Neil Howe: The Fourth Turning Has Arrived

Co-author of the book The Fourth Turning has come out in an interview with Chris Martenson from Peak Prosperity claiming that the Fourth Turning has arrived.

I've only read small parts of the book that was published in 1997. The book offers 'a study of generational cycles ("turnings")' as 'revealed predictable social trends that recur throughout history' provide warning 'of a coming crisis (a "fourth turning")'.

What I find fascinating here is that the author is now claiming this 'Fourth Turning' is upon the world and makes a few sober comments I will cite below from the interview together with the video.

The way I read his comments, Neil Howe is worried about a forthcoming economic crisis which will be most difficult to resolve in any orderly fashion. His concerns and mention of geopolitics suggests he sees some kind of brewing economic crisis move into a messy military conflict.

Sure I might be reading a little between the lines here but have a look and read yourself. Given the extensive studies he had undertaken to write the book, I think this author has some very profound insights into the direction the world is heading when reviewing the financial and economic status quo and geopolitical instability abroad. He sees the emerging crisis as a global crisis, not just confined to the United States. His fears and concerns are probably thoroughly valid.

Our society has entered a fourth turning (consisting of the twenty-year periods leading up to and out of it immediately.)......I think the fourth turning started -- probably, if I were to date it now -- in 2008....

We are sort of hobbling along in kind of a low-earth orbit, with continued high unemployment and excess capacity -- not just in the United States, but around the world. And, of course, all the rules of economic policy seem broken and lie in fragments on the floor. People are wondering what the heck do we do in this new era.

I am nervous. I am nervous about the future right now. I think we have a lot more deep issues, deep crises to save in the economy. I am also very nervous about what I see geopolitically.

We cannot possibly afford the government we have promised ourselves. And, that will be a painful process of deleveraging, and it is not just deleveraging the explicit debt that we have already actually formally borrowed, it is all the implicit debt. And, I think we will deal with it, because we have no other choice.

But, my point is this: No one simply solves a terrible problem on a sunny day when they can afford at least for the time being to look the other way. Problems like that are faced when people have no other choice, and it is a really grim day. And, it is white-knuckle time and horrible things are happening with markets around the world, or horrible things are happening, at least historically, we have seen that geopolitically around the world. And, that is when people are forced to act.

reply to post by surrealist


He seems to be just aiding and abetting the new world order - new age religion disorder.

Originally posted by Happy1
reply to post by surrealist

 

He seems to be just aiding and abetting the new world order - new age religion disorder.

Yeah he does by the look of it. Even in this interview I Just found this implied from the transcript...

That is going to be the new Bretton Woods, the new World Bank, the IMF, the United Nations, right?.... That is going to be a whole new global infrastructure that will set the stage for the next first turning, an era suddenly of surprising social stability and general optimism about the future,.

reply to post by surrealist


Yeah, the elite keep living their above normally happy life, and the rest of us get used to living a life of slavery, but we get some food.

Their book is one of my very favorites, and I think they had some really great insight into the cycles our culture turns within. Their "prophecies" have been amazingly accurate.

-For those not familiar with their theory, it does not include supernatural type of prophecy- simply rational and logical deduction pulled from observation, that they suggest has always been the "secret" to the successful prophets.

It's worth keeping in mind too, that although they predicted one more really big event to conclude the unraveling, it is still looked at in wider scope, and not as "the end of the world" - nor of humanity. But one of radical change, and that the next generations shall be able to develop and construct.

reply to post by Bluesma

You have to understand the book deals with "Societal Amnesia".

As in , you don't have a first hand account of how the civil war came about, because you were not there, and everyone who was is dead.

No conspiracy, just no remembering how we got these things our ancestors fought so hard for, and so we lose them again out of lack of appreciation, understanding, selfishness and stupidity.

Some people take advantage of other's forgetfulness, that's why they call it capitalism.

No conspiracy, just greed and selfishness.

SOSAD (same old song and dance).