07-28-2020, 02:01 PM
(07-28-2020, 12:26 PM)Einzige Wrote: Now, we did get a lot of physical infrastructure out of the last High - the Interstate Highway System, NASA, etc.
Did we get much in the way of social infrastructure? Was there much society building at all? In a past 1T we got... the Constitution. Nothing comparable in the 1950s and 60s.
I firmly believe that the Millennial 1T has more Unraveling characteristics than prior First Turnings. Even the widespread adoption of television, contributing to the social atomization of entertainment, is 3Tish.
Garish entertainment and middle class materialist display was typical of the gilded age, and also of the "Augustine Age" of the early 18th century following the war of Spanish succession. The American High was a first turning par excellence, and defines it traits. Corporate expansion was second to none. The Space Age spurred new technology.
The Constitution can also be defined as 4T. S&H say that in a 4T, new institutions like this are founded. The 13th/14th amendment was a comparable achievement at the end of its cycle. At the end of our previous 4T, the United Nations was founded. If you want to understand our times, you can't just look at one country anymore. We are a global civilization since the world wars, and since the final rush of European imperialism and imperial wars circa 1890-1900 too. So the UN is the foundation of our civilization, and is just as significant as the founding of the United States of America and the First Republic of France. Global trade was codified and the European Common Market developed-- the foundation of the EU. Also, the previous 1T continued the development of the New Deal in the USA, and preserved and expanded upon it. The world war provided a new tax and social government structure which continued into the 1T, and this equalized society as never before and created a middle class. Labor unions became well established and raised living standards for workers. The New Deal was also extended to Europe through the Marshall Plan, which created modern Europe and the Western Alliance along with the founding of NATO and the military-industrial complex. Traditional churches were set up throughout all of our neighborhoods. Suburbia was created, and urban renewal proceeded in a monolithic 1T way. We live in a society built during our 1T and we take it for granted.
TV and radio in the 1T was monolithic and dominated by 3 networks, so it was only in the 3T that it became an atomizing experience with the coming of cable and the internet.