jedioffsidetrap’s Reviews > The Fourth Turning Is Here: What the Seasons of History Tell Us about How and When This Crisis Will End > Status Update

Seasons of Life:

Elderhood: age 63-83
Midlife: age 42-62
Rising Adult: age 21-41
Youth/Children: age 0-20

Every gen progresses thru these life seasons & every gen has an underlying generational persona

A gen persona is defined by:
- common location in history
- common beliefs & behavior
- perceived membership in a common gen

You cannot choose your gen—that much is fate, conditioning much about who you are

Parallels of current end of Third Turning w/previous one:

Elders (80+ yo)in early 2000s could remember 1918-29, when euphoria over global military triumph was short-lived; optimism for a progressive future fell to jazz-age nihilism & cynicism about high ideals: KKK, mafia, nationalists; unions weakened, voter partic fell, dynamic marketplace ushered in new consumer tech that made life feel newly complicated-frenetic

Fourth Turning: a Crisis, a decisive era of secular upheaval when the values regime propels the replacement of the old civic order w/a new one

Propelling this cycle are Social Generations of roughly the same length as a turning…Ordinarily each turning is associated w/the coming of age (from childhood to adulthood) of a distinct GENERATIONAL ARCHETYPE:

Prophet
Nomad (Gen X)
Hero
Artist (Gen Z/Homelanders)

First Turning: a High, upbeat era of strengthening institutions & weakening individualism, when a new civic order implants & old regime/values decays

Second Turning: an Awakening, passionate era of spiritual upheaval, when the civic order comes under attack from a new values regime

Third Turning: a Crisis, downcast era of strengthening individ & weakening instit, old values order decays & new values regime implants

Gen Z grows up as overprotected children during a Crisis, sensitive rising adults in post-Crisis, indecisive midlife leaders during Awakening, & ages into empathic post-Awakening elders

By the time most G.I.s (b. 1901-24) had passed into retirement in 1980s&90s Gen X (b. 1961-81) was coming of age amid adult criticism for forgetting the war-era sense of community; Millennials (b. 1982-2005?) being raised w/those old civic virtues & for the Homeland gen/Gen Z (b. 2006-?) WWII is pure history

WWII victory empowered Rising Adults (G.I.s) “as world conquerors enhancing their reputation for ‘ask not’ civil virtue & Great Society teamwork (JFK)

Bred caution & sensitivity among the Youth (Silent gen) “lending them a persona that produced lifelong preoccupation w/process fairness & artistic expression

Among gens born afterwards the symbolic memory of that epic war kept resonating but w/dampened echoes

The “Great Event” (or sociologist Karl Mannheim’s “crystallizing moment”) transforms all of society’s members, but transforms them differently according to their phase-of-life responses (often have been wars)

p72: WWII example:
Elders (Missionary gen) were champions of long-held visions (Marshall, McArthur, Einstein)
War allowed Middle-aged (Lost) “to get a big job done” (Patton, Truman)