Morality and the Saeculum

[Warren Dew]

(11-25-2016, 04:21 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(11-24-2016, 09:26 AM)sbarrera Wrote: Some time ago I wrote this essay about the saeculum and morality. Specifically it aligns the generational cycle (archetypes and turnings) with Aristotle's four moral characters. 

http://home.mindspring.com/~saecularpages/Morality.html

I present it here for the forum's consideration. Would love to know what people think.

It's not hard to see that I could not agree with your analysis, good idea though it may be.

The 4 archetypes are not supposed to range from moral to immoral. Each generational archetype has its good and challenging traits. No one is better than another, and clearly Aristotle's moral characters range from best to worst.

Similarly with the turnings. The difference between them is not a breakdown of moral values, as if obedience to moral standards determine whether the times are good or not. The difference is between whether individualist or collective values are more or less prominent, with individualism strongest in the 3T and collective in the 1T. The 2T is a cultural awakening crisis and the 4T is an institutional crisis. Clearly, the first turning is not the best one, as your view would suggest. Not at all.

Thanks for saving me the trouble of reading.  For people with such opposing political views, you and I see eye to eye on a lot of things. If he's a millennial, I can believe he'd think the first turning was the "best", though.