08-29-2018, 03:26 PM
Howe and Strauss originally used
Idealist for what we often call "Prophet" generations -- Puritan, Awakening, Transcendental, and Missionary
Reactive for what we often call "Nomad" generations -- Cavalier, Liberty, Gilded, Lost, and Thirteenth/X
Civic for what we often call "Hero" generations -- Glorious, Republican, (the Gilded assumed the role but not well). GI, and Millennial
Adaptive for what we often call"Artist" generations -- Enlightenment, Compromise, Progressive, and Silent... and the current children
Idealist/Prophet generations are the innovators in thought, philosophical and religious. They can innovate in such things because they are children encouraged to think for themselves. That is not to say that they are great moral thinkers; Trump isn't. They are the reformers and heretics. Howe and Strauss list a large number of intellectual revolutionaries (Luther, Calvin, Knox, Loyola, Zwingli) in the Reformation Generation that broke the intellectual smugness of the late medieval world.
Reactive/Nomad kids grow up in the ferment of an Awakening Era and don't fully get it. They are never a part of it, so they seem out of place in such a time. Often terribly neglected, they seek solace in adventure and entrepreneurialism -- and often crime. In politics they are often vindictive rebels who use their secular power to settle scores (think of the Lost fascists and Stalin's henchmen). If they mature fully before taking power they are the ones with no taste for shaking up much (Washington, the Grant, Cleveland, Truman, Eisenhower, and Obama).
Civic/Hero kids grow up in chaos short of war and dislike what they see. They grow up in time to be heroes of the Crisis, something that they solve to the extent possible with big solutions. Big organizations (which may be the small-scale businesses that Reactive/Nomad young adults start on a small scale can be social as well as commercial or political. They try to solve problems in the Hewre and Now and not ask the fundamental questions.
Adaptive/Artist kids grow up on the sidelines of history. They are protected -- usually over-protected. When they grow up they find themselves doing what they can with the big, new organizations -- refining or fine-tuning. They don't make waves early.
Idealist for what we often call "Prophet" generations -- Puritan, Awakening, Transcendental, and Missionary
Reactive for what we often call "Nomad" generations -- Cavalier, Liberty, Gilded, Lost, and Thirteenth/X
Civic for what we often call "Hero" generations -- Glorious, Republican, (the Gilded assumed the role but not well). GI, and Millennial
Adaptive for what we often call"Artist" generations -- Enlightenment, Compromise, Progressive, and Silent... and the current children
Idealist/Prophet generations are the innovators in thought, philosophical and religious. They can innovate in such things because they are children encouraged to think for themselves. That is not to say that they are great moral thinkers; Trump isn't. They are the reformers and heretics. Howe and Strauss list a large number of intellectual revolutionaries (Luther, Calvin, Knox, Loyola, Zwingli) in the Reformation Generation that broke the intellectual smugness of the late medieval world.
Reactive/Nomad kids grow up in the ferment of an Awakening Era and don't fully get it. They are never a part of it, so they seem out of place in such a time. Often terribly neglected, they seek solace in adventure and entrepreneurialism -- and often crime. In politics they are often vindictive rebels who use their secular power to settle scores (think of the Lost fascists and Stalin's henchmen). If they mature fully before taking power they are the ones with no taste for shaking up much (Washington, the Grant, Cleveland, Truman, Eisenhower, and Obama).
Civic/Hero kids grow up in chaos short of war and dislike what they see. They grow up in time to be heroes of the Crisis, something that they solve to the extent possible with big solutions. Big organizations (which may be the small-scale businesses that Reactive/Nomad young adults start on a small scale can be social as well as commercial or political. They try to solve problems in the Hewre and Now and not ask the fundamental questions.
Adaptive/Artist kids grow up on the sidelines of history. They are protected -- usually over-protected. When they grow up they find themselves doing what they can with the big, new organizations -- refining or fine-tuning. They don't make waves early.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.