Shrugging Out Podcast: 3-Part Interview with John Xenakis

Pete Ferron conducts an excellent, extended, three-part interview with the founder of Generational Dynamics, John Xenakis, and makes it available to you for free direct listening or download.

After you’ve enjoyed Pete’s interview with John Xenakis, catch Pete’s insightful commentary about the interview:

You've heard Pete talk about Generational Dynamics on many episodes of the podcast. Well, this time, we hear from the founder of the theory himself, John Xenakis.

From his website: "John J. Xenakis is an MIT grad, a journalist, writer, technologist, researcher and analyst who became interested in study and analysis of world history and how generational changes over the centuries have led nations into everything from humiliation to greatness. The result is Generational Dynamics, a technique for analyzing history and for understanding how nations change their beliefs and attitudes as generations change."

In Part 1, John describes the basic theory, how history follows the flow of human generations, how Generational Dynamics explains major events in modern American history, and how it predicts the the next crisis that is coming soon.

In Part 2, John explains why crisis wars almost always occur during the Crisis Era, what role Thomas Malthus plays in Generational theory, what is driving the European financial crisis in Generational terms, whether America's crisis war will be a civil or global war, and what the future holds for China based on the Crisis Era that country finds itself in today.

Here are some of the questions Pete asks John in Part 3:

- Is it possible to predict when the crash will happen?

- What is happening in Europe, from a Generational Dynamics perspective?

- Will there be hyperinflation in the US?

- Can there be a Crisis War without the use of nuclear weapons?

- What is The Singularity (when computers able to design and build themselves become smarter and more creative than humans?

In Pete's Commentary, he asks (and answers):

Is John Xenakis right? Does history repeat itself, after a fashion, in four-generation cycles, climaxing in a series of Crisis Wars every 60-80 years?

Does Generational Dynamics pass the average person's tests for sensibility, simplicity, complexity, confidence, mathematical rigor, and accuracy?

How does Generational Dynamics stack up against better known theories of economics and society?

How is Generational Dynamics like the great science fiction author Issac Asimov's short story, "Nightfall" (I did this one from pure memory folks--missed a few details, but what a great story by Asimov, and how eerily does it fit GD? Very!

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