09-04-2018, 06:53 PM
Prophets, for good or ill, are idealists -- dreamers. They may dream of something sick. They are weak in 'thing' orientation. They can dream of a dam or a motorway but they can't build it. They can model an ideal society or community but can't create it themselves. They are good at cultural creativity; they like theirs intense, whatever it is.
Nomads are the most mobile of people, capable of gong from one promising opportunity to another when the early one loses its promise. They have less connection to place and institutions than others. That implies lesser loyalty to places and institutions, and that others are less likely to invest in their education and training. Many end up going from one bad, exploitative employer to another. Because their relationship with the rest of the world can change so drastically, they must react to change abruptly and without sentimentality. Their culture is hedonistic, with no pretense of high purpose.
Civic implies a commitment to community and institutions, which is what one expects of people who grow up in a culture that can. They build big and set up large institutions with the expectation that such will pay off well in economic stability. They are willing to make the early sacrifices (the 'Hero' part) but in return they expect comfort and security. The problem is that they expect others to be like them. 'Comfort' means standardized culture -- formally developed, but often insipid.
Adaptive youth know that the great struggle of time is something for them to avoid. It is someone else's world even if things work out for them. Basically the understudies of the Civic generation, they get to fine-tune the details after the fact. Those with some education get to be clerks in the grand scheme of things. Attentive to details, and smart, they express themselves in an area that opens because the Civic/Hero generation isn't very good at it: art.
Nomads are the most mobile of people, capable of gong from one promising opportunity to another when the early one loses its promise. They have less connection to place and institutions than others. That implies lesser loyalty to places and institutions, and that others are less likely to invest in their education and training. Many end up going from one bad, exploitative employer to another. Because their relationship with the rest of the world can change so drastically, they must react to change abruptly and without sentimentality. Their culture is hedonistic, with no pretense of high purpose.
Civic implies a commitment to community and institutions, which is what one expects of people who grow up in a culture that can. They build big and set up large institutions with the expectation that such will pay off well in economic stability. They are willing to make the early sacrifices (the 'Hero' part) but in return they expect comfort and security. The problem is that they expect others to be like them. 'Comfort' means standardized culture -- formally developed, but often insipid.
Adaptive youth know that the great struggle of time is something for them to avoid. It is someone else's world even if things work out for them. Basically the understudies of the Civic generation, they get to fine-tune the details after the fact. Those with some education get to be clerks in the grand scheme of things. Attentive to details, and smart, they express themselves in an area that opens because the Civic/Hero generation isn't very good at it: art.
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.