Generational Dynamics World View

[John J. Xenakis]

(03-03-2017, 04:18 PM)Cynic Hero 86 Wrote: > Time and time again you suggest that the goverments in Russia and
> China would adopt increasingly nationalistic policies driven by
> their younger generations. Yet you are somehow confident that the
> governments in the US, Europe, The Americas and Oceania would keep
> pluralistic and globalistic policies even though the younger
> generations in the west also propose centralized nationalistic
> states.

There are two points.

First, what are nationalistic policies? Immigration control is a
nationlistic policy, and Brexit is a nationalistic policy, and we see
governments in America and Europe adopting those policies.

But leaving Nato is not a nationalistic policy -- in fact it's
probably anti-nationalistic, because many in "younger generations" see
it as protection against Russia, which is the real nationalistic
issue. Most people don't have a clue what "globalism" is. In fact, a
few months ago when a Breitbart commenter called me "globalist scum,"
I didn't have a clue what he meant. Actually, I still don't know what
he meant. So very few people equate nationalism with anti-globalism.

The second point is that Western democracies, especially America,
really are different from authoritarian regimes like Russia and China.
If some judge in a Moscow court ruled that one of Putin's edicts
violated the Russian constitution, that judge would next be ruling on
divorce custody cases in Siberia. Trump doesn't have that option with
the 9th circuit court.

Look at Trump's regulation to block immigration from seven countries.
It's been a month now, and that regulation is no closer to being
implemented than when Trump took office. Who knows if it will ever be
implemented?

The US Constitution was created during a generational Recovery era
(First Turning) following the Revolutionary War. The people at that
time, like the GIs and Silents in the 1950s, were extremely suspicious
of populism, nationalism, and xenophobia, so they designed the
Constitution to make it as hard as possible to do some things quickly.
They were particularly concerned about "the tyranny of the majority."
Obama whined about this constantly, and went on to use "his phone and
his pen." Trump is in the same situation, using his phone and his pen
to undo some of Obama's policies, but it's going to be very slow
going, and many of his promises won't be fulfilled.