We are in Winter, culturally, as a nation
It’s a thing. It’s generational in its origins. It’s cyclical. It has to happen.
What comes after winter (cold, dark, difficult times, when pulling IN is the best strategy to survive the times ahead)? Spring, a time of hope, renewal, fecundity, nesting and optimism.
Just you wait. Come 2032/3, it’s likely to BEGIN to feel a smidge like The Bad Times are over, and it’s ok to hope. It’ll take a good 3-5 years for that to feel more real. Seven years in, it’ll start to feel solid, then trustworthy that it is, indeed, a new era and new times … and that’ll march on, all told, for about 22 years (the length of time it takes the first of a generation to reach young adulthood).
And then, BAM! It’ll change all over again with another Great Awakening, which always come about every 80-90 years.
The Spring era comes on more gently and transitionally, as does the Fall. But Summer (great awakenings) and Winters (the Big Crisis) come on hard and fast.
