I have just learned about something called the “Strauss-Howe Generational Theory”. It’s described here. I am mistrustful of grand, sweeping theories of this sort but it’s certainly intriguing. It’s a theory of history.
Basically, it posits a four generation cycle with the colorful names “Prophet” (idealist), “Nomad” (reactive), “Hero” (civic), and “Artist” (adaptive). Each generation experiences four different “turning” during its collective lifespand: high, awakening, unravelling, and crisis. These four turnings make up one “saeculum”. Right now we’re in a “crisis” turning.
The theory fit pretty well with American history over the period of the last several hundred years but I wonder if it’s just too Anglo-centric. Other than that I have two observations.
First, it doesn’t really fit my family’s experience over the years. Of course, my family are pretty much outcasts so we’re probably pretty atypical. Second, if the millennials are a “hero” generation, i.e. “come of age as team-oriented young optimists during a Crisis, emerge as energetic, overly-confident midlifers, and age into politically powerful elders attacked by another Awakening”, either they’re going to start changing a lot or we’re in a world of hurt.
Go, Go Millennials!!!
I think I read or at least browsed Generations back when it came out; and I think I copied a few pages. Books that attempt to reduce strands of history into patterns are fraught with overgeneralization, but there was a sense that I think is historically accurate that significant events have blowback or balancing tendencies in the coming time period. Shoehorning it into approximate 20 yrs cycles is challenging. (And the notion of a “generation” is fraught with problems)
Less confident one becomes the further from the Baby Boom generation the approach extends. Probably because it’s a Baby Boomer view of history being a cycle in which their cohorts are ascendent, sometimes in good ways, sometimes in bad ways.