The Fourth Turning, part I

I have been reading The Fourth Turning by Strauss and Howe. I am thinking about how time is both linear and cyclical. The main idea is that there are cycles to history and by studying the cycles one can predict what the next cycle will be like and prepare ahead of time.

I know that people do not necessarily believe in the cycles of history. However, I am finding truth in what I am reading. They predicted a crisis around 2005. The crisis would be marked by a radical change in thinking. While they were off by a few years, I think that we are in the beginning stages of that crisis. One of the predictions was that a terrorist attack on the United States would precipitate this crisis. The book was written in 1997.

We could debate whether the current financial crisis was brought about by the collapse of the Twin Towers. It was the catalysts that brought us to this point of crisis in other financial markets.

“A spark will ignite a new mood. Today, the same spark would flame briefly but then extinguish, its last flicker merely confirming and deepening the Unraveling-era mind-set. This time, though, it will catalyze a Crisis. In retrospect, the park might seem as ominous as a financial crash, as ordinary as a national election, or as trivial as a Tea Party. It could be a rapid succession of small events in which the ominous, the ordinary, and the trivial are commingled.” (272)

There is no doubt that we are in a crisis and our mood has changed. The question before us is where do we go from here? We can give into the mood or learn to rise above it.