Cyclical Time: Is History Repeating Itself?

As I’ve looked at generations and generational mindsets, I’ve wanted to talk to more generations than are alive today to help me understand what experiences are human and what experiences are colored by how a generation fits into history.

William Strauss and Neil Howe have examined Anglo-American history through a generational lens all the way back to 1443. They believe they’ve discovered a pattern of generational personalities. They believe that four basic generational types exist throughout history and have cycled through in pretty much the same order over and over again based on the way adults raise children and interact with society and the way children respond to each kind of nurturing and the society around them. So, generations impact society, and society impacts generations as they influence new generations.

By Strauss’s and Howe’s definition of a four-generation cycle, as I’ve looked at Gen X and the three current living generations older than Gen X, I’ve been examining one cycle of four generations that exemplifies most of the other generational cycles throughout history. According to Strauss and Howe, almost seven consecutive times, Anglo-American history has cycled through high times, followed by times of awakening, followed by unraveling of society, culminating in crisis in repeating succession. (Note: the “almost” seven consecutive times is because the U.S. Civil War era was a little off of the usual order, skipping the unraveling and going straight into crisis.)

During crisis, Heroes come to the forefront to help society through massive crisis, that, when resolved, results in high times. Children born during the crisis are usually sheltered out of necessity due to the dangers around them, and they gain their generational identity as young adult Artists. Although Artists speak to the soul of society and have high expectations, they are not considered to be as strong as the generation of Heroes ahead of them nor as strong as the generation of children born after the Artists. During the high times of history, Heroes birth a large generation of Prophets during prosperous times. Prophets dream big dreams and challenge society to push through existing boundaries. As prosperous times give way to an unraveling society, an alienated generation of Nomads is born and much abandoned by society as children, growing up with low expectations. Widespread, massive societal crisis, according to Strauss and Howe, has almost always hit just about the time all the Nomadic generation reaches middle age. The Nomads--overlooked children who learned to manage alone--become the crisis managers, leading the younger and stronger generation who have been nurtured by society to become the Heroes through during much danger while highly protecting the youngest children, the new generation of Artists, as the generational cycle begins anew.

Through the words Strauss and Howe use to tell the generational story of history, Gen X is a Nomadic generation. In the book, The Fourth Turning, Strauss and Howe look at times of societal unraveling evolving into massive crisis and the generations who lived at such times back to 1433; that is, the book focuses on the fourth turn in four-stage generational/societal cycles. Based on what they see as historical precedent, Strauss and Howe expect the Silent Generation to fade away as Baby Boomers become the political leaders of an upcoming, large-scale crisis. They expect Gen Xers to pick up the reins of crisis management as Millenials hit young adulthood at a time when society needs them to become a strong generation of Heroes. They expect the children born during crisis to be highly sheltered and sensitive Artists.

Interesting view of history with an eerie perspective on today’s world . . . hmm? I was reading Strauss and Howe when the recent tsunami hit Japan, so I was especially fascinated by the photos coming out of the crisis, noticing the ages and roles people were playing in response to it.

Questions? Thoughts?

This blog post is part of a series of writing (April 3-May 14, 2011) by Tammy Fletcher Bergland about Generation X facing midlife.   tbergland.blogspot.com

Before X

Gen X isn't the only generation who has travelled through midlife. During midlife, people tend to learn to appreciate generations that came before in new ways. Older generations, after all, are the ones who raised us and are the ones we will be looking after in our families should they need our assistance. Today’s older adults were born before1951.

The GI Generation was born between 1901 and 1924 (currently ages 87-110). The GI Generation has also been called the Greatest Generation. In their childhood years, the American population was primarily rural but was moving quickly to the cities. Ford’s Model-T automobile came on the scene in 1908, but many in the country certainly relied on other forms of transportation. Women gained the right to vote. Radio reached American homes. Prohibition and the roaring 20s lifestyles clashed. Evolution was on trial in Tennessee. Country-wide crises hit during the generation's teenage years with the stock market crash, the collapse of other world economies, masses of homeless and unemployed people, and the Dust Bowl. The GI Generation found their identity as young adults as they were thrown into World Wars I and II on foreign soils and were sweating to increase homeland production to meet the needs of war.  In The Greatest Generation (an interesting book with photos and stories), author Tom Brokaw said, “Black Americans were called Negroes or Colored in polite company and official documents, but the hateful epithet nigger was a common expression, even when referring to black Americans in uniform. They had few champions of racial equality outside their own ranks.” Japanese Americans at home found their citizen rights removed. White members of the generation became heroes, found their meaning as heroes, and will always be remembered as heroes. They entered post-war life especially mature as a result of their war experiences. They continued to hold to the values of personal responsibility, duty, honor, and faith. Brokaw noted, “They helped convert a wartime economy into the most powerful peacetime economy in history. They made breakthroughs in medicine and other sciences. They gave the world new art and literature. They came to understand the need for federal civil rights legislation. They gave America Medicaid.” As a generation, they have been characterized as frugal, team-oriented, loyal to institutions and causes. To their generation, marriage has been a binding commitment, and divorce has been unacceptable.

The Silent Generation was born between 1925 and 1945 (currently ages 66-86). The Silent Generation, born after the stock market crash and before the end of World War II, has also been called, the Postwar Generation and Seekers. Their earliest memories are memories of hard times. In the words of Strauss and Howe from the Fourth Turning (a book I’ll probably talk about another day) the Silent Generation “grew up as the suffocated children of war and depression. They came of age just too late to be war heroes and just too early to be youthful free spirits.” In a blog written by a Silent Generation man reminiscing about his generation's past, I read, “Because they had to look after their worried parents, they became empathizers, mediators, and conciliators.” From postwar times on, other descriptive words about the generation included, “withdrawn, cautious, unimaginative, indifferent, and unadventurous.” A a 1970 Time essay of generational self-examination, noted, “Our aloofness stemmed from an early skepticism. As youngsters during World War II, we collected paper, stomped on tin cans and weeded victory gardens to help the heroic Russians and defeat the hated Nazis and Japs. Before most of us were in our teens, we were taught that the Germans (no longer Nazis) and the Japanese (no longer Japs) were our allies and the once heroic Russians our enemies. Small wonder that in our college years we learned to be wary of ideologies or political passions.” According to Wikipedia, as young adults, the generation displayed confused morals, “expecting disappointment but desiring faith.” They worked hard, saved little, and women desired careers and families. When the Baby Boomers came along, the Silent Generation as mid-lifers felt especially crunched in the middle of powerful voices. The 1970 Time Essay on the generation said, “We can understand, as the young cannot, why the older generation is afraid, and more sadly, why it is resentful of those who seem to have everything but gratitude. To both young and old, we are almost invisible. The young often see us as the cop-outs—as the shorthaired, button-down junior exec or the suburban housewife in a station wagon—and many of us are.” In the 1960s and 1970s, the Silent Generation racked up the highest divorce rates in the country’s history even though they claimed to hold to the value of marriage. The Silents, as a generation, made a strong mark as artists, journalists and mediators including such people as: The Beatles, Frank Zappa, Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley, Marlon Brando, Marilyn Monroe, Clint Eastwood, James Dean, Little Richard, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Quincy Jones, Tina Turner, the Beat Poets, Martin Luther King, Jr., Gloria Steinem, and Jimmy Carter. I don't know about the rest of you Xers, but the Silent Generation's outlook reminds me a bit of us. Strauss and Howe actually say that Xers are the shadow of the Silent Generation.

The Baby Boomer Generation was born between 1946 and 1964 (currently ages 47-65). Baby Boomers were born after World War II, often to young, married GI couples during a twenty-plus year era of economic prosperity. They number more than any other living co-hort, are just now hitting retirement, and are accustomed to having society respond to their needs. As adolescents and young adults, Boomers took up causes and pushed hard to spur societal change. They ushered in a time of being more carefree as individuals and of thinking outside the box. Boomers seem to have broken the mold for expectations at each age they’ve hit along the way. Theirs is the generation of Vietnam, Woodstock, sex, drugs, and rock-n-roll. They were the long-haired, hippy, Flower Children of Xers' childhoods. As a group, Baby Boomers had more access to education than previous generations, and they also have tended to hold steady jobs with pensions and to own homes at an early age. They are currently the strongest, most active political generation in our country. In the late 1980s, a sociological report to the American Academy of religion said that as many Baby Boomers raised their families, they were returning to churches and religion in a search for meaning. Research shows Boomers to be a generation of religious seekers who do not necessarily view religion as their parents or grandparents did. The activism of Boomer youth is evolving into volunteer activities of older Boomers. Most of them are still mid-lifers, just ahead of Xers. The oldest 5 years of the Boomer generation has walked into older adulthood, just as the oldest 6 years of Gen X have hit midlife.

My grandma who I wrote about in the last post was born in 1901 and shared most of her generational characteristics with the Lost Generation, the generation just above the GIs. The Lost Generation is pretty much extinct from the planet now, which is kind of hard for me to wrap my mind around.

I've enjoyed considering life and generational experiences of living U.S. generations that are forging ahead of Xers and hope you've enjoyed the brief exploration as well.

OK all you non-Xers out there (or Xers, for that matter) . . . do I have anything here wrong? Should anything be added/ changed? What do you think has characterized generations other than X and why?

This blog post is part of a series of writing (April 3-May 14, 2011) by Tammy Fletcher Bergland about Generation X facing midlife.   tbergland.blogspot.com