“The society must prevail. The requires a solid public consensus, aggressive institutions, and personal sacrifice.”
~ William Strauss and Neil Howe, The Fourth Turning
Written by Bryan Lutz, Editor at Dollarcollapse.com:
The “General Issue” or G.I. generation were the heroes of World War II.
So, where are the heroes for the crises of today?
Well, they’re in the same position as the G.I. generation.
Born from 1908 – 1929, living through the Great Depression they fought in the trenches from 1939 – 1945.
They lived through the dirt and the mud, scarcity, famine, and war. Myth carried their names on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and the walls of marble, memorials abroad.
They are the heroes.
According to Strauss and Howe’s book, ‘The Fourth Turning,’ those heroes will come again, but where are they?
It has been a full cycle(or saeculum) since the hero emerged in history.
Everywhere we look we see…
Government overreach, and a movement toward the Total State.
And at the same time, our political leaders are incompetent, bureaucracies burden by process, and mass media outlets more interested in shaping public opinion than in the truth.
While our elder generations decry the decay of the successful Western civilization of yore.
Of course they do, according to Strauss and Howe, they take on the role of the Prophet, instructing the next generation through the seemingly harsh words of reality.
The Prophets speaking to the G.I. generation were men like:
Henry Hazlitt, Author of ‘Economics in One Lesson.’
Frederich Hayek, author of ‘The Road to Serfdom.’
And the little known, Alfred Lansburgh, author of ‘The Money Revelation,’ who was a banker before and during the Weimar Germany hyper-inflation in the 1920s. He wrote to his son.
Not all prophets collected the same amount of fame, but many of them, just as effective in speaking to their audience.
There are Prophets today too.
They are the Boomers.
I’m not sure how many of my generation know of Charles Hugh Smith, but yesterday, he wrote reckoning one of the many the crises of today:
Our Crisis of Competence
“That America is mired in a crisis of competence appears to be yet another issue that can’t be addressed directly as it might upset the narrative control that all is well and everything is getting better in every way, every day.
And so we sugarcoat the incompetence, the endless delays, the sclerosis and the decline in quality and functionality as if these are all signs of rude, vibrant health rather than signs of systemic decline and decay.”
It’s true.
There is crisis of competence.
It is mired by everything identifies in his blog later on:
“Competence has been reduced to 1) increasing profits this quarter; 2) narrative control / social media visibility and 3) following process. If this is what passes for competence while we cheerlead “the Roaring 20s”, then our delusion has reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.”
What can be gleaned from this prophetic word?
Only that there is a remnant recognizing the error, those awakening to the problems. They are the same as those who want stability, and who want things they can touch and feel in their hands rather than getting their portion of the “capital market.” They want real action, real product, and real teamwork.
That is what every Hero generation is called to do. They are the teamworkers of the Fourth Turning, they are emerging “energetic mid-lifers,” and the coming “powerful elders destined to shape the institutions of the future.”
They are the heroes in the midst of this crisis, waiting for their grandchildren to establish the next mythology.
