Why Did Straus/Howe Use The Words They Did To Name The Archetypes?

[Eric the Green]

(09-03-2018, 08:08 PM)Hintergrund Wrote: The Nomads are seriously underestimated. Even by S&H. Although they admit the work Nomads have to do: Carry away the garbage the last Artist generation created, keep the rabid "Prophets" from destroying everything for the sake of their ideology, fix family and society, did I mention raising the Heroes?

Prophets also raise the heroes, and primarily so, and infuse them with morals and self-esteem. 

I think what hasn't been said about nomads like the X generation is that they develop a lot of self-reliance and independence. They are indeed the best at taking risks; the Xers invented extreme sports, and I saw their skill that went far beyond what boomers did. At their best, they are very pragmatic and skilled at problem solving. That is valuable to society during a 4T when they are in middle age. At worst the Xers were aimless and violent, and absorbed the cynicism of Reaganomics, and that is reflected in most of their political leaders, though not all. In leadership skills they have yet to show that they can replace Boomers, who do have the potential for a lot of charisma, if often misdirected. The best candidates for 2020, for example, are still Boomers, Boomer-Silents, and late-wave Boomers. I don't see that Xers are less ideologically rabid than Boomers; being extremists at heart, probably they are more so, with less articulation; although Boomers helped set the stage for ideological conflicts today.

So nomads are independent adventurers, and artists are people who love people. They promoted tolerance and "I'm OK, you're OK." They were inheritors but also social innovators. They are creative, but art per se is largely hidden in America and does not have the place that it should. But the silent-boomer cusp in particular showed what they can do.