But alongside these mainstream cultural entities, there have developed a vast array of demassified niches. The Usenet on Internet boasts 10,000 special interest newsgroups. On the radioit is possible to turn the dial and find stations dedicated to certain types of music, from classical and contemporary tobluegrass, zydeco, salsa, tejana, tropical, bomba, and bangra. To a thousand different strains, the tastes of individuals are emerging as a market force to be dealt with. The clearest sign of changing politics is the decay of political parties.
Every group is passionate, and narrow in focus.
It is in every way a more daunting process, and it is conducted, as making frankfurters should not be, in full view of the public. It is no wonder that no one, in the United States, in Japan, in Italy, or anywhere, believes in parties any more. Parties were a static second-wave, homogenized, massified function that do not seem relevant in the more volatile, diversified, heterogeneous third wave. Toffler does not endorse the fracturing of the American family that has occurred in the past 30 years, but he notes that it is of a piece with everything else that has happened. In a simple system, a single individual could provide the wisdom and authority to guide a large enterprise.