Why we are nowhere near the end of the fourth turning

[Bob Butler 54]

(06-08-2020, 11:38 PM)Mickey123 Wrote: What exactly do you think will change regarding racism?

Blacks and Mexicans are every bit as racist as whites, and the same goes for Indians (from India) and any other racial group you want to point to.  Japanese and Koreans within their own countries are extremely racist, by U.S. standards.

If you have some method by which American whites will suddenly cease all racist thoughts and feelings, you will have to explain how to get it to work on all the other races of the world as well.  If your theories of the future rely on humanity suddenly experiencing a profound shift and entering a new utopian state where everyone views outsiders just the same as they do people like themselves, you are in for a letdown.  Because nothing I'm saying has anything to do with conservatives, it is simply human nature to see people from other groups differently than those from their own group, whatever that group might be.

A judge recently approved a set of orders to the Milwaukee police department from the mayor and city council. It among other things banned choke holds and held all officers that observe police wrongdoing without trying to stop it and reporting it as equally responsible as the wrongdoer.

At the US House a bill has been proposed at the national scale which also bans choke holds and withholds federal funding from any organization that resists reform. It does a number of other things as well.

Now, these will not prevent racists from thinking racist thoughts. Neither did laws requiring hotels and restaurants during the Civil Rights Movement to provide minorities service, but the behavior changed. The bad cops will comply or they will become ex cops. I don’t care which.

This does not mean tribal thinking does not exist. Humans have a tendency to break people into us and them. They treat the former better than the latter. They do it a lot. It was cost effective though the Industrial Age. It is still common. The US culture contains two opposing thoughts. All men shall be equal under law. Irish (or insert your minority of choice) need not apply. In time, the first comes to force the second to retreat. The racists will resist. This does not change that they are fighting a slow but losing delaying action.

The idea that all people should be equal under law definitely exists in the US culture, but the US doesn’t have a copyright on it. It can spread abroad. The Chinese, for example, has a thing about black people. This does not always become wonderful as they are trying to expand their influence in Africa, and the virus gave people an excuse to act up. The elites and leaders don’t always appreciate the racist attitudes. If your company is trying to turn a profit, racism is often a big obstacle.

Prior to World War II it was cost effective to hate other people. The way to dominate other people was through military force and colonial imperialism. These days, it is through economic influence. It is no longer advantageous to treat other people like dirt. Thus, the idea of people being treated as equal is not so outlandish.

I have come to label the times when there is a major change to a culture as cultural reboots. It started in the Generational Dynamics thread where I used the term once and it was repeated by Xenakis. I see three occurring in the US directly linked to race relations: the American Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, and most recently Black Lives Matter. You could add as non racist reboots most any crisis heart, or in the never again reaction just after. The culture transforms. This is a feature of turnings. It is a normal part of history and S&H turning theory.

These get ignored and demeaned as ‘magic’ or ‘hocus pocus’ by some on this site. They are not. They are an important part of S&H turning theory. They often come as ‘never again’ moments in response to a major crisis, when they are not the major crisis themselves. They don’t come often enough. In the US they might come near a Crisis Heart or slightly after, and occasionally in an awakening. On average, the reality of the slave compromises gives the conservatives enough power that most of the time the progressive changes are rare.

That doesn’t make the arrow of progress not exist, nor diminish the advance in equality, human rights and democracy. It is slow. It comes in bursts after long periods of activity. But it might be considered a normal process. People should not be surprised or in denial when it finally comes, especially as we have hit the crisis heart.