Strauss-Howe Generational Theory

[Anonymous No.11827924]

According to the Strauss-Howe generational theory, Boomers are an uncompromising Idealist generation who revolt against their fathers (G.I.s, Silents) and assert new values for society. They come-of-age during a new spiritual Awakening ('60s "Consciousness Revolution") and reach seniority in the midst of a secular Crisis they helped created.

Gen X is a Reactive generation, which means they've been made ultra-pragmatic, cynical, and jaded by a society that has cast them aside. They were too young to appreciate the last Awakening and will be too young to be the elder leaders during the coming Crisis. They were largely left to fend for themselves as children. They are middle men of history, like the Lost Generation before them, but their clear-eyed disillusionment will be a useful aid to the Boomers leading us through the Crisis and the Millennials in the trenches.

Millennials are a Civic generation. That makes them conformist, constructive, secular, and collectivist. Civics are pampered in childhood and youth, and come-of-age in the midst of a Crisis. They often have stronger relationships with their fathers, Boomers and early Gen Xers, than with their mothers. (Idealists like Boomers often have stronger relationships with their mothers than their fathers.) Millennials will follow inspirational Boomer leaders to the death and conquer the Crisis, instilling them with a sense of lifelong confidence. They will rebuild institutions in the aftermath and establish more rigid social roles according to the newly-prevailing set of values. In middle-age they will be confronted with a new spiritual Awakening from their Idealist sons and daughters, who will rebel against their conformist society. Eventually due to their overconfidence they will begin to overreach, and make embarrassing or disastrous mistakes. (Think of the G.I.'s leadership through Vietnam.) They will remain active and optimistic throughout their elderhood.

Zoomers (Gen Z, Homeland Generation, etc.; name hasn't been decided) are an Adaptive generation. They will come-of-age post-Crisis and enter midlife in the midst of an Awakening caused by the children of Millennials. Like the Silent generation before them, they will be compromisers and mediators, torn between the secular stability of Millennial institutions and values and the spiritual renewal and upheaval offered by Idealist young adults. Early on they will hew closer to their Millennial elders; later they will begin to aid the Idealists in reshaping societal values. Like Reactive generations, Adaptive generations are also middle men, or recessive. Idealist and Civic gens shape the world, Reactive and Adaptive gens revolt fruitlessly against or "smooth out" what is already there.

Fun fact: the dominant US politicians of our day, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, are both of the Idealist Boomer generation, and we know a Crisis is coming. (Barack Obama was Gen X.)

[Anonymous No.11827931]

Gen Z wont be the next conquerers? Feels bad man (i never win at anything)

[Anonymous No.11827953]

So the generation after Gen z will be boomers

[Anonymous No.11827975]

>>11827931

Look on the bright side, maybe you'll enter your mid-late twenties during a great economy instead of the trash fire that the impending crash will create. Adaptive gens get to revel in the peak comfy times of history. Protip, start saving money now and you can buy into the stock market at the bottom in a couple years. Also get Bitcoin.

[Anonymous No.11827987]

>>11827953

Yep, the little bastards. According to Strauss-Howe the previous Idealist gens were the Puritans, the Awakeners, the Transcendentalists, and the Missionaries. Here's the table if you're curious: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss%E2%80%93Howe_generational_theory#Timing_of_generations_and_turnings

[Anonymous No.11828022]

Are there any falsifying examples that challenge Strauss and Howe's model?

[Anonymous No.11828040]

>>11828022

Well, it's certainly not exact or perfect, as they concede the Civil War came too early, and thus a Civic generation in that cycle was never created. They posit this is why the results of that Crisis were so comparatively bloody, depressive, and noncurative.

[Anonymous No.11828050]

>>11827987
gas the post-zoomers now
quickly, before they have time to exit the womb

[Anonymous No.11828069]

If I'm 19 right now is there no hope in winning this lottery? Am I a millenial? (not that everything is doomed for me if it is)

[Anonymous No.11828088]

Isn't Obama literally a boomer though?

[Anonymous No.11828110]

This model reeks of bullshit

[Anonymous No.11828112]

>>11828110
god, I hope so! I'm >>11828069

[Anonymous No.11828118]

>boomer vision, values

[Anonymous No.11828201]

This seems a bit weird. If I'm 22 now, what generation do I fit into on this model? Are Gen Z called "Homeland" because they are the first generational cohort in the past 80 years to wholeheartedly embrace nationalism?

[Anonymous No.11828300]

>>11828022
Well it's like astrology or Jung's nowadays interpretation of archetypes. It is unfalsifyable making it not really science but more of a philosophical domain. It's always kind of true but kind of wrong at the same time.

When you take the model and try to fill it you're going to see pattern. But if you took other events than the one proposed as markers of generation it maybe wouldn't fit so well. And that model work for American history for exemple. But does it work fur us eurofag ? For every country ? For the Russians ? North coreans ?
You know that if you start digging the thing is going to fall apart.

TLDR : it's not science, just an idea that maybe reflect a pattern in human society. Not to be taken too seriously. Nor to be totally dismissed.

[Anonymous No.11828341]

>>11828069

If you were born in 1999, according to Strauss-Howe you are a late Millennial. (Zoomers start at 2005 in their accounting.) The Crisis era began in 2007-2008 with the Great Recession and is still ongoing. Most "Turnings," or eras, span about 20 years, which means we could have a good 10 years of Crisis remaining. (Or many years fewer, but as with any historiological theory, the timing is not exact.) Assuming there isn't a draft, I would be optimistic if I were you. Unlike me and my early-Millennial peers, you didn't enter your prime earning years in the middle of the Recession. On the other hand, the next crash is coming in probably two-three years, and you could end up entering your twenties in an even worse situation than we've been dealing with. It's important you start preparing financially now. Save what you can and anticipate buying stocks after the market crashes.

If there IS a draft, all of us Millennials will be kissing our asses goodbye. Boomers are not compromisers, and whatever war we face, foreign or civil, they will shovel us into the meat grinder. The culture war is getting incredibly heated, and once the economy goes belly-up again I wouldn't be surprised to see civil unrest. Prepare your anus.

>>11828050

Maybe if enough Millennials die in the Crisis it will suppress the numbers of Boomer 2.0, lol.

>>11828118

They do have values, just not a unified set of them. That's what leads to Crisis. Think about your hardline "guns and Jesus" uncle and your aunt that thinks Drumpf is literally Hitler. Opposite spectrums, both completely unwavering, hysterical, and self-righteous.

>>11828201

You're a mid-stage Millennial. Strauss-Howe gave Gen Z the name "Homeland" in their 1991 book "Generations," which is where this theory originated. (Highly recommend, it's actually a little eerie how well their forecast is matching the present situation.) I don't recall their reasoning behind it, but it actually fits quite well post-9/11 and the rise of the security state. (Or police state, as I regard it.)

[Anonymous No.11828348]

>>11828341

Also, interestingly, Strauss-Howe coined the name for the Millennial Generation. It first appeared in their work.

[Anonymous No.11828389]

>>11828088

Obama is among the first Gen Xers, born in the first year of that cohort, 1961. Keep in mind that the general "character" of a cohort is a gradient; for example, an early Gen Xer is probably much more likely to have traits associated with Boomers than a late-stage Gen Xer, who would probably have shades of Millennial. The cultural and political environment shapes cohort personality.

Personally, I see qualities of Boomer (spoken idealism) and Gen X (practiced pragmatism) in Obama, and I think it made him a very ineffective president for our time. Conservative Boomers made mincemeat out of him because he thought he could make this an era of compromise. When an Idealist gen is in power, there is no compromise -- only struggles to the ideological death. (And sometimes physical death.)

[Anonymous No.11828673]

bump

[Anonymous No.11828778]

>>11827975
>you can buy into the stock market at the bottom in a couple years.
>crash happens
>buy into the bottom
>turns out to only be a plateau before an even worse bottom

Betting on losing times is a losers strategy

[Anonymous No.11828842]

>>11828778

That's why you don't try to catch a falling knife and you wait long enough to confirm a bottom. Or you can just dollar-cost-average all the way down.

[Anonymous No.11828847]

>>11828842
>and you wait long enough to confirm a bottom.

Then it plummets later. Seriously think about it, has there ever been anyone in history who won better on a crash than those who just made money when times were good.

[Anonymous No.11828958]

>>11828847

Dude, buying low selling high is how you make money. You don't "win" in a crash; you take advantage of it so you win when it's over. Plenty of people made out like bandits after 2008 by buying in at or near the bottom. That's why it's important to have cash or some other form of liquid capital on-hand when the crash occurs.

[Anonymous No.11828983]

>>11828958
>Plenty of people made out like bandits after 2008 by buying in at or near the bottom.

And I guarantee +99% of them were trading well before the crash too.
The dummy theory is that the smart way to go is stocking up on gold during a bull period so you can magically guess the bottom at a crash. You will almost always simply lose money and certainly make less than someone whose goal is to make money when people are actually making money

[Anonymous No.11829130]

>millennial
>affluent
top kek
tell that to all the people who had to get jobs in 2009

[Anonymous No.11829185]

>>11828983

Huh? What? What theory is this? Of course you're in the market during a bull. Then when the yield curve inverts, you start gradually selling off your assets, because historically the recession arrives within two years proceeding. You only hold gold/bonds after the yield curve inversion. I don't know where you're getting your financial advice, but buying low selling high is and always will be the way to get rich. People who don't buy the crash are clueless.

>>11829130

Who said Millennials are affluent...?

[Anonymous No.11829229]

>>11829185
Because no one ever knows when the high has been reached or when the low has been reached. I can tell you've never done any trading in your life

[Anonymous No.11829284]

My family is full of loners, including myself. Could an outsider be considered part of the generation?

[Anonymous No.11829493]

>>11829229

No kidding. That's why you hedge and buy-sell gradually. I'm not talking about swing or day trading, I'm talking about buying when a very obvious crash/recession has occurred. You don't have to be a trader to understand the basics of the business cycle. Jesus Christ.

>>11829284

You're still affected by the social and cultural milieu, but probably not as much as others. Keep in mind the theory is very high-level and general; it's not a horoscope for individuals. Many Millennials have personalities the exact opposite of the cohort majority -- but they're probably very aware of it. Consider an optimistic dreamer born in the midst of Gen X, a cynic in the G.I. generation, or a soft-spoken pragmatist among abrasive and self-righteous Boomers. They know they feel differently from the prevailing mood of their peers.

[Anonymous No.11829538]

>>11827924
Europeans developed an astrology based on the month you were born.
Chinese, knowing they could do more, developed an astrology around the year you were born.
Americans, to manifest destiny asked Texas for advice where everything is bigger and, developed an astrology of the decade you were born, OOO-RAH!

[Anonymous No.11829555]

>>11829538

This is based around social context, though, not numerology or star charts. It's not the actual number of the year that matters; it's the cultural zeitgeist at the time which affects your personality as you age.

[Anonymous No.11829592]

>>11829555
I realize it isn't based on star movements. I'm saying it's all bs, and has no more predictive value than astrology. It uses the same kind of vague, complementary language which humans with their cognitive biases find appealing.

[Anonymous No.11829627]

>>11829592

It's done pretty well so far in terms of predictive ability, though obviously there's never going to be anything specific like "event x will happen on y date." Their book "Generations" is a fascinating lens through which to view American history. You don't have to think it's 100% correct to find it interesting. Calling their work "BS" is a huge oversimplification if you've never engaged with the actual material, and not just the summaries people like me post online.