Been holding off on writing about this book, as I was hoping to finish before reviewing. But things keep popping up elsewhere that ends up relating to this book, so I think I'll go ahead and write about it some.
First came the postwar High, then the Awakening of the '60s and '70s, and now the Unraveling. This audacious and provocative book tells us what to expect just beyond the start of the next century. Are you ready for the Fourth Turning?
Strauss and Howe will change the way you see the world--and your place in it. In The Fourth Turning, they apply their generational theories to the cycles of history and locate America in the middle of an unraveling period, on the brink of a crisis. How you prepare for this crisis--the Fourth Turning--is intimately connected to the mood and attitude of your particular generation. Are you one of the can-do "GI generation," who triumphed in the last crisis? Do you belong to the mediating "Silent Majority," who enjoyed the 1950s High? Do you fall into the "awakened" Boomer category of the 1970s and 1980s, or are you a Gen-Xer struggling to adapt to our splintering world? Whatever your stage of life, The Fourth Turning offers bold predictions about how all of us can prepare, individually and collectively, for America's next rendezvous with destiny.
It's an interesting premise that has fit in with some of my feelings I've been having anyway (recall when I said we were due for a humbling?). I guess it's more of a hypothesis than a theory, as I don't know how you can test this. But the authors general idea is that there are four repeating cycles in western culture and these are accompanied by four generational archetypes.
Why do we still talk about Lincoln and Kennedy's assassinations, but the assassination of McKinley is almost a trivia question? Why do we still refer to the vets of WWII as the "greatest generation" but 10-20 years after WWI we looked back at the sacrifice of those vets with an attitude of "meh"?
You can get a solid overview of the theory from here rather than me trying to explain it in depth.
For the book itself, there's a lot of repetition as far as giving you the same information from different angles. Sometimes annoying, but overall I'm glad for it. My grandparents were of the "Hero" generation. My parents came from the "artist" generation that followed, but I have a maternal uncle that falls into the "prophet" generation. My older sister probably falls into the later year or two of the prophet generation, while my younger sister and I fall squarely into the "nomad" generation. So the repetition helps me straighten things out in my head.
Interesting aside is that this book was published in '97 and they mentioned a quote from Bill Gates talking about everyone using the Internet and having access to all the same information. Mentioned in the book was how easy it would be to reverse that and have access to all our information once that structure is in place.
I think after we're well into the current crisis we will see it began around 2007 when the big signs started to pop up of the economy heading south.
At any rate, I wanted to put this out here because I'll be referring to the ideas in this book quite a bit.
"... and then I was forced to walk the Trail of Tears." - Elizabeth Warren
Why do we still talk about Lincoln and Kennedy's assassinations, but the assassination of McKinley is almost a trivia question?
The third dude was boring as shit compared to the other two. Lincoln had a war. Kennedy had TV.
Why do we still refer to the vets of WWII as the "greatest generation" but 10-20 years after WWI we looked back at the sacrifice of those vets with an attitude of "meh"?
Goddamn shitty revisionist history. WWI didn't have as colourful as cast of figures, nor as interesting a climax. Also, that was one of the first wars the American public got to listen to on the radio as a nation.
Mentioned in the book was how easy it would be to reverse that and have access to all our information once that structure is in place.
That's the fault of people using the tech. If "password1" didn't crack 25% of all worldwide email accounts, your shit might be more secure.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
I do think civilizations evolve iin cycles, but cynicism iis the order of the day and trying to talk about makes you into a crackpot. Basically, the sooner it all burns the sooner we can watch all the hippies and fluid genders get killed and start over.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Fake edit - not saying I want anyone killed, iim saying those things can only exist in a very comfortable society. Nobody has time to worry about it when your task every day is to kill something so you don't starve to death.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Nobody has time to worry about it when your task every day is to kill something so you don't starve to death.
Overcome your own mental and emotional issues by making the physical less pleasant? Fuck that. I'm not going back to hunting and gathering as a form of psychiatry.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
Because I only have so much time and energy for any given day. I'm glad I don't have to spend it rubbing sticks together so some tinder catches fire every fucking time I want to make some crab. Glad I don't have to find big-ass ice cubes to keep my food refrigerated every day and that bullshit electricity that makes life comfortable for pussies is piped into my place. Focus isn't always good. Necessary sometimes, yeah.
GORDON wrote:Pain and hardship brings your priorities into focus like a laser.
Oh, and no they don't. Sometimes they just break people.
Edited By Malcolm on 1431725724
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
That's one of the interesting things reading through the material in this book. What made the GI generation capable of having their "can do" attitude and their optimism is the fact that they were the first generation that didn't really remember it being any better.
"... and then I was forced to walk the Trail of Tears." - Elizabeth Warren
Another interesting something in the book. The authors pointed out that their archetypes appear in literature and they say "always" (though I don't like that broad statement) appear in the same order in literature as they do in real life. The order of them appearing would be Hero, Artist, Prophet and then Nomad. They then used the example of Star Wars. Luke Skywalker is from the Hero generation. The one previous to him would be the Nomad (Han Solo), and before Solo's generation would be Obi Wan (the Prophet).
"... and then I was forced to walk the Trail of Tears." - Elizabeth Warren
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."