Generational Cycles - The Gormogons

Note – time goes counter-clockwise in this diagram for some reason

GorT, Sr. passed along a summary presentation on generational cycles that stems from The Fourth Turning, a book by William Strauss and Neil Howe, in regards to Czar’s opening in this post.

The basic premise is that there are repeating cycles of sets of four generational archetypes. Each one acts, so to speak, in a similar fashion to the way their predecessor generational archetypes did 4 cycles prior. The archetypes are:

The archetypes are:

Prophets	Nomads
Born during a “High” period, when rejuvenated community life and consensus around a new societal order is forming They grow up as the increasingly indulged children of this post-Crisis era They come of age as self-absorbed young crusaders of an Awakening period Emerge as elders guiding another Crisis period Example generations: Baby Boomers* (born: 1943-1960) Missionaries (born: 1860-1882) Transcendentals** (born roughly around 1792-1821)	Born during an “Awakening” period, a time of social ideals and spiritual agendas when young adults (Prophets) are passionately attacking the established institutional order They grow up as under-protected children during the Awakening (i.e. latch-key kids) They come of age as alienated, post-Awakening adults and become pragmatic midlife leaders during a Crisis Age into resilient post-Crisis elders Example generations: Generation X (born: 1961-1981) Lost Generation (born: 1883-1900) Gilded Generation (born: 1822-1842)*** The Gormogons are Nomads
Heroes	Artists
Born during an “Unraveling” period featuring individual pragmatism, self-reliance, and laissez-faire Grow up as increasingly protected post-Awakening children Come of age as team-oriented young optimists during a Crisis and are the soldiers in the Crisis Emerge as energetic, overly-confident mid-lifers Age into politically powerful elders attacked by Prophets in the next Awakening Example generations: Millennials (born: 1982-2004) G.I. Generation (born: 1901-1924) Missed American generation due to intensity of Civil War	Born during a “Crisis” period when great dangers cut down social and political complexity in favor of public consensus, aggressive institutions, and an ethic of personal sacrifice Grow up overprotected by adults preoccupied with the Crisis Come of age as the socialized and conformist young adults of a post-Crisis world Mature into process-oriented midlife leaders during an Awakening Age into thoughtful post-Awakening elders Example generations: Homeland Generation (born: 2005-present) Silent Generation (born: 1925-1942) Progressive Generation (born: 1843-1859)

Cyclically speaking, we are in the Crisis period which one could attribute to the “war on terror” or the growing political divide within our country, etc. Past crises include the period leading up to the Civil War causing the division of the states, the Great Depression and WWII, American Revolution, Glorious Revolution and King Philip’s War, and the War of the Roses. The generational pattern, when not taken tightly and strictly, seems to pattern out pretty well.

So to the point (or phrase) that the Czar quipped – I’m not dismissive of the Millennials. I think they’re generally following their pattern. I think they are faced with a difficult world that the previous generations, including mine, have formed. So, without a glitch in the matrix, the patterns will likely continue to repeat, we’ll get through the Crisis, and we’ll see what the “High” period will bring. Of course, I’m not sure I like where our generation ends up given the following chart.

	Hero	Artist	Prophet	Nomad
Reputation as child	good	placid	spirited	bad
Coming of Age Focus	empowering	unfulfilling	sanctifying	alienating
Young Adulthood	outer-world	inter-dependency	inner-world	self-sufficiency
Young adulthood	building	improving	reflecting	competing
Midlife transition	energetic to hubristic	conformist to experimental	detached to judgmental	frenetic to exhausted
Leadership Style	collegial	pluralistic	righteous	solitary
Entering Elderhood	expansive	indecisive	austere	pragmatic
Reputation as Elder	powerful	sensitive	wise	tough
Treatment as Elder	rewarded	liked	respected	abandoned

* No, ‘Puter not high like that
** These years are from the authors, there is room for some variance
*** These years closed in on other generations due to the Civil War losses

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.