Activity

I’m reading “The Fourth Turning” by Strauss & Howe (Three Rivers Press 1997), an historical-sociological-archetypal approach to cylces, mainly as they affect the US and the Anglosphere. They cleverly steer clear of work associated with the Foundation for the Study of cycles, ostracised then and now, at least in public by the oligarchs. On the other hand, Howe was a consultant for the Concord Coalition, a body associated with the Brookings Institution, which has had no qualms about discussing “future scenarios”, cyclical or otherwise. They have an interesting way of looking at generational transitions, which seem to me to be of general value. They discuss the necessary return of virtues (not to be confused with “values” as Dr. Farrell often says) on a cyclical basis, which could be coming now (e.g. in a time of crisis, trustworthiness: knowing who you can trust can be a matter of survival – p. 318).
I’m obviously not the first to point out one of their more “prophetic” passages, the one saying, after mentioning the “Pearl Harbor Syndrom” and the millenium hoopla in 2000, “the party out of power (and any niche group that senses it is losing the Culture Wars) will warn against, and show signs of welcoming, a catastrophe on the horizon” (pp. 251-2) which seems to indicate the “turning” of 2001.