Does this 4T seem a little 2T-ish to anyone else?

[beechnut79]

(03-29-2022, 06:22 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(03-29-2022, 03:45 PM)David Horn Wrote:

(03-28-2022, 11:43 AM)Eric the Green Wrote: I'm still of a mind to remind you that prophet generations are victory children. I rather think that if we don't make at least some of the needed changes in this 4T, we won't have another 2T. 4Ts are not so much about paradigms, but making institutional change. Once a real 4T gets going, who knows what changes might come. Generations will live up to the need, once it can no longer be avoided.

Change can be many things. It's hard to say that a "failed" 4T is really a failure, until it really is.  There's a lot of dead wood that needs to burn, and that may be the change we get this time.

Bingo!
One of the hallmarks of a Crisis Era is that people are obliged to give up some bad habits, and even some usually-harmless indulgences, for "the duration".
(lyrics by Irving Berlin):

Quote:We all have been selected from city and from farm
They asked us lots of questions, they jabbed us in the arm
We stood there at attention, our faces turning red
The sergeant looked us over and this is what he said:

[Refrain:]
This is the Army, Mister Jones
No private rooms or telephones
You had your breakfast in bed before
But you won't have it there any more

This is the Army, Mister Green
We like the barracks nice and clean
You had a housemaid to clean your floor
But she won't help you out any more

Do what the buglers command
They're in the Army and not in a band

This is the Army, Mister Brown
You and your baby went to town
She had you worried but this is war
And she won't worry you anymore

[Alternate verse from sheet music:]
A bunch of frightened rookies were list'ning filled with aweo
They listened while a sergeant was laying down the law
They stood there at attention, their faces turning red
The sergeant looked them over and this is what he said:

When part of the objective of "the Duration" is to be able to enjoy the witty songs of Irving Berlin instead of enduring such vile bilge as the Horst-Wessel-Lied, people are able to make some sacrifices.

First, hasn’t plenty of dead wood already burned over the past few decades. Word processors and the Internet made typewriters obsolete, just one example among many.

What we have had since the postwar years is the nearly endless March of ever greater convenience, with each generation demanding more convenience than the previous one enjoyed. A prime current example is how you can order food and many other things via your smartphone and either pick it up ready to go or have it delivered to your door. Of course there have been subtractions such as the vast decline in social capital. Our fetish for ever increasing is most likely one of the biggest reasons that we lag in combating global warming and climate change. If we don’t take steps to reduce auto dependency the congestion will still be there. We simply can’t continue to build our way out of congestion forever. The pandemic created forced sacrifice of sorts but actually enhanced the convenience fetish per more delivery of food and other household items.

Perhaps a supreme irony is that the elder Boomers who spent much of their youth in the sign of the dreamer and the mystic May now feel the need to enforce a level of seriousness on those below them vastly different from the way they governed their own youth. Yet one segment of their youthful idealism may indeed be what’s needed now. And that is that they may be called to provide emotional support to those they love and also to those they may have not been so friendly to in the past. Being a present and compassionate listener is healing for all.