Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Is That a Light at the end of the Tunnel?

Over at BuzzFlash > Maureen Farrell > has another great piece that starts with a quote from The Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy. The entire article is a must read. Maureen does her usual splendid job. The "bottom line" is that there is a clear divide of ideology in America and it is not going to go away during the next four years. It will get worse. Maureen presents four possibilitie...Another Civil War, World War IV, Another American Revolution or a Fascist State. It is not a pleasant area to ponder.

"Around the year 2005, a sudden spark will catalyze a Crisis mood. Remnants of the old social order will disintegrate. Political and economic trust will implode. Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation, and empire. Yet this time of trouble will bring seeds of social rebirth. Americans will share a regret about recent mistakes -- and a resolute new consensus about what to do. The very survival of the nation will feel at stake." -- From the Fourth Turning: An American Prophecy, by William Strauss and Neil Howe, 1997

Strauss and Howe conclude:
"Thus might the next Fourth Turning end in apocalypse -- or glory, " Strauss and Howe concluded. "The nation could be ruined, its democracy destroyed, and millions of people scattered or killed. Or America could enter a new golden age, triumphantly applying shared values to improve the human condition."


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