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I'm currently reading Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584-2069, which is very interesting.
Dude, the Puritans were so totally like the Boomers are now. It's freaky. This book seems pretty solid overall, actually.
The US generational theory as presented in the book is that there are four generations that cycle in a predictable pattern -- in fact, they cause each other. Idealistic parents (such as Puritans or Boomers) cause the Reactive (Cavalier and 13ers) generations by their focus on spirituality and by generally, well, ignoring kids in favor of themselves. Because of this, the parental grip tightens in the next generation, the Civic (there are still some living Civics from the last cycle -- the GI generation -- and the kids born post-'82 are the new Civics, of which I would be one). The parental hold continues to tighten over the next generation, producing the Adaptives (the Silent generation, most recently) who were suffocated by overly-strict parental control.
The book was written in '91, but it's fascinating to see how they predicted some of the general trends of the '90s.
( excerpt from page 380, about the 1990s )
The book predicts the moment of social crisis coming around 2020. The one time in our history when the crisis came early, the Civil War, it ended horribly, causing intra-country conflict and a bitterness that lingers to this very day (as well as making the cycle of generations skip half a step).
( excerpt 'what if the crisis comes early?' )
In other words, if we are experiencing our social crisis now, it may end as badly as the Civil War.
Dude, the Puritans were so totally like the Boomers are now. It's freaky. This book seems pretty solid overall, actually.
The US generational theory as presented in the book is that there are four generations that cycle in a predictable pattern -- in fact, they cause each other. Idealistic parents (such as Puritans or Boomers) cause the Reactive (Cavalier and 13ers) generations by their focus on spirituality and by generally, well, ignoring kids in favor of themselves. Because of this, the parental grip tightens in the next generation, the Civic (there are still some living Civics from the last cycle -- the GI generation -- and the kids born post-'82 are the new Civics, of which I would be one). The parental hold continues to tighten over the next generation, producing the Adaptives (the Silent generation, most recently) who were suffocated by overly-strict parental control.
The book was written in '91, but it's fascinating to see how they predicted some of the general trends of the '90s.
( excerpt from page 380, about the 1990s )
The book predicts the moment of social crisis coming around 2020. The one time in our history when the crisis came early, the Civil War, it ended horribly, causing intra-country conflict and a bitterness that lingers to this very day (as well as making the cycle of generations skip half a step).
( excerpt 'what if the crisis comes early?' )
In other words, if we are experiencing our social crisis now, it may end as badly as the Civil War.
