THE FOURTH AMERICAN REVOLUTION

[Joanne98]

The next Fourth Turning is due to begin shortly after the new millennium, midway through the Oh-Oh decade. Around the year 2005, a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood. Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode. Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation and empire. The very survival of the nation will feel at stake. Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II. - The Fourth Turning - Strauss & Howe -1997

The mass murder in Tucson is another brick in the wall of this Fourth Turning Crisis. The importance of this tragic event is not what happened in that Safeway parking lot, but the reaction in the aftermath of the shooting. Turnings are not about specific events, but how generations react to the events based on their stages of life. A turning is an era with a characteristic social mood, a new twist on how people feel about themselves and their nation. It results from the aging of the generational constellation. A society enters a turning once every twenty years or so, when all living generations begin to enter their next phases of life. We entered this Fourth Turning between 2005 and 2008, with the collapse of the housing market and subsequent financial system implosion.

We have crossed the threshold into a decisive era of secular upheaval, when the values regime will propel the replacement of the old civic order with a new one. The Silent Generation (1925-1942) is dying off, Baby Boomers (1943-1960) are entering elder hood, Generation X is entering midlife, Millenials are entering young adulthood--and a new generation of child Artists are being born. Strauss & Howe have documented that a long human life of 80 to 100 years makes up a social cycle of growth, maturation, entropy, and death (and rebirth) known as a Saeculum. Within each cycle, four generations proceed through their four stages of life. Every 15 to 25 years a new Turning surprises those who only think of history in a linear way. Strauss & Howe are historians who have been able to document this generational cycle going back to the 1400s.

The Anglo-American saeculum dates back to the waning of the Middle Ages in the middle of the fifteenth century. In this lineage, there have been seven saecula:

http://www.opednews.com/articles/THE-FOURTH-AMERICAN-REVOLU-by-Jim-Quinn-110120-197.html

[yurbud]

1. I remembered reading that Generations book years ago, and it had a ring of truth to it

[JournalistKev87]

2. So Many Emotions

I'm excited, scared and anticipating these events. This is such a clusterfuck of a mess we've got ourselves into. I don't think they'll be another FDR; Obama wasn't who we thought he'd be. What's the likelihood that we can prevent this? I'm going to be 24 soon and am worried about myself being able to live on my own successfully. What can I do to help?

[Kablooie]

3. We really are following the pattern. It's probably an accurate theory.

It seems that there are three factions struggling for dominance right now.
The Conservatives, represented by the Republicans.
The Liberals, represented by the Democrats.
and the Anarchists, represented by the Tea Party.

We liberals are actually fighting for the status quo instead of change.
We want the FDR conception of government to continue while the others want it eliminated.
We want change from the corporate takeover of government but we want to retain
government control over things like the environment and social security.

The Tea Party are the most radical. They seem to want to eliminate most everything in
government and start over from scratch. They don't have a plan as to how to rebuild
the government, they just want to tear it out.

Conservatives are in the middle. They want to eliminate government control of the
rich and powerful but tighten controls over the lesser citizens.

Liberals seem to be the most passive of the three groups. There is much less
liberal activism visible than the other two groups.

The spark that will trigger a massive upheaval hasn't been struck yet but the fuse
is smoldering. The spark may be the next presidential election or it may be states
declaring bankruptcy and millions of citizens thrown into poverty. Or something
completely different

Society does seem to be following the path that the Fourth Turning theory outlines.
I'm afraid that soon we may be living in interesting time.

[katty]

4. readt this book years ago--some great stuff and it appears

to be unfolding.