popular culture will lead us through despair and powerlessness towards a new sort of hope.

In 'Children of Chaos' he deconstructs the culture of the generation he calls 'Screenagers', from Japanimation and Nintendo to rave and new primitives, in his search for strategies on coping with, and thriving amidst the discontinuity of the post modern experience.

"The case is argued headlong. Hold the book in one hand, your hat with the other"
NEW SCIENTIST

About the Author:

Douglas Rushkoff lectures around the world on the impact of technology on popular culture, writes for magazines including ‘Esquire’ and ‘Details’, and develops content for television and internet. He lives in New York City.