The gap of the new generation

I was having a conversation with my nephew, from the Millennial generation (b1982-2003?), at Thanksgiving dinner and realized that there is a big misunderstanding between Millennials (Mills) and older generations. The Mills don’t want to listen to the older generations because we’re

• so cynical
• constantly communicating that America is doomed.

I want to dispel the rumor that America is doomed. Perhaps we are in a stream without a paddle; however, this is normal. Seems we found we’re way above that Creek like clockwork, every 80 years or so, since this country was formed. America will emerge victorious, and we as a country are headed toward a new and better future. What I’ve been trying to get across, since 2003, to the Millses and anyone else who wants to listen is that

• we were headed for a financial crisis and an era that can be defined as Winter;
• the winter era would be very difficult and life as we knew it would change.

What I have not communicated is that we will be fine when this is over. The cycle will continue from winter to spring. The era of spring may not arrive until 2024, but it will. The Mills have many talents, one is that they fix society from a civic point of view. Where the boomers focused on the individual and rebelled against their civic fathers (the GI generation), the Mills will rebuild the broken systems that the boomers and Xers left behind, but focusing on the community, not the individual. Additionally, the Mills will excel in math and science. There has been much consternation over the depletion of mathematicians and scientists in the last 30 years.

However, this is a normal cycle that can be found within the archetype of each of the four generations that are born over and over again in the United States. Some generations are good at writing, some are good at math, some are entrepreneurs, some are medical wizards. If a generation is defined as lasting about 20 years and there are 4 different types of generations born in the US in a cycle that repeats every 4th generation, then you can see how we could exhaust those specific areas of expertise in which each generation stands out. Today, we have few mathematicians and scientists… but not for long. Looking back on my conversation with my nephew on Thanksgiving, I realized that my side of the conversation was laced with the usual cynicism and anger toward the elite. “America is screwed and things are going to get a lot worse when austerity hits,” I said. My nephew replied, that he does not believe that the United States is sinking, that the sky is falling, etc. It was then that the epiphany came.

Well of course America is not going to fall I thought. Suddenly our conversation was interrupted, the night rushed and I wanted to end the conversation with him, but I found my wife and children saying goodbye before I could talk to my nephew. Well, this is my chance to end that conversation. My message to my nephew and the rest of anyone who reads my writings is this: We are not doomed. The generational and turns theory is the only theory I have found that does a great job of predicting the future of society. Those theories show that we will not only survive, but that we will grow, expand, flourish, and life will continue in America under the same systems we have used and modified since 1776.

The Mills will become scientists and mathematicians. They will bring civility back to America and by 2025 this country will not look the same, it will look better. We will sacrifice individual rights in the process because that is what a Hero/Civic generation (the Mills) does. They build community to the extreme at the cost of individual sacrifice.

For better or worse, that is the cycle. Perhaps the cycle improves after each step, because our society does not grow linearly? I think both are true. Finally, yes, the next 15 years are going to be difficult. That’s why they call it Winter.

How will we see it? Millennials will offer their expertise in teamwork and sacrifice their lives if asked to fight a war; the Xers will offer leadership through pragmatism while protecting the new generation The babies of the country (b2004?-2021?), and boomers “will define acceptable behavior of other nations in a limited way and the proper use of American weapons in general.” (p302 generations)

Hope this helps, James Goulding 07/12/2010