The Fourth Turning

Heard this on the radio today....was simply in awe by what I heard. It was a passage from a book called "The Fourth Turning."

Here is a brief description of the book that I pulled from Amazon:

The Fourth Turning continues the project of mapping out the place of generations in history, a project begun in the authors' earlier books Generations and 13th Gen. If millennial fever takes hold, The Fourth Turning may be only the first of an impending wave of pseudo-scholarly tracts prognosticating future (but imminent!) doom as we collectively close the books on this millennium. Those expecting a serious or dry tome might be put off by the authors' taste for bulleted text and catchy phrasings, but can you blame these guys for wanting to make impending peril as exciting as possible? After all, they think we are headed toward "events on par with the Revolution, the Civil War, or World War II" in the next 20 years. Mixing solid understanding of present generational divisions, with some fairly broad generalizations, Strauss and Howe promise to move from history to prophecy.

I have not read this book, but after what I heard today...I am going to pick it up.

This is the piece I heard from the book today on the radio:

An impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate. The president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total government shutdown. The president declares emergency powers. Congress rescinds his authority. Dollar and bond prices plummet. The president threatens to stop Social Security checks. Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling. Default looms. Wall Street panics.

UNBELIEVABLE! This book was written in 1996! It looks like the current news headlines. Has anyone on ATS read this book? Apparently each turning is a generational cycle, with the end resulting in war.

Currently reading a summary of the book, very interesting. Again, just wanted to share.

Here is a link with more info:

www.generationaldynamics.com...

Here are the 4 different turnings:

The four generations are as follows:

The Hero Generation. Like America's G.I. generation, these are the young men and women that fight in a crisis period. After the crisis ends, they become society's powerful civic leaders who build new institutions that promote social order and productive activity. They become hubristic, and in their elder years, they're attacked politically by their children in the Prophet generation.

The Artist Generation. Like America's Silent generation, they grow up as children during the crisis period, come of age as sensitive young adults, and grow old becoming indecisive but empathetic leaders.

The Prophet Generation. Like America's Baby Boomers, they're born after the crisis period, and grow up in the glow of success. In the case of the Boomers, they grew up at a time when America had beaten the Nazis and had beaten the Depression. The Prophets grow up into narcissistic adults who challenge the authority of their parents, the Heroes. In midlife they become moralistic, and end up as the wise elders leading the society into a new crisis period.

The Nomad Generation. These people grow up in the shadow the Prophets, and don't get along with them very well. They become alienated young adults, with a high incidence of crime and drug abuse, but mellow into pragmatic midlife leaders during a crisis period.

reply to post by David9176
holy cow really?if the govenrment using this as playbook they are really lame .and they say that the russian and chinese are bad.i would like to really believe that this is a scenario that nobody in congress or current future president hasnt read but the fact is they have been collectively lying to the american public with simple tactics for over close to 65 years now.but if they impeach obama and biden becomes president then i will have to laugh in all your faces.ever wonder why biden told obama f off? did anyone forget who runs the political process in this country?
big money called the global banking cartel and the few elite that are even now trying to treat you all like animals and make you eat your own crap.biden is a key figure in all of this yet he is almost never seen why?

Okay, I was reading along on your post and thinking "okay, most members of ATS would think the same thing". Seen it, heard it, understood it.

Then you pointed out it was written in 1996!

Whoa!

I have a Gift Card for Barnes & Noble Bookstores. Now I know how to use it.

Wow.

I remember last week reading a thread about Obama threatening that no SS check would come out next month.

Eery.

reply to post by David9176


This is one of my most favorite books! I have been recommending it to everyone I know for quite a while. It is really fascinating and eye opening.

I read it years ago and it has been accurate. You are mistaken about "four different kinds of Turnings"
. Read the book, the theory is interesting and well constructed. These are four generational types, that repeat cyclically, though each generation also has it's own distinguishing characteristics. But there are four basic types that repeat. A turning is when there is a big change and the cycle re-starts. A turnign happens eveyr four generations, if you will. About every one hundred years.

It also had a major economic collapse for us next in events. It had clearly said the my generation (the 13th or X generation- a Nomad type) will not get social security retirement benefits. Basically we will not recieve any of the benefits our preceding generation had.

reply to post by David9176


You. Have..to..be..kidding..me! Wow!

Insane find op.....the playbook has been found.

So they predicted that our next crisis would begin with the issue of debt and a struggle over the issue? I can understand them expecting a crisis but how could they know it was going to be debt?

An impasse over the federal budget reaches a stalemate.

I believe we are finally there.

The president and Congress both refuse to back down, triggering a near-total government shutdown.

This is happening and the shut-down will occur next week, unless we are lucky.

The president declares emergency powers.

Obama could invoke the 14th Amendment to raise the debt ceiling thus causing a Constitutional crisis.

Congress rescinds his authority.

That is exactly what Congress would try and do.

Dollar and bond prices plummet.

This would be the natural consquence of a default and down-grade of our credit rating.

The president threatens to stop Social Security checks.

He already has.

Congress refuses to raise the debt ceiling.

That is what I am expecting to happen.

Default looms.

This would explain the dollar and bond price plummet.

Wall Street panics.

With such uncertainty as a default and downgrade of our credit rating of course Wall Street would panic.

I found thy to be, by-far, the most unsettling of what I have read so far about the next Fourth Turning:

The Fourth Turning could mark the end of modernity. The Western saecular rhythm—which began in the mid-fifteenth century with the Renaissance—could come to an abrupt terminus. The seventh modern saeculum would be the last. This too could come from total war, terrible but not final. There could be a complete collapse of science, culture, politics, and society. The “Western Civilization” of Toynbee and the “Faustian Culture” of Spengler would come to the inexorable close their prophesiers foresaw. A new dark ages would settle in, until some new civilization could be cobbled together from the ruins. The cycle of generations would also end, replaced by an ancient cycle of tradition (and fixed social roles for each phase of life) that would not allow progress. As with an omnicide, such a dire result would probably happen only when a dominant nation (like today’s America) lets a Fourth Turning ekpyrosis engulf the planet. But this outcome is well within the reach of foreseeable technology and malevolence.

For some reason which I have just never been able to figure out is why every time I think of the next disaster it has never included any sort of apocalypse rather it involves the modern world rapidly regressing back into a new dark age.