Some folk be getting all bent outta shape with talk of cyclical patterns and eras based on generations. It feels too woo-woo, too much like astrology, too much like someone tellin’ ’em what they can and can’t do based on something over which they have no control: this apparently continuous (in the US and more and more in all modern countries) pattern of Spring-, Summer-, Fall-and then Winter-like eras and cultural moods.
Maybe the pattern will change; maybe not; it’s archetypal in its nature. The pattern/cycle has been observable and extant in the US and its early mother country, England, for 500+ years; and the exact same pattern shows up in all nations (though not always as intensely as it has been doing so in the US). The exact same archetypal stories of the four generational archetypes exist in literature and myth in all cultures.
Understandably, generational theory is not the kind of theory that lands well in most minds, as it is in some ways both complex, and kinda “divine” in that there is an overarching pattern to societal moods that lasts about the length of a long human life, or what is called a saeculum. That combination of intellectual intensity and “a natural pattern” boggles many a mind and causes many to reject it.
But I will say, it’s one of those things that once seen, cannot be unseen: it’s evidence is everywhere.
And, for all the knowing of it (the theory), one still has to live life, experience (and be part of) the era-changes and keep on living in the times, as they are.
Mark it on your calendar if you want: 2036 (about 3-4 years into the next predicted shift, out of “winter” and into “spring”). Does it feel now like Hope is real, the Really Bad Times have (possibly) passed, and a new golden age is possible. 🙂
