The Fourth Turning Tipping Point

International Man ^ | April 2023 | Jeff Thomas

[PerConPat]

America's troubled eras have been , IMO, due to societal eruptions of human weaknesses. In the 1920s-30s, it was greed...In the 1960s-70s, permissiveness and socialism...In the 1990s, perversion. These weaknesses are always present, but are now combining into a political/cultural tornado.

The shameful and dangerous persecution of Trump is now very likely signaling another eruption pushing America to further decline.

[redgolum]

That is pretty much standard.

The generation that is the boomers and the millennials will not give up power. The ones in between will not get power.

[x]

The guys who wrote the fourth turning proclaimed that 9/11 was the beginning of the 20 year crisis cycle.

That was one possibility. Later on, Strauss and Howe came to see the 2008 Great Recession as the beginning of the crisis. That's more likely, unless you want 2020 to be the beginning.

They saw the beginning of the "Unravelling" that preceded the final crisis starting in the 1980s. Culturally and socially that may not be wrong, but we'd won the Cold War and the country was riding high in the 1990s, and that could have thrown off the expected cycle.

The other problem with the theory is that in previous cycles, the new generations coming on the scene were competent and devoted to the country and brought energy to national life. Nowadays we can't expect that to happen. The Millennials who were supposed to be the new Greatest Generation don't show signs of being heroes and builders. What passes for civic values or virtues now, aren't what we had in the past.