Why does the Fourth Turning seem to take Forever?

[Eric the Green]

(01-13-2020, 09:37 PM)pbrower2a Wrote:

(01-11-2020, 07:25 AM)Bill the Piper Wrote:

(01-07-2020, 11:55 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: Because we live in a Crisis and find it frustrating and viscerally offensive. There is no obvious flow.

If one is a liberal, one almost feels as if America has succumbed to something that offends every sensibility that mandates a resistance that we are not yet sure will prevail.

And conservatives can feel offended as well since conservatism has been debased and has nothing better to offer than Trump.

Conservatism will need to sort out much -- like casting out the Radical Right, the hucksters and demagogues, rediscovering the utility of rational discourse, and finding something worthy of protection (class privilege is never an adequate basis of conservatism unless the system is able to suppress dissent). Conservatism fares best when opportunity is a norm instead of a privilege, and such may depend upon liberal reforms of a recent time. (Aside from some better treatment of the handicapped and the establishment of LGBT rights, such "reforms" as America has had have had the enrichment of elites as the first objective. Conservatism used to be the defense of old virtues against radical assaults on a workable culture... and now Movement Conservatism (the only conservatism now relevant) is the defense of superstition (pre-modern thought) and elite egoism (postmodern thought) that have allied against rationality (that is, the Enlightenment). Conservatism may have never had a warm relationship with the Enlightenment, but when it acquisced with the Enlightenment it was far more defensible. 

Donald Trump is absurdity and cruelty, neither intellectually nor morally defensible. He represents the consequences of the celebration of ego, the culture of celebrity, and the rejection of objectivity.

With generational theory as a guide, I can predict that conservatism will get a revival as a defense of benign traditions and as a default alternative to radical Leftist efforts that implode or become excessively costly or disruptive.

I would say Trump also represents the rejection of subjectivity as well as objectivity. The former represents an ability or inclination to self-reflection and self-observation, something of which Trump is incapable. The Enlightenment represents an outdated worldview, although the worldview that Trump represents is probably akin to that of 2000 to 4000 years ago (the red meme/Mars age of empire gods).

Generally, the dominant political ideology of the last 40 years is a distortion of the orange meme of individual freedom and the rational application of technology for achievement i.e. the Enlightenment and classical liberalism. I see it as nothing but a distortion exaggerating the worst aspects of that worldview, especially justifying oligarchy and abuse of the people in the name of "free enterprise," which is really robber barons unleashed. It is also a convenient home for racism, which is another distortion of the ancient tribal purple meme combined with more modern theories of neo-darwinian racial superiority. This "neo-liberalism" is racist because it extols the virtues of "self-reliance," which for many people (especially southerners and rednecks) translates to "I work for my money, why should I be compelled by force to pay taxes for welfare to those who don't work" i.e. those "lazy" races who think they are "welfare queens" entitled to my tax money.....