(Had the idea during a PM conversation with @taramarie.)

As we know, people have characters typical for their generation not because of astrological influence, but because of the events that shaped them.

I'm thinking especially of the recessive Archetypes: Nomads and Artists.

Nomads are shaped by their messy, unprotected childhood and adults who are too incompetent to handle big events (or even not that big events).

Artists are shaped by overprotective parents, esp. mothers because the fathers are absent.

Maybe that's typical in the Anglosphere, but in continental Europe, there are exceptions because of the war.

That's why we have a Silent ("War-children") generation that was a typical Artist generation because their numbers are small, they were stuck between elder Heroes and younger "Prophets" - but in their childhood, they went through a big mess, like Nomads.

OTOH, not only there many people from Generation X grew up with single mothers, so while they're still stuck between elder "Prophets" and younger Heroes, they may be more artistically inclined and neurotic as usual for Nomads, and more like Artists in that regard.

We really should try to sort this out - find out which part of their characters was caused by their influences that made them Nomad- or Artist-like.

Which archetype suits her better?

She's an activist, so she's not silent. She calls for collective action, something Civics are known for. And she's something of a fanatic, which is mostly a Prophetic trait but I guess it's possible for Civics during their 4T youth as well. Certainly it's not an Artist trait since we know this archetype tends to be indecisive.

Her sayings definitely reflect a 4T mood:
https://www.curious.earth/blog/greta-thu...es-best-21

The only Artistic trait I've noticed is that she was known as "the invisible girl".

Recently I read this book (should've done earlier). The author's indeed a Silent, and I found many bits that fit the typical Silent personality.

- His son (*1957, hence a young Boomer) never gets strict orders, and throws tantrums - apparently because he prefers a father who slaps him to a father who never, ever makes any rule. Of course, the father / author doesn't get that.
- Both the author and his friend seem to have trouble in their marriage.

- The friend is completely unable to repair stuff in his house - for no apparent reason, he's just neurotic like that.
- The author even had to undergo psychiatric treatment, which involved electroshock therapy.
- He finds that repair workshops have detoriated: In the past, mechanics were old men who really knew their shit (Lost!); but in recent years, they're young folks who spend all the time listening to music during "work" and always seem misplaced in the workshops (young Silents or old Boomers).

- Later in the book, he actually finds an old mechanic like that (who might be seventy already), i.e. a Lost, who fixes his problem easily for a small price.
- He is artistically inclined, of course.
- He is so learned he even scares a professor in college.
- He doubts everything - even the fact that everything's either matter or spirit.

Oh, and while the author's definitely a Silent, the book's seen as a typical Boomer book today, what with the "generation of 1968" and the "Easy Rider" feeling. Not the only time Boomers stole Silent stuff and claimed it for themselves.

He understands the situation of X-ers, and cares about it: "Generation X Faces a Bleak, Impoverished Old Age" http://www.unz.com/trall/generation-x-fa...d-old-age/

(I don't think very highly of that Unz site, but when they're right, they're right.)

Interesting. I haven't cared much about Ted Rall yet, but maybe I should.

It's called "X Saves the World: How Generation X Got the Shaft but Can Still Keep Everything from Sucking". Here's a link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143115154/ (if this counts as advertisement, just cut it out)

Never heard of it before, although it's ten years old. Ratings are mixed, maybe because Boomers and Silents don't like it. The recommendations sound good.

Since we don't seem to have a thread yet... this blog has several good articles about X-ers:

http://www.jenx67.com/who-is-generation-x

http://www.jenx67.com/are-you-there-god

http://www.jenx67.com/2015/11/why-are-ge...dying.html

http://www.jenx67.com/2015/08/pro-life-generation.html

http://www.jenx67.com/pictures-generation-x

http://www.jenx67.com/2009/01/latchkey-generation.html

http://www.jenx67.com/2015/03/a-nameless...ation.html

http://www.jenx67.com/2019/01/omitted-generation-x.html

Hi, I'm in the process of developing a 6 turnings/generations cycle theory and have identified an unbroken Anglo-American cycle beginning in 1377 (see attached). However, the British cycle appears to be broken at the end of the 18th Century and does not reappear until the beginning of the 20th (see attached). Was the British line really broken or does the cycle continue through the 19th century? If, as I suspect, it was broken why might it have been broken (was the length of the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars period a factor) and why did it re-emerge?

Attached Files

  6 AngloAmerican Turnings Notes - Copy.pdf (Size: 491.44 KB / Downloads: 5)
  6 British Turnings Notes - Copy.pdf (Size: 388.74 KB / Downloads: 6)

I was wondering what ideas people might have regarding other possible names for the additional 2 generational architypes (Merchants and Sages) in the 6 generation/turning cycle I have identified? See attached. Also, does anyone else here have an academic background? I'd like to collaborate with someone to develop my 6 turnings/generations cycle further.

Attached Files

  6 AngloAmerican Turnings Notes - Copy.pdf (Size: 491.44 KB / Downloads: 4)

From my blog. Boomers are associated with the fading past and with reactionary politics. Not necessarily fairly.

Boomers Invented the Internet, but…

As we all know, it was a Baby Boomer who invented the Internet. Al Gore, to be precise. Ha ha, I jest. But in all seriousness, it actually was a Boomer who invented the World Wide Web. Well, an Englishman the same age as the American Boomer generation. That was when the Internet skyrocketed into public awareness and use (it had been around for decades already in academia and government) and the Boomer generation was still relatively young, and was involved in the grunt work of technology research and development.

Now it's younger generations who are on the leading edge of technology development and the Boomer pioneers are for the most part resting on their laurels. Steve Jobs has been deified and Bill Gates is busy spending his billions on humanitarian projects. Meanwhile, the Millennial generation has taken over Internet culture and formed a hivemind that is whimsical and heartwarming (doggy memes, anyone?), and also unforgiving in its enforcement of social norms (fear the hashtag). Generation X has been ghosted, and Boomers? - well, their cultural reputation on the Internet has not survived in very good shape.

For proof of this last assertion, all you have to do is get on Facebook and join "a group where we all pretend to be boomers." It's easy to do, trust me - I applied and got accepted right away. Here you will encounter the Millennial stereotype of what a Baby Boomer is - basically an old white Christian who supports President Trump, is hopelessly out of touch with modern values and, on top of that, embarrassingly clueless about how the Internet works. Boomers are always posting "MAGA" and "God bless America," misinterpreting what they see younger people doing online, and going to church and to potlucks.

As for posting memes, well Boomers probably shouldn't even try. Their memes are dated in style, atrocious in design, and express antiquated values. They should just stick to GIFs of the minions from Despicable Me, inexplicably a Boomer obsession. The idea of a Boomer meme is something you will also find on the subreddit TheRightCantMeme, where a lame meme by the political right is implicitly associated with the Boomer generation.

This stereotyping, of course, is unfair to the legions of Boomers who are on the political left. Not to mention those who are very savvy to the ways of the Internet. Perhaps these Boomers are not on Facebook so much; my guess is they are on Twitter instead. But this association, by a younger generation, between the Baby Boomers and the reactionary politics of Trump supporters (who are not all Baby Boomers, is my point) clearly marks the Boomer outlook as a fading thing of the past. The Internet - and thank you for it, Mr. Gore - belongs to a new generation.

Do  the archetypes have anything to do with our civilization's double source?

The civic values are rationality, masculinity and togetherness or "cooperative freedom", which looks a lot like Ancient Greek values, or to be more precise Aristotelian values, since this is the philosophy which exerted greatest influence on the modern West through Thomistic Catholicism. The word "civic" is derived from "citizen" and citizenship was the focus of Aristotelian ethics. Its main point was to raise brave citizens ready to die for the free polis, the way GIs died for democracy during WW2 and Republicans during the American Revolution. 

Then the prophetic archetype is about personal righteousness and spirituality, which is just what the Bible preached. All 2Ts, including the Boomers' one, featured a renewed interest in Christianity. The Puritans made it clear they want to build a new Israel and reject the culture and political system of Europe because it was too Roman. Criticism of Western civilization was also a part of later 2Ts including Romanticism. Hippies weren't fond of Christianity, but they still respected Jesus as a prophet of peace. For millennials Jesus is not really relevant.

Both sources were in fact one-sided and lacked the other dimension. Greeko-Roman society after death of its early prophetic currents like Pythagoreanism was so civic-minded that it had to import its spirituality from Syria, Egypt, eventually from Israel. Israel as a prophetic nation was a spiritual superpower, but technologically and politically it was feckless. We don't know any ancient Israelite inventors, and of course they never were a major political player.