Looking Toward The Next High

[pbrower2a]

(05-27-2018, 08:54 PM)TheNomad Wrote:

(05-27-2018, 04:13 PM)Eric the Green Wrote:

(05-27-2018, 05:05 AM)Mikebert Wrote:

(05-26-2018, 11:21 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: One thing to point out though, is that the kids have vowed to continue to be active. We'll see if they do this, but if so, they will be joined by a continual stream of new activists that has happened after almost every mass shooting. Mass shootings will continue and get worse until the politics of guns shifts, whether by the Parkland kids, Everytown for Gun Responsibility, Gabby Giffords' organization, or the next groups that form, and all of them together.

Very possibly this will happen (I hope so).  But it hasn't happened yet. So they cannot "count" as evidence of a 4T movement until they actually achieve something, which means more time is needed for the last decade or two to bear more than a superficial resemblance to a 4T.

... It may take more time than we want or expect. I suspect that Trump may even win re-election, perish the thought. The Democrats may not nominate Landrieu or McAuliffe, in which case they are likely to lose. Bernie would be a crapshoot I could not predict. It might take until 2022 before a progressive sunami wipes out the GOP (in the typical 6th year beating administered to the party in the White House, but even more so), and turns Drump into a virtual puppet or dumps him and Pence out of office. Then that leaves 4 years of full progressive leadership after 2024 (plus the prior 2 years of progressive congressional power) in which the country could change beyond recognition. Or, things may shift sooner. But if not, after 2020 I know that folks like you and David Kaiser and The Nomad here will be confirmed in their opinion, with much justice, that the 4T is over and has failed or never happened, while I will still proclaim that there is more ahead, even then!

You said: I suspect that Trump may even win re-election, perish the thought.

My thoughts have been a hopeful showing of the ideology that will cause a 1st Turning, but I do not believe it will be a huge wave in 3018, just a showing.  I even entertain rump may become re-elected, but I still adhere to him as an aberration with no mandate to bring about further 4Th Turning mayhem.  It may be a steward of the final stages of Crisis, I only believe that with every year and even month that passes, more of the Hero and Artist will reach voting age and adult stature and the sludge getting progressively pushed.  I cannot in any way see ryan (who is their best bet yet is retiring) or MITT ROMNEY(?) (not so much)... that side has nothing more to offer.  They're running out of time fast and ALL they can do is reluctantly push more rump, and the general consensus on that is "NO MORE".  It cannot last that much longer.  I can't think of a necon below geriatric age and voters are no longer accepting senators or house people having a 75th birthday or 90th.  They're even kicking our pelosi and feinstein (fossils on the left side).

We all have our ideas of who we want to win. Don't ignore that some Americans want a "Christian and Corporate State", one in which people earn some theological reward for enduring severe and otherwise pointless hardships that give them a sure passage to "pie in the sky when you die". The oppressors get more toil cheaply from people who have no choice, and higher profit margins that arise not only from exploitation of workers as producers, but also from monopoly in the marketplace due to tight control of consumer needs.

The Millennial generation already shows that it will have none of this. It recognizes that it is getting burned with privatization schemes, with heavy reliance upon personal debt for what used to be free or inexpensive (as a Boomer I remember when a first-rate education was less expensive than a hobby), and with low glass ceilings in bureaucratic organizations. As is true of other Civic generations it is much more rational and secular than older generations other than perhaps the one Civic/Hero generation generation that it might know as old people before it got fully mature. Of course, as the French Revolution shows, pure reason is not enough to make a workable society... but there is enough fluff to cast off.

It rejects the gun cult that holds that profits for a slimy industry are more precious than the lives of its victims. Good. Even if it isn't profoundly religious, it is moral enough to recognize the difference between Barack Obama and Donald Trump other than origin, party label, and pigmentation. It is willing to accept the collective over the ethos of every-man-for-himself in a race to the bottom. Above all, it has no use for homophobia or abuse of spouses and children; racism and religious bigotry; cronyism and corruption; or despotic government. It believes that the world can be better through technology which negates any alleged need for non-meritocratic hierarchy and class privilege.

But don't forget -- there are still powerful people who see the social optimism as their profit, power, and privilege; and that no human suffering is in excess when it churns or enforces a profit, as for wars for profit (the neocon game). There are people who believe this in the name of their sadistic view of God Who demands masochistic obedience from the masses who are to be the peons and cannon fodder.