The Latest Generation

14 09 27 -- The Battle of Flowers parade was my second parade ever. It was April 27, 1979, in San Antonio, Texas, part of "Fiesta," an annual series of events in San Antonio.  I was there with my high school band, on a trip we'd been looking forward to all year. https://battleofflowers.org/events/   The numbering convention is an adaptation of the method used in Defending Your Life. In the movie its a way to refer to specific days in a lifetime while reviewing events that may cover any day within a life. The first number is my age in years on the day this happened, the second is the month number within that year (i.e. the number of months since my previous birthday), and the third is the day within the month. Because I was born at the end of the month, I've simply used the day of that month e.g. for November 11 the month number is 4 and the day number is 11 Although the date is described within the movie as being “Daniels nth year,” the actual year used is his age at that point. This means that, for example, 1/1/1 is his first birthday: the first day of the first month when he turned 1., This is noted as a goof on IMDB ( as described, 1/1/1 would be the first day of his first year I.e. the day he was born) but ... having tried to figure it myself, this method turns out to be easier to calculate and more useful to understand about when events are happening. Note that  14 09 27  is NOT “14 years, plus 4 months plus 11 days” but “the 27th day of the 9th month after my 14th birthday.” A Twitter thread from a day I was thinking about the Battle of Flowers.  On WIkipedia, you can find what a Sousaphone looks like. Repo Man and Plain Wrap according to IMDB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Texas_tower_shooting Hang On Sloopy is not mentioned here and there was no way for me to have included the relevant anecdote in the episode, but I did want to at least have some reference to it. Suffice it to say that it was a song we frequently played at football games.

Three months later and it's not as bad as it seemed. But it's not really getting better, either.  It's been a Redux-heavy month, so planning to do some new episodes of various sorts in April. =========================================================== Lucy Hires a Maid Verna Felton aka Mrs. Porter WarGames at IMDB   https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/ Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy   Professor Falken explain how the world works to David and Jennifer https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104940/ (Not a Nomad, not as frightening a person at 53 as Verna was at 63 - a quite believable member of the Silent generation.)   Statler and Waldorf This isn't about Statler and Waldorf, but it is about the Muppet Christmas Carol, which is close enough here in December.  https://www.gq.com/story/michael-caine-muppet-christmas-carol-interview A random thought on Colonel Dawson - well, two. The first one is that he was named after Cecil Rhodes, which says something about who his parents thought were the good guys in colonial Africa in the late 19th Century. But also that I overheard him saying one time "I thought he was as good a general as he was a President" with an emphatic thumbs-down.  I spent about five minutes searching Twitter for the flame war I mentioned and, I'll be honest, I can't even deal with looking at Musk's timeline for another moment. And the central tweet from him is offensive enough. So, if you want to find it, he posted it on December 27, 2024, at 11:22PM. (Although it's not a bad example of my thesis, that everyone in a Nomad generation has trouble with their world after midlife.)

When describing how Turnings come about, the Midlife cohort can seem less important than the young adults' exuberant energy or the Elders' wisdom and values. The Nomads (like GenX) are identified as rather uninteresting managers of the Crisis/4th Turning, not much else to do in their role. Perhaps, though, the people in midlife are the key to it all, the real impetus, the ones who push the Crisis towards its peak.    ================================ The tweet that - mostly - got this episode starting up again in my head https://twitter.com/larisa_a/status/1095350964226281473 A few notes here on how age, fertility, and other ways we suspect that midlife is a specific biological event. https://www.webmd.com/depression/features/midlife-crisis-opportunity#2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stage-crisis_view https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erikson%27s_stages_of_psychosocial_development https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_and_female_fertility https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/01/why-do-killer-whales-go-through-menopause/512783/ Hadn't found this source when doing that earlier episode on The Third Wave http://www.thewavehome.com/1991_The-Wave_article.htm As mentioned, there was an earlier episode on Authoritarianism and Awakenings (Episode 16) that talks about The Third Wave and who was involved. There's another one on anger, it's effect on people and its impact on the Fourth Turning - episode 20 Why Are You So Angry?   A couple of articles about how people have this drop in happiness around 44 or so. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/happiness-and-the-pursuit-leadership/201804/miserable-and-middle-aged-is-something-wrong-you https://www.marketwatch.com/story/miserable-in-your-40s-dont-panic-its-perfectly-normal-2018-07-10 A study of 500 chimpanzees and orangutans rated for happiness by their zoo keepers indicated a primate mid-life crisis at around the age of 30 – a finding that led to speculation that some (as yet unidentified) age-related biological influence is at work. (…in the book Protector, there is speculation that other primates were separate offshoots of breeders, de-volving because of something unexpected like increased radiation.) https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2015/jun/24/life-happiness-curve-u-shaped-ageing A description of Protector on Larry Niven's website. http://news.larryniven.net/biblio/display.asp?key=81&order=4&direction=1 But you can search around and you'll find more about it - like here https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Literature/Protector Marie Kondo was at the Oscars https://twitter.com/TheAcademy/status/1099797651946491904 https://twitter.com/MarieKondo “Tidying is contagious” https://twitter.com/MarieKondo/status/1087735339551244290

This is one of two episodes referenced in "Waiting for the Worms," with respect to the idea that Awakenings (2nd Turnings) are more amenable to authoritarianism than Crisis (2th Turnings). In recent days, we're speed-running towards confirming that is true or...not so much. Planning to repost the other older referenced one as well: Midlife in the Crisis. ======================================== Taking a contrarian view that authoritarian regimes are likely to be more successful during an Awakening / Second Turning than during a Crisis / Fourth Turning Here's where I first ran into Sarah Kendzior on Twitter (October 22, 2016) https://twitter.com/sarahkendzior/status/790030495568437248 And the more recent, relatively hopeful tweet https://twitter.com/sarahkendzior/status/890375102126272512 Charles Mann's 1491 is about the New World before Columbus arrived, and the varied cultures across the continents. Highly recommended. The Mexica history is on pages 130-134 of my paperback copy. And if it wasn't clear, the Mexica were the people ruling what is now Mexico when Cortez arrived. You may want to take a look at Episode 15, Unforgivable Dullness, to hear more about Cromwell and the Turnings during the 17th Century. Some links on the Third Wave, that 1967 high school social experiment. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/3559727/The-Wave-the-experiment-that-turned-a-school-into-a-police-state.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Third_Wave_(experiment) You can find me on Bluesky: @generationalize and blogging at  http://crisis.generationalize.com

Prompt the first: You Get what you give https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Get_What_You_Give_(song) The song was released in November 1998 - Clinton had turned 52 a few months earlier. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Alexander (b. 1970) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danielle_Brisebois. (b. 1969) 4:38YouTube • NewRadicalsVEVONew Radicals - You Get What You Give (Official Music Video)     Prompt the 2nd: The Parable of the Sower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Sower_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_E._Butler       Prompt the 3rd: What's next https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_West_Wing https://crisis.generationalize.com/2016/04/cultivate-patience-and-keep-your-hands.html

Looking back at Solo: A Star Wars Story because someone reminded me of it.    A post on Bluesky said in part "Please give me control of the Star Wars franchise. My concept is to just remake old war and samurai movies, but Star Wars. The Dirty Dozen but Star Wars. The Great Escape but Star Wars. Zatoichi the Blind Swordsman but Star Wars." https://bsky.app/profile/revan.social/post/3lggkreqghs2m I had a couple of ideas  https://bsky.app/profile/generationalize.bsky.social/post/3lggylz3tas2e https://bsky.app/profile/generationalize.bsky.social/post/3lggz33hats2e But in any case I had previously proposed that Solo should have been "Casablanca but Star Wars," and this episode goes into detail on that.  ======================================= What the generational model might have to say about the commercial success of Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the extent to which it is (or should have been) a remake of Casablanca. The IMDB pages for Solo https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/ Star Wars (since retitled A New Hope) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/ And Casablanca https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/ Another analysis of why Solo should have emulated Casablanca - no impact on my analysis, incidentally, as I didn't read it until after recording was complete. But it ends up in much the same place and for similar reasons. https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/06/the-key-to-the-young-han-solo-movie-casablanca-of-course/ Not-too-subtle references to Han-Shot-First throughout what I'm looking at. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_shot_first Here's my original blog post that summarizes my Generational Stories. http://stories.generationalize.com/2015/12/four-stories.html And how Han is a Nomad even at the end: http://stories.generationalize.com/2016/01/the-force-awakens-han.html You can find me on Bluesky as @generationalize and blogging at http://stories.generationalize.com

  Prompt the First: The Authoritarian Fourth Turning I've asserted multiple times that the Fourth Turning isn't when autocracy happens: It's the 2nd.  And here in the United States, we're about to see if that's really the case. But why do I think that in the first place? https://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/ — From August 1941 "Nazism has nothing to do with race and nationality. It appeals to a certain type of mind." "It is also, to an immense extent, the disease of a generation—the generation which was either young or unborn at the end of the last war. This is as true of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Americans as of Germans. It is the disease of the so-called 'lost generation.'"   Prompt the Second: A Transaction Cost Economics Assessment of the Civil War How the response to the Los Angeles January 2025 wildfires has me thinking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles - where I got those L.A. counts The entire population in 1790 was just short of 4 million, 700K slaves - 17.8% https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1790_United_States_census The slave population in 1860 (3.95M)  was just about equal to the entire population in 1790 (3.92M) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1860_United_States_census (Although the percentage had dropped, a bit: From 17.8 to 12.7 in 1860)) In any case, the Confederacy was larger than the Colonies - twice as large considering whites alone California had been a state for 11 years in 1860, and it was already 379K - the 26th largest state out of 33, well ahead of New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Delaware. Sacramento was the 68th largest city…with 13K people.   Prompt the Third: Cassandra A fake fortuneteller can be tolerated. But an authentic soothsayer should be shot on sight. Cassandra did not get half the kicking around she deserved.  Lazurus Long, a character created by Robert A. Heinlein https://www.baen.com/chapters/W200408/The_Notebooks_of_Lazarus_Long.htm

Some thoughts on how Nomad aka Reactive generations end up being the grumpiest old people ever. And also on how knowing about the past doesn't mean you understand the future.  =========================================================== Lucy Hires a Maid Verna Felton aka Mrs. Porter WarGames at IMDB   https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/ Matthew Broderick and Ally Sheedy   Professor Falken explain how the world works to David and Jennifer https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0104940/ (Not a Nomad, not as frightening a person at 53 as Verna was at 63 - a quite believable member of the Silent generation.)   Statler and Waldorf This isn't about Statler and Waldorf, but it is about the Muppet Christmas Carol, which is close enough here in December.  https://www.gq.com/story/michael-caine-muppet-christmas-carol-interview A random thought on Colonel Dawson - well, two. The first one is that he was named after Cecil Rhodes, which says something about who his parents thought were the good guys in colonial Africa in the late 19th Century. But also that I overheard him saying one time "I thought he was as good a general as he was a President" with an emphatic thumbs-down.  I spent about five minutes searching Twitter for the flame war I mentioned and, I'll be honest, I can't even deal with looking at Musk's timeline for another moment. And the central tweet from him is offensive enough. So, if you want to find it, he posted it on December 27, 2024, at 11:22PM. (Although it's not a bad example of my thesis, that everyone in a Nomad generation has trouble with their world after midlife.)

Between the general sense of disgust with about 50% of my fellow Americans, and unhappiness that the Fourth Turning is, in fact, not yet over, I haven't been in much of a way to do a new episode.  So here's a redux from a few years back,    Wherein a random tweet brings up a quote from Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice, a romantic comedy about dealing with the dangers and temptations of a Crisis period and still liking yourself later.   This is the tweet that started me on this one 6 years ago or thereabouts.  https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1022955880197836802 Turns out that the issue at hand in that case is tarriffs. The more things change, the more they stay the same Considering it's a story about women trying to find husbands, the word Danger is used remarkably often - twenty times over the course of the novel. For comparison - amazing what a simple word count can help you see -  the word Marriage is used 67 times, Happiness 74 times, Joy 42 times, Silly 12, Evil 22 times, pounds 24. (As I like to say, the importance of arithmetic in history is widely understated.) Danger, then,  is used almost as often as pounds, the standard by which most of the potential husbands are measured.

1984 was a surprisingly good year, and a significant one for Generation X and generational analysis.  This mostly ends up being about music....I may have to come back to more. Morning in America https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2019/09/how-ric-ocasek-met-paulina-porizkova-and-the-80s-videos My previous notes on when dystopias seem to end up https://crisis.generationalize.com/2013/01/tyrell.html    

A look at Midnight Cowboy and how an off-the-cuff assessment brought up similarities to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas .   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Cowboy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Cowboy_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Leo_Herlihy Born 1927 - Silent generation (which starts in 1926) Midnight Cowboy at IMDB https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear_and_Loathing_in_Las_Vegas   Just because it's come up while researching, the Robotic Edition of Huck Finn seemed worth including here. https://www.themarysue.com/huckleberry-finn-robotic-edition/ https://www.dianianddevine.com/store/p/huck

Last week was the anniversary of September 11, which inspired this episode's 9/11 theme.    Prompt the First; The Rising https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rising_(album) Released July 2002 - not quite a year after the attacks   Prompt the Second: Humor and 9/11 I have a note to myself from soon after the attacks:”Steven Spielberg, around September 12, said that there should be no art about September 11 -- it was too terrible for art. ” https://www.vox.com/2016/9/9/12814898/pop-culture-response-to-9-11 Schindler's List - 1993 1941 - 1979 I would like to note that I re-watched 1941 a few years ago, at a point where I had been working in an office building on Hollywood Boulevard. The special effects are impressive, to the point that I couldn't tell for sure if it was only miniatures (as I presume it was) or done via actually flying over that area - an area which (because of the view where I worked) I was very familiar with. The Onion 9/11 issue Here's an image of the front page https://theonion.com/issue-37-34-the-september-11th-issue-1828969352/ That doesn't link to anything, but you can find the articles on the site - like this one https://theonion.com/talking-to-your-child-about-the-wtc-attack-1819566164/   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aristocrats_(film) “Gottfried began his performance with a joke in which he claimed to have to catch a late flight out of town but was worried because his flight "had a connection at the Empire State Building." The joke, a reference to 9/11, was poorly received by the audience, who showered Gottfried with boos and cries of "too soon.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humor_based_on_the_September_11_attacks Pay it Forward - 2000   Prompt the Third: Was that the Fourth Turning? Neil Howe talks about Gen X and the attacks That's from CNN but it's shared by Lifecourse - and on there as well we can see this one, from 1997, in which the prediction is made that the 4th Turning will start "in about 10 years" and continue on to the late 2020s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYW3accapOk Which matches better with the 2008 starting point.   

Re-reduxing this one, because it is again the time of year for football games and field shows, and post-game parties, and (back in the day, anyway) rewatches of Highlander and The Lost Boys. And because The Lost Boys showed up, all unbidden, in a separate project I was working on today, and immediately started pulling my mind down memory lane.  And a little bit because Highlander showed up last month in the first episode of Reactivities, A Kind of Magic.  And also because it's been five years, already, since the initial events that had me thinking about immortality in the first place.  ================= Considering whether Gen X views of life, death, and immortality were shaped by two mid-80s films: Highlander (1986) and The Lost Boys (1987)   Yes yes yes, I said Stewart Copeland at about 9:12 and realized soon after that I completely meant Douglas Coupland, who wrote Generation X: Tales For an Accelerated Culture in 1991 https://www.coupland.com/books/generation-x-tales-for-an-accelerated-culture And my point there is that in 1987 the Lost Boys was certainly depicting Gen X characters with Gen X actors, but nobody called them Gen X at the time. Interview with the Vampire was published in 1976 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interview_with_the_Vampire Its sequel, The Vampire Lestat, was 1985   The Mystery of Dracula's Castle - a scooby doo mystery in all but name, with inspiration from Christopher Lee's Dracula over and over. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068985/ The Hunger  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085701/ The Lost Boys - straight to the tagline https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093437/taglines Highlander https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091203/ Cocoon https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088933/   Siskel and Ebert - Lost Boys starts at 9:44 -  https://siskelebert.org/?p=2948 Highlander is the first one here, about 1:30 - they both disliked it rather a lot https://siskelebert.org/?p=1496   First chapter of The Golden Bough - Frazer calls the King a “murderer” rather than a “killer” so I'll randomly note that A) in the 1536 battler in Highlander, the Macleods are fighting the Frasers and B) “Matador” is literally “killer” in Spanish   The Spirit of Christmas, which spawned South Park, references Highlander's repeated line “There Can Be Only One” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0122264/   When talking about Reactives and the Awakening, probably worth looking at this previous entry on my blog https://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/01/reactiveness.html   Unrelated but it's a photo series called Lost Boys - millennials back at home after college or high school or whatever they decided they could do. https://www.businessinsider.com/liz-calvi-lost-boys-photo-project-2014-9#calvi-started-with-her-good-group-of-guy-friends-but-eventually-branched-out-to-look-for-more-subjects-in-town-nolan-pictured-here-is-currently-studying-graphics-in-college-and-he-lives-with-his-parents-for-the-summer-2 Here's the archive she set up https://seulementdanslereve.tumblr.com/archive And her home page https://www.lizcalvi.com/commissions   “Vampire of the Mists” (1991) was a few years later, so probably influenced by Anne Rice and The Lost Boys and everything. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_of_the_Mists   Wikipedia sayeth that Peter Pan first appeared in a novel in 1902, while the play first appeared in 1904. He's very much of the Nomad archetype. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Pan Completely unrelated, except insofar as Aiken Drum (the character) is much like Peter Pan and has other Nomad / Reactive archetype indicators https://manycolored.fandom.com/wiki/Many-Colored_Wiki   Pogonip club house http://deepbluemoon.com/misc/pogonip/ Other locations - the interiors were on a set at Warner Brothers https://www.visitcalifornia.com/attraction/lost-boys-santa-cruz-tour   Gregory Widen, screenwriter for Highlander. Born in 1958, he's a late Boomer. He also wrote Backdraft. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0927074/ Russel Mulcahy - his director credits here include the music videos - which included Video Killed the Radio Star by Buggles, which unfortunately I can't find, so here are some others. https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0611683 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uxc9eFcZyM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iyv905Q2omU Max has mission style outdoor lamps - not too common at the time. (Although it was becoming popular again) https://casetext.com/case/l-jg-stickley-inc-v-canal-dover-furn Grandpas house is here (interiors were a set at Warner Bros.) - a very 1900s house  http://www.mobileranger.com/santacruz/pogonip-the-cowell-family-polo-and-a-poltergeist/ CSUN Queen show, 1989 - there will be another episode one day about why this matters….but I didn't even have a chance to get into, here, how I and Angela and 150 of our closest friends did a field show with two songs from Highlander, plus Bohemian Rhapsody https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjkHl0paHbM    

There's reasons for why this one makes sense to look at again, but mostly I thought it was pretty good....Plus No Hard Feelings is going the rounds on streaming (currently on Netflix, as it has been for a little while.) ========================================= A look at perceptions of modern parenting, specifically how Generation X is seen to be parenting the Homeland generation and young Millennials in the Fourth Turning.     No Hard Feelings at IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15671028 Jennifer Lawrence https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2225369 Matthew Broderick, Ferris Beuller, and Wargames https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000111 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091042 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086567   Andrew Barth Feldman https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10574081/   Free-Range Kids And on twitter at: https://twitter.com/FreeRangeKids

This was one of the first episodes I put out here, and I'm a little surprised I haven't redone it yet.  The Star Trek (Original Series) episode The Way to Eden is REALLY the one with the space hippies. It's one of the most generally disliked episodes, because of how over-the-top it goes in an attempt to be up-to-date and hip and with-it.  But on reviewing from a generational perspective ( and about 50 years after broadcast) it isn't as horrible as it might have looked.  I originally called it "Synthococcus Novae" after a fictional bacterium that's a sub-plot in the episod, and I started thinking of it while watching the recent increase in COVID during the summer, and hearing people talk about how they were affected (and how their kids were affected) by COVID in the year 2020 and 2021 ================ A look at how the GI generation (born 1901-1924) viewed the Boomers (born 1943-1960) as shown in the Star Trek Original Series episode "The Way to Eden" - also known as "The One with the Space Hippies."  By extension, this suggests how Hero generations, including Millennials (born 1982-~2005) along with the GIs, view Prophet generations (like the Boomers). Originally started from how people view cleanliness today and how it is likely similar to how people saw it during World War II. It all ties together. Attributes of the Prophet and Hero archetypes come from Generations (1991), the Peer Personalities chart on p. 365. I use them in my Stories blog (stories.generationalize.com) where I've found them an effective way to identify different generations/archetypes. Did you know that Skip Homeier, the actor who played Dr. Sevrin,  also played Melakon, the villain in the episode "Patterns of Force" (aka "The One With the Nazis")?    Shout-out to Memory Alpha, which had additional useful information about the timing of when the episode was written: http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/The_Way_to_Eden_(episode)

Our first tale from interesting times could've happened in other times - there's nothing specific about that time it happened, except that everyone there was Generation X, and it was just at a point where the mystic allure of the Awakening was giving way to the freedom of the Unraveling. But don't want to spoil it for you, so just listen. Not referenced or mentioned or anything here, but there's a character description in Roger Zelazny's This Immortal that includes a situation very like this one. Okay, now that I've re-read the synopsis on Wikipedia, it has SEVERAL situations very like this one, but I'm specifically thinking of the title character remembering one time where a poet was reading his poetry....It's a classic story, check it out.  (It's not at all clear what Turning that story happens in, and the poetry reading is some time in its past, but I can imagine that these sorts of events are very Third Turning.) A Kind of Magic is an unofficial soundtrack for Highlander. Most of the songs from the movie are on there, and most of the songs on the album are from the movie. (But the album does not include Theme from New York, New York.) One might note that that this happened the day after the Berlin Wall fell. Maybe I'll do another episode about that... Here's a  video of the full show. This recording is from a few weeks later in the year. (No magic, this time.) We just called it The Queen Show.  Yes, it also has Bohemian Rhapsody.     

Introduction to a new series on this podcast - one I've been intending to do for a while.  It's called Reactivities: Tales from Interesting Times.  Strauss & Howe originally called the cohort born between 1961 and 1981 the Thirteenth Generation, but the Coupland's "Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture" soon made it the preferred moniker. In Strauss & Howe's cyclical view, every fourth generation would have similar attributes, making Generation X similar (for example) to the Lost Generation born at the end of the 19th century.  These generations, which were seen as responding to the changes of the Awakening,  were originally called "Reactive."  (Later, archetypal representations were used instead, and Gen X became a Nomad generation - although, still, I think we should be either Schemers or Scoundrels, instead.) This will be about the interesting times that such generations - and especially Generation X - lived through. 

Re-duxing to honor Bob Newhart on the occasion of his recent passing. I had forgotten that some of this - from 6 years ago - inadvertently sounded like Newhart had already passed.  This is done in the style of one of his routines, which were almost always as one side of a conversation - often as if he was on a phone call, sometimes with other gimmicks (a submarine captain's announcement to his men, a driving instructor talking to an unheard driver). In this case, it's Newhart himself in the part of Hamlet, talking to JFK as an unheard Ghost.  I'm a big fan of his routines and his style, and have written up (but not (yet) recorded) one other: My version of The Aristocrats, done similarly as the agent side of the discussion. Maybe someday....In my head I sound just like him, but this is certainly a poor imitation, so I strongly recommend everyone finding his original recordings.    ============================================ Looking at Hamlet's reaction to his father's ghost by considering some comparable people in the 20th century, Bob Newhart and John F. Kennedy.   This is a way I've considered Prince Hamlet for a while, but I was reminded of it by The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, who mentioned Bob Newhart a couple of times.  And by Kylo Ren, who often seems to be playing Hamlet himself. Celebrity voices impersonated… In this construction, Bob Newhart is Hamlet, although at 33 he's a bit old for the part. How old is a long-standing debate - the Prince's situation indicates that he is in his late teens, but one of the gravediggers suggests that he is 30.  For more fun concerning Hamlet's age and motivations, check out “Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country” by Steve Roth. Here's a good article about Bob Newhart's early career. https://music.avclub.com/the-surprisingly-subversive-album-that-changed-stand-up-1798238091   As noted there, the “Lincoln” bit was “Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue,” where marketing experts are trying to help the 16th President of the United States work on his message, such as doing focus group testing for the Gettysburg address.   Bob Newhart mentioned that he campaigned for JFK because they were both Catholic: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/31/entertainment/la-et-mn-clint-eastwood-bob-newhart-rnc And if you really want to push it, this one references Hamlet as well as JFK https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/10/28/hello-this-is-bob/3de12b83-dc7e-40d5-bb3b-e49b23cbb6ce/?utm_term=.1ce6496e7045   You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and blogging at http://stories.generationalize.com

  Prompt the First: Trump Shooting The Dead Zone - 1983 movie, 1979 book eventually a 2002 TV Series Bob Roberts - 1992, written and directed by Tim Robbins Here's the third one - I didn't bring it up because it's impossible to do so in this context without sounding completely silly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideshow_Bob_Roberts - Simpsons episode 1994   Prompt the Second: Economic Structures We're in the same saeculum as the Berlin Wall falling and how that impact economic structures. Houston Lighting and Power: https://x.com/josephltrahan/status/1811865686119235724?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA If you have enough food to pass it out to people without a lot of organization to decide WHO should get it, it appears that it can be more efficient (VERY broadly speaking) than the marketplace https://x.com/fpwellman/status/1812131616300372106?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA (Yes, I mean VERY broadly: The kids aren't getting food they necessarily want, or that their parents might want. There are plenty of inefficiencies in other ways -  some food will almost certainily be wasted, for example.  But if your goal is to reduce food insecurity and ensure kids aren't getting distracted from their own education by hunger, it's adequate.) A notice on arbitration, which is a different way from the courts to handle disagreements - another different sort of organization. https://x.com/kathryntewson/status/1812021083912233105?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA Prompt the Third - Art Today Looking for art that's “not just more decline” https://x.com/HariSel57511397/status/1811602054403510739 The rest of the thread should guide you to items related to what I referenced.

1. Jaws Post on Facebook on June 29th mentioned the Quint speech from Jaws, which, for all it's wonderful, has the wrong date "So, eleven hundred men went into the water. 316 men come out, the sharks took the rest, June the 29th, 1945. Anyway, we delivered the bomb." https://www.history.navy.mil/.../after-action-report-of... BUT...the date is completely wrong. It was July 30, 1945 - just after midnight, local time, right about 2 weeks after Trinity, a week before Hiroshima. http://www.ussunderhill.org/html/sorryno.htm About a week before Indianapolis was sunk, a destroyer escort USS Underhill, was attacked in the same area. An article about the attack, "Sorry, No Ice Cream," was written by one Nathaniel Benchley....father of Peter Benchley, author. Some later posts wished Robert Shaw a happy birthday. It's not June 29th, or even July 30 - it's August 9. Born in 1927, he turned 18 the day Nagasaki was bombed, so wasn't actually GI generation nor able to be in the war. (But also he was British, not American, and so was dealing with the war in Britain for all of his teenage years.) Quint says he saw the first shark 30 minutes after they went in the water - but that would have been between midnight and 1AM. However, the moon was up (it had risen at 10:28PM) and was just past full, so (to the extent the exact details matter in this speech) there probably would have been enough light to see by. 2. Brats and and the start of Gen x politics Heathers - I was off by a year, it was released in 1988, not 1989. Writer was Daniel Waters, born 1962. Highlander  - got the release year right, but according to IMDB screenwriter Gregory Widen was born in 1958, making him a later Boom generation.   Steven Soderbergh is solidly X, born 1963. He wrote and directed Sex Lies and Videotape, which was released in 1989.   3. On the state of the election   On inflation, government efforts, and the end of the Fourth Turning.

Prompt the First: Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Brick_in_the_Wall   Prompt the Second: Disney Cycles The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel, Jenny Nicholson's magnum opus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0CpOYZZZW4 On that pylon thing - this suggests that the original idea was to have a central performance viewable by everyone at every table. https://x.com/JennyENicholson/status/1797429566535016523 “Wild Mouse” - Mulholland Madness at California Adventure (ater re-themed as Goofy's Sky School) was this sort of coaster.  And this type is and was very generic, with dozens of instances. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_mouse About Pixar Fest https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2024/03/10-things-you-need-to-know-about-pixar-fest-at-disneyland/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1159961/ - Waking Sleeping Beauty goes over that period of Disney, and how people like Lasseter and Burton stopped working for Disney Animation. A tweet about changes at Pixar https://twitter.com/DelaneyLJordan/status/1796635728236982781 Pixar - started technically in 1974, Lassetar hired in 1983, produced Genesis effect animation for Star Trek The Wrath of Khan, and Stained Glass Knight in Young Sherlock Holmes in 1985 - the first fully computer-generated photorealistic animated character, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney - Born 1901 (GI Generation), died 1966  Prompt the Third: The White Clown  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fahrenheit_451 Published in 1953, written by Ray Bradbury during the Red Scare. (Solidly 1st Turning, that is.)

  For a quickly done episode, this turned out pretty well.  Prompt the first: The First Turning in Set Direction  The article on Variety: https://variety.com/2021/artisans/news/loki-production-design-blade-runner-1235019744/ The Loki series playlist on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxaFrzRPFngWR4Odhwc8BXfJUNjDCPSVf A Boy and His Dog - https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072730/ Hello Tomorrow Prompt the Second: The Second Turning in Reality Repo Man and The Decline of Western Civilization Ronald Reagan's Morning In America ad (Amusingly enough, right after that YouTube served up the SNL skit Mastermind.) I said The Best Years of our Lives was 1947 - it was released in 1946. It won the Best Picture at the Academy Awards in 1947 Prompt the third: On Hints of the First "The First is when the Third is thoroughly left behind." - Again, not saying that's true, but it's where this ended up going. IBM was active before WWII, but Wikipedia says that their first electromechanical computer was sold in 1952, so if it feels like a First Turning company, it's probably because it was.  

Going deep into the archives for a not-previously-reduxed discussion with my wife on a matter important to any generation: What's funny, what's not, and why?  We are Gen X-ers who think Quick Change is brilliant and funny. My mother-in-law thought Where's Poppa was brilliant and funny. You'll have to make up your own mind on which of us was right.   As mentioned, it's one of the first recordings I did, and it's ... rough. But understandable.    Quick Change, with Bill Murray, Geena Davis, Randy Quaid, and Jason Robards, is one of my favorite comedy films. Where's Poppa, with George Segal and Ruth Gordon, was one of my mother-in-law's favorite comedy films. My wife and I discuss possibilities for why what we find funny and what our parents find funny is often so different. Silent and Gen X on Lifecourse http://www.lifecourse.com/about/method/def/silent-gen.html http://www.lifecourse.com/about/method/def/13th-gen.html Quick Change and Where's Poppa? on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100449/ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066563/   Carl Reiner - born 1922 (G.I.) Drafted in October 1942, served in the Pacific theater (despite initially learning to be a French interpreter), ending up in Special Services (i.e. entertainment). Mel Brooks - born 1926 (Silent) Brooks served in World War II in the European theater starting in 1944, which is very unusual for Silent generation members. (One reason he seems like he should be G.I.)   Quick Change - Floras para los muertos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGj9QkslyE0 Quick Change - Joust https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQNI7q6ABnc Where's Poppa - We didn't discuss this scene, but it fits in a lot of ways. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzT27N2F45Q If you search for Campfire Scene - with or without “Blazing Saddles” - this comes up early: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPIP9KXdmO0 Which I'd noticed before, in this post about another offensive western http://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/06/runaway.html What my wife is doing instead of podcasts: Gift of Music Foundation  http://agiftofmusic.org You can still find me on Twitter: @generationalize and blogging at  http://crisis.generationalize.com, but also on bluesky and sometimes on Post, also as @generationalize

  Prompt the First: The  Crazy World of 2nd Turning Music https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thompson_Twins - doesn't mention the shaved eyebrow thing,  SNL: Devo, B-52s, David Bowie It wasn't uncontrollable urge; it was Satisfaction and then Jocko Homo And it was between their first two albums - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty_Now_for_the_Future came out in 1979 - on And during jock homo, they stripped off the radiation suits  https://www.reddit.com/r/LiveFromNewYork/comments/zf4vwz/devo_performing_jocko_homo_on_snl_in_1978/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdlU8e9wBIE - Martin Sheen introduces Bowie Elvis Costello and Meatloaf commercials in 1977 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_Out_of_Hell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Aim_Is_True https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Look_Sharp!_(Joe_Jackson_album)(1978) - the shoes!   Prompt the second: Bay of Pigs https://www.netflix.com/title/81614129 - Turning Point: The Bomb and The Cold War Yes, I somehow missed that The Bomb is right there in the title, so it's not a coincidence that it's focused on the nuclear part of The Cold War. https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/     Prompt the third: Neutrality Neutrality as a very malleable concept: USSR/Japan in WWII, US / Germany, US/UKR/Russia,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutral_country https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portugal_during_World_War_II Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1373 - used by Churchill to confirm access to the Azores for aircraft. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrality_Acts_of_the_1930s The Acts were largely repealed in 1941, in the face of the Lend-Lease Act. https://x.com/generationalize/status/1495959705616801795 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/trivia/?item=tr6049574 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/trivia/?item=tr368170

  Prompt the First - Guadalcanal But also: The Pacific (2010)-  last time did Band of Brothers,  Taylor Swift — 1:12:50 in Long Pond sessions - association between Guadalcanal fighting and pandemic trauma. — Epiphany Available on Disney+ And it was in fact released IN 2020 - before vaccines were available, while effectively lockdown was still ongoing. And also - just barely related the Ahwanee was initially commissioned for the Navy in 1943. The official website said the the first men sent were veterans of Okinawa….which was two years later. Turns out the actual men sent there were from the naval hospital in Oakland CA - near San Francisco, that is - and were veterans of…Guadalcanal.   Prompt the Second - Waiting on that Welfare Check   From Bruce Springsteen's The River - Point Blank  The P.J. O'Rourke reference can be found in the "Poverty Policy" chapter of "Parliament of Whores."  I misremembered a couple of items in it, so: It came from a visit to the "loathsome and terrifying" Newark project He refers to the idea of "buying" the apartment as "the current conservative wisdom," and "Jack Kemp-style privatization" Residents would purchase their apartments, no down payment, mortgage payment no more than what they paid for rent. In response to each of his arguments, the lady responds "I'm not going for any of that." The final response calls it not a toilet but "this seven-story sewer in the sky that she lived in" and was, again and finally "I'm not going for any of that."   Prompt the Third  - Ruined Technology Xz exploit inserted in open source code https://twitter.com/nolman/status/1781400531745017966/photo/1 May be notable - perhaps a change in pov https://x.com/ryxcommar/status/1773082844643934543?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA That it's becoming a choice (kinda again, kinda) that you ca pay 150K for a junior data engineer, or 200K for a senior, getting much more experience for a nominal increase in salary. 

This is a bit of stretch for relevance but: It's Tax Day, and sometimes that's too busy a day to get anything else done. While composing Fanfare for the Common Man, Aaron Copland thought Tax Day was the most common sort of day for modern man, and that it would make a good day for a premiere.  Which this isn't, but it's a decent look at the music that opens this podcast. --------------------------------------- Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait, the music used for the introduction to this podcast, ties together two previous Fourth Turnings - commissioned after Pearl Harbor and including Civil War quotes from the 16th President -  in a way which makes it feel even more relevant as this current Crisis unfolds. ---------------------------------------- A few relevant Wikipedia links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lincoln_Portrait https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Copland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Coral_Sea   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickett%27s_Charge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-water_mark_of_the_Confederacy https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein This site has Kostelnetz commissioning it within 10 days - mid-December 1941- and that copland began writing in late February https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2007/julyaugust/feature/the-sound-freedom     The different excerpts are from   1) Address to congress 1862: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=29503 2) Seventh and final Lincoln-Douglas debate October 15 1858 https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/debate7.htm 3) Collected works: https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/onslavery.htm 4) The Gettysburg Address 1863:  https://www.npr.org/programs/specials/copland/coplandstory.html   The NPS site says his slavery quote is from August 1, 1858 - 110 years before this recording. https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/onslavery.htm This site says the date is pure conjecture, is from a scrap of paper that Mary Todd Lincoln passed to archivists later, and is signed with a different piece of paper from another document. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/lincoln2/1:547?rgn=div1;view=fulltext Vin Scully, voice of the Dodgers, with the L.A. Philharmonic in 2017 https://www.ocregister.com/2017/07/14/see-vin-scully-narrate-the-words-of-abraham-lincoln-at-the-hollywood-bowl/ A direct link to a Youtube video of that performance https://youtu.be/6qpYwrla0GE More on the quote about freedom and democracy https://abrahamlincoln.quora.com/Close-Reading-2-Lincoln's-Definition-of-Democracy-August-1-1858 The first item there is is a NYTimes piece from 1895 - that would be 30 years after the Civil War - that attributes it to Lincoln by the judge who ….attributes it to him.  https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1895/09/13/106068178.pdf Last witness of the assassination of Lincoln, still alive in 1956, 14 years -after- the premiere of Lincoln Portrait https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RPoymt3Jx4    

  Prompt the First - Band of Brothers September 9, 2001 - Sunday ~ nearly 23 years ago ~ 55-60 years after the events portrayed WIth regards to people being comforted by the familiarity of battle movies, I was particularly thinking of the use of the Awahanee Hotel in Yosemite Valley as a treatment for shellshock, as PTSD was called at the time. It didn't work very well, because it was TOO quiet and peaceful, and left those affected with only their thoughts. https://www.nps.gov/articles/yosemitehospitalwwii.htm The previous episode where World War II items were discussed - such as The Producers - was The Latest for February 10. (Note - related stuff in Prompt the 2nd from February 10)   Prompt the Second - The Cultural Revolution as 2nd Turning Ref 3 body problem, and Mao being an older …nomad? No, probably prophet himself, if (as it appears) China is a bit ahead of the Anglo-American saeculum who gets more than he expected from the Prophet youth.  https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/3-body-problem-the-chinese-cultural-revolution-explained-briefly/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session https://bsky.app/profile/nicholasgrossman.bsky.social/post/3kpkdznvl3a25   Prompt the Third - free the anxious generation Concerning a bill posted nearby, and a couple of kids sharing an electric scooter ... without a helmet.  And hints to the possible endings of this Fourth Turning. https://www.anxiousgeneration.com https://www.freerangekids.com

The Ten Commandments was on, which is set completely in the 19th dynasty, but because it's soon after the 18th it seems relevant enough. There are a number of candidates for the Pharoah of the Exodus. As the 1956 movie The Ten Commandments shows, one is Ramses II, the third pharaoh of the 19th dynasty. The 18th Dynasty has at least one or two as well, and that Akhenaten attempted to institute monotheism during his reign raises some questions in that regard.  ===================================== A look at the 18th dynasty of ancient Egypt, specifically considering whether we can effectively align it with the generational model. A listing of the pharaohs of the 18th dynasty https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighteenth_Dynasty_of_Egypt On the historicity of the Exodus, including mentions of Akhenaten and other 18th Dynasty pharoahs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sources_and_parallels_of_the_Exodus The breakdown described, moving backwards from 1292 BCE (end of Horemheb's reign, and end of the 18th dynasty).   Starts Ends Pharoah at start Pharaoh at end Complete Second 1592 1573       Third 1572 1553       Fourth 1552 1533 Kamose (17th) Ahmose I   First 1532 1513 Ahmose I Amenhotep I   Second 1512 1493 Amenhotep I Thutmose II Thutmose I Third 1492 1473 Thutmose II Hatshepsut   Fourth 1472 1453 Hatshepsut Thutmose III   First 1452 1433 Thutmose III Thutmose III   Second 1432 1413 Thutmose III Amenhotep II   Third 1412 1393 Amenhotep II Thutmose IV   Fourth 1392 1373 Thutmose IV Amenhotep III   First 1372 1353 Amenhotep III Akhenaten   Second 1352 1333 Akhenaten Tutankhamun Smenkhkare Neferenefureaten Third 1332 1313 Tutankhamun Horemheb Ay Fourth 1312 1293 Horemheb Horembeb   First 1292   Ramses I (19th)    

Thoughts on the film Eternals, a Marvel Cinematic Universe film from 2021   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternals_(film) https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9032400/ - on IMDB   Here's the Bluesky thread with my initial thoughts, most of which are in here. https://bsky.app/profile/generationalize.bsky.social/post/3koba7n5kd526   As one of the Story Aside episodes, it begins from the Stories model: http://stories.generationalize.com

Prompt the First: Four years later. In the time of Covid.  It's four years since COVID lockdowns. That seems significant to me, in a way that the four year anniversary of 9/11 didn't. But the 1 year anniversary of 9/11 was important, and 4 years wasn't. What's the difference? Prompt the Second: Saving the MCU with Generational Analysis A previous look at one small part: http://stories.generationalize.com/2019/06/ Iron Man Infinity War - Thanos' Snap Endgame - the Blip and Attack on Avengers Compound, which (i'd say) should be, really, the end of this 4th Turning. "This is the battle of our lives" - Steve Rogers The Matrix (1997) The initial tweet  https://x.com/petreraleigh/status/1768708381064175908?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA  https://x.com/pataphysician/status/1768730842270982520?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA “ don't have the attention span for tv”

Re-upping this one, because I've let it go for a bit and coming back to it now.  Consider this one a reminder of things to come. ============================================ The atomic bomb test on July 16, 1945 - also known as Trinity - occurred only 3 weeks before the bombing of Hiroshima and only 7 weeks before the end of the war. Looking at it as the midpoint of that summer, it was only one of many signficant events in the last three months of World War II. I've started a project looking at each of those days, to create a view of that time, to better understand what went into the decision to create and use the atomic bomb, and how people around the world reacted to it. Starting from Memorial Day, at the end of May 1945, and continuing through Labor Day- the day after the official Japanese surrender -  it will look at every single day, finding something something signifcant, or at least noteworthy.   There's Klaus Fuchs, meeting with Harry Gold in Santa Fe on June 2, to pass atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. Or Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, killed on Okinawa on June 18. The first troops returning from Europe on July 1.  President Truman leaving for Potsdam on July 7. Clement Atlee winning the election in the United Kingdom on July 26, replacing Churchill as Prime Minister. The bombing of Hiroshima. The August Revolution in Vietnam. The Occupation of Japan starting on August 28. The short ceremony ending the war on September 2nd - a quiet Sunday in a Tokyo Bay, not unlike one four years earlier.

A final episode for the initial Mapping History consolidation, asking the questions "What's Left" and "What Next?"

In Third Turnings we can expect to see Less powerful societal structures More freedom for individuals to do what they consider worthwhile Exciting (if bubbly) economies as individuals explore new opportunities Names we still recognize as some individuals make themselves known 1543 - Nicolaus Copernicus publishes "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" As we draw the final side of our map - the Third Turning, or Unraveling - we'll be looking at people like Nicolaus Copernicus, who suggested that the Earth rotates around the Sun.  The Unraveling is a time of individual freedom, when people make discoveries, inventions, or achievements - generally without the assistance of governments, in a way that attaches their own names to what they've done.  1666 - Isaac Newton's Miraculous Year Stuck at home during the plague year of 1666, young Isaac Newton considered important scientific issues of the day, and quickly made amazing advances in mathematics, astronomy, physics, and general understanding of the universe.  1752 - Benjamin Franklin Flies a Kite Benjamin Franklin was well known for a number of reasons, but even today "flying a kite in a thunderstorm" is one of the first that comes to mind. This is a landmark that everyone knows about, and one reason for having it here is to give a specific date to it (1752, that is). There's also the concern over how authentic to consider it - the descriptions here are definitely from Franklin and in that year, even if he was neither to first to try it nor confirmed to have actually done it.   1852 - Uncle Tom's Cabin published by Harriet Beecher Stowe Viewing slavery as a moral or economic issue makes it easier to talk about, since it removes people from the conversation, allowing opportunities for compromise, ways to get along, ways to talk past the difficult conccept of people being used. That was often how such discussions of slavery in the Uniited States had gone for a while. Harriet Beecheer Stowe's story of enslaved people in the South moved the conversation in a less comfortable direction, by making the suffering of slaves personal and specific. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom%27s_Cabin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solomon_Northup https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrative_of_the_Life_of_Frederick_Douglass,_an_American_Slave 1927 - Charles Lindbergh Crosses the Atlantic It's the Roaring '20s, and there are new ways of making money, new technologies, new ways of becoming famous. Charles Lindbergh had learned to fly airplanes, and would use his understanding of this new technology to become rich and one of the most famous people on the planet.   1990 - Tim Berners-Lee Invents the World Wide Web The dot-com era happened when it did because of the invention of the World Wide Web, which made it easier to use the connected network of computer networks we call The Internet. https://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/WorldWideWeb.html  

  Prompt the First: Put on Your Sunday Clothes Hello Dolly: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064418/ Wall*E: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0910970/   Prompt the Second: The Young Adult Suicide Chart Here's the tweet with the initial chart https://x.com/armanddoma/status/1758375001030627750?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA Shows increase and peak to 1994, sharp drop through 2003, then mostly show increase to 2013, spiking from there to 2017 CDC says “ ●  The suicide rate among people aged 10–24 remained stable from 2001 through 2007 and then increased 62% from 2007 through 2021 (from 6.8 deaths per 100,000 to 11.0) (Figure 1). “ That's “in the United States” CDC version is 10-24, and peaks at 11/100K in 2021 There is, incidentally, no noticeable bump from Covid; the recent peak is one the trend The chart is really rather misleading, as it shows a change from about 12/100K to 14/100k Prompt the Third: The Starship Troopers discourse This tweet appears to have kicked it off this time around https://x.com/HariSel57511397/status/1758251273617375340?s=20 But this is more my attitude. https://x.com/hEnereyG/status/1758926167376368089?s=20 Still, not complaining if it works for you. It mostly didn't for the professional film critics who viewed it in 1997. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starship_Troopers_(film)#Reception

Prompt the first: What my dad did in the war He was right about 30, with 3 kids, working to make Vietnam the best war possible. So he was Young Adult, G.I. were Midlife/managers, Lost (a few of the younger ones) were Visionaries.  Prompt the Second: The Producers and the limits of acceptable parody  Released in 1967 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063462 The U2 album was Achtung Baby Prompt The Third: Important Inventions https://x.com/NateSilver538/status/1753433550148206696?s=20  

The memorable and noticeable events in First Turnings particularly include * Infrastruture * Exploration * Seeking out corruption, in whatever form it's expected to exist. Rebuilding St. Peter's Basilica falls under the first category, especially when it's being rebuilt for the first time in over 1000 years.     Americans learn of the founding of Jamestown as part of their country's history, as the first successful English colony in the New World and the precursor to the Thirteen Colonies that would eventually rebel against the British. It can also be looked at as the start of the British Empire, and as embodying a spirit of exploration in the aftermath of the victory over Spain.  All of which make it an appropriate instance of a First Turning landmark.    In 1714, the British Parliament approved The Longitude Prize, which offered monetary rewards to anyone who could make it possible for ships to effectively determine their longitude. The smallest prize was £10,000 - the equivalent of millions of dollars today.    The Kingdom of Great Britain was created by The Acts of Union  in 1707. Before then, one would properly refer to the English Parliament, and after to the British Parliament. This epsode crosses over that point in time between the start and the end, so the incorrect adjective may have slipped in once or twice.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acts_of_Union_1707   The Global Positioning System (GPS) might be considered a comparable sort of infrastructure, but it was created over a long enough period that associating it with a specific Turning is difficult. It also required infrastructure (namely rockets that could put satellites in orbit), and was implemented in short order once those were available. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Positioning_System       In 1804, Lewis and Clark's "Corps of Discovery" heads north and west from where the Missouri and Mississippi rivers meet, attempting to find a way to the Pacific Ocean. The First Turning encourages Exploration, which continues to use the governmental infrastructure set up during the previous Fourth Turning, but avoids the complications of a open warfare....   Expanding infrastructure is one of the key indicators of the First Turning, and the transcontinental railroad was an infrastructure priority for the United States in the 19th Century.     The organizational strengths and focus that enable infrastructure and exploration are not always aimed at such noble pursuits. Sometimes they find internal enemies, or at least try to seek them out. The fear of Communists infilitrating the entertainment industry led the U.S. Government to pursue a group that became known as The Hollywood Ten. As this hits the edge of the map for the First Turning, we continue on with a short description of our final historical period, the Third Turning, and how we'll be choosing our landmarks there.

Welcome to The latest for January 28, 2024 Prompt the First: On The Growth of Stranger Danger https://x.com/_tedks/status/1742610446065000771?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA “Over the 20th century, mass media reporting of child abductions spread the "stranger danger" concept. From the Lindenburg baby, to milk cartons, to satanic ritual abuse, this leads to a curtailment of freedom and an increase in parental surveillance.”   Prompt the Second: Secret Invasion and Director Carter Why do I think an Agent Carter reboot - a game of cat and mouse between Carter and Zola - would work better than Secret Invasion?   Prompt the Third: On the world passing away according to St. Paul in the first letter to the Corinthians But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Epistle_to_the_Corinthians https://www.bibleref.com/1-Corinthians/7/1-Corinthians-7-31.html

This episode was originally published 3 years ago, on December 31 2020. It seems longer. This is a short summary of that year, and what the Crisis meant at that exact moment, and what we might have considered was going to come next. And yes, much of that was wrong as well. ============================== A look back at 2020, what The Crisis of 2020 might have been, and what Crisis really means, here. Unforced Errors was episode 49, and was posted in April 2020 The Crisis of 2020 was a prediction in the original book, Generations. It was used as a focus of episode 34 ("The Crisis of 2020") in January 2019, and followed up in episode 44 ("When 2020 Came Early") in October 2019.

I really wanted to review this episode and others related to the then-happening Crisis of 2020, because it's far enough out to consider if that really was the start of the peak of this current crisis or, if more is on its way.  An hour or so of reviewing what was happening at that time indicated it was not something I could through together quickly on the last day of 2023, so for now I'm going to simply repost them and let people see what was on my mind at the time. This was Episode 44, first published in November 2019, and is mostly about the Ukraine Scandal that led to Trump's first impeachment.  It seemed clear that this HAD to be what the Crisis of 2020 was going to be about...and, well, no, not really. ========================== Observing that the Crisis of 2020 appears to have begun, and what it might mean for the events and outcome of this Fourth Turning.  Anzio: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Anzio Eric Fletcher Waters' body was never found, but the location of his death has been determined: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/10371269/Found-the-spot-where-Pink-Floyd-musicians-father-died-in-battle.html Everyone has discussed Turkey and the Kurds, so search it out. The Glorious Revolution, Charles II and James II and all the rest, is also all out there, including frequent mentions on this podcast. The “music at the Pentagon gym” tweet: https://twitter.com/Msummerslowe/status/1188799181386850306 World War II in Real Time on Twitter - finished its first cycle in August 2017 with the surrender of Japan, then started up again two weeks later with the invasion of Poland in 1939 https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII FiveThirtyEight impeachment poll tracker. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/impeachment-polls/ And the Republican Strategy podcast episode https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fivethirtyeight-politics/id1077418457?i=1000455331767 “The Crisis of 2020 will be the time when the people of the United States decide what their values really are.” - end of the Crisis of 2020 podcast episode. Not sure if it's still applicable, but worth considering.

I really wanted to review this episode and some followups on the Crisis of 2020, because it's far enough out to consider if that really was the start of the peak of this current crisis or, if more is on its way. An hour or so of reviewing what was happening at that time indicated it was not something I could through together quickly on the last day of 2023, so for now I'm going to simply repost them and let people see what was on my mind at the time.   Spoiler alert: 2020 did, in fact, turn out to be significant, but for almost no reason that was previously expected. ============================== While Generations, the 1991 book by William Strauss & Neil Howe, was really about a model of history based on how different generations work together, or not, it implied that major events recurred on a regular and predictable basis. They specifically called out The Crisis of 2020, their term for what they expected to happen around that year, based on the age of the Boom generation, Generation X, and Millennials. What is this Crisis? What can we expect from it? Has it already started?    Obviously you would want to read Generations again if hadn't realized we were up to the Crisis of 2020, almost.  Some Wikipedia links for the possibly comparable historical events mentioned https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Sevastopol_(1854–55) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Civil_War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_the_Four_Emperors I did not mention the possibility that a focus on global warming or other environmental issues could become the main issue of the Crisis. I am cautious about that, though, because it seems likely to happen regardless of generational constellation - IF the effects become too much. Like other Earth-shattering possibilities - alien invasion, supervolcano eruption, meteor impact - that are likely to lead to a crisis period, generational analysis doesn't tell us anything about them. Still, items such as the Green New Deal do suggest a generational effect.  The Glorious Revolution option still seems the most likely to me - as does a neo-jacobite followup from almost-secessionists who can't quite deal with the changes in the aftermath. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobitism Not to be confused with Jacobins, who were involved in the French revolution a century later. (No link for them - I don't want it to get confused.)     You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and occasionally blogging at http://crisis.generationalize.com

I was thinking of this one for Christmas, but it was originally done for Easter. Still, I think it's held up well.  -------------------------------------------------------- Whenever someone asks whether the generational model works outside of modern English-speaking country, one fun example is to look at Rome and Judea in the first century A.D., from the assassination of Julius Caesar to the crucifixion of Jesus to Vespasian taking control of Judea and, then, of Rome.  Most of my research here was using Wikipedia. Here are a few of the relevant articles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligula https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nero https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Beth_Horon_(66) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_the_Four_Emperors The criteria I give for identifying the different turnings are my interpretation of Strauss & Howe theory. My Second and Third Turning criteria were  previously discussed here: http://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/03/second.html http://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/03/third.html My blog "Welcome to the Crisis" is at http://crisis.generationalize.com   Twitter: @generationalize    

Been on my mind for a bit, for two reasons: First, the movies in the sequel trilogy were released in December, so events around them are showing up as anniversaries in various social media. Second,  someone I know recently was doing a school assignment on George Lucas. So here it is again. Yes, I know, there's a cricket in there. I keep meaning to re-record it, but haven't gotten to it yet.  --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is just for fun, with no real generational connection except that both Abraham Lincoln and George Lucas are from Prophet generations. (Boom for Lucas, Transcendental for Lincoln.) And, as such, it's not surprising that a similar arrangement works for both of them.  If you like Star Wars and Aaron Copland, you may enjoy it. Fun fact: George Lucas' birthday is May 14, 1944, which was the two-year anniversary of the premiere of Lincoln Portrait.   Here's where I found the quotations: The first two are from different sections of a look back at The Phantom Menace: https://www.starwars.com/news/star-wars-episode-i-the-phantom-menace-oral-history) The "barbarians" quote is from testimony before the Senate in March 1988 - here's the text I used, from Wikisource: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1988_George_Lucas_testimony_before_United_States_Senate It's not clear that Lucas every actually said the thing about the sledgehammer, but it turns out the fourth section in Lincoln Portrait isn't well sourced either. And in both cases, it's certainly something they might have said. I originally found the last bit here: https://www.biography.com/news/george-lucas-star-wars-facts But it turns out it was from a New York Times interview of George Lucas while he was FILMING Star Wars in 1976.  https://www.nytimes.com/1976/09/12/archives/from-american-graffiti-to-outer-space.html It's well worth the read.

  Prompt the first: The end of instagram fame My Avastars Fashion Dolls  Big (the movie) Tom Hanks - he was 31 when the movie was released. Prompt the second ; Into thin air/ into the Wild  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_McCandless https://www.looper.com/1170434/everything-into-the-wild-doesnt-tell-you-about-the-true-story/ Into Thin Air: Death on Everest https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118949/ Into the Wild https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0758758/ Green Boots died during the same period but was part of a separate expedition that wasn't included in the movie. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Boots Prompt the Third On Blblical Views of Morality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Stephen https://x.com/ordinarytimemag/status/1732015337007198603?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA

  Intro Olivia Rodrigo - Brutal - from Driving Home 2 U https://youtu.be/zHMpcUojLMU?si=DF7414ecqyM-1XlH Complete film (currently on Disney Plus) https://ondisneyplus.disney.com/movie/olivia-rodrigo-driving-home-2-u Prompt the First Military Generations in Star Wars - or the Admiral vs Poe Dynamic AKA Hero is  a perjorative in the 2nd turning.    Mark Hammill - born 1951 - looks properly young in return of the Jedi (1983) for a young adult in the military and in a crisis - even if he's  still kinda old at 31 or so  A previous look at other WWII folks as shown 30 years later.  https://x.com/generationalize/status/1676480077234847745?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars%3A_The_Last_Jedi The whole “Why aren't you doing exactly as I asked, that's what people did when I was your age”  - one we expect to see in a Second Turning - perfectly fits the Admiral v Poe dynamic.  My previous thoughts on The Force Awakens - I should do one for The Last Jedi. http://stories.generationalize.com/2015/12/the-force-awakens-initial.html Slightly off on that quote from Serenity. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/quotes/?item=qt0433147 A random follow-up on that: Forrest Gump is told by Jenny not to be a hero, he only becomes one because he tries to run away,   Prompt the Second Would excel being available five years earlier have kept the ussr from falling?   A record of the last 30ish years in Russia. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/11/russian-journalists-ukraine-war-wagner-group/676064/ Here's where I got what I found about spreadsheets: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheet     https://x.com/13millionplus/status/1728195677883351107?s=46&t=h3SDrddBzjyl2UOHr9Q3xA   The Wikipedia page references what Moore considered the point of departure. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_All_Mankind_%28TV_series%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Korolev - the Chief Designer   Prompt the Third Why is communication - the ability to communicate- fundamental to the generational model   Irish politics are becoming incomprehensible….2nd Turning? https://twitter.com/search?q=ireland%20free%20speech&src=typed_query&f=top It involves views of free speech as elated to the murder of a young teacher, Ashling Murphy.  

A Thanksgiving episode, in its way. I thought I had written about this elsewhere, but this appears to be the closest I had done: https://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/06/plague.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osarseph - A possible second view of Exodus involving a priest who became the leader of a band of lepers, who managed to ally with the Hyksos to take over Egypt for a short time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akhenaten - Pharaoh of Egypt who temporarily replaced the polytheistic Egyptian religion with a monotheism based around Aten, the “sun disc.”  Father of Tutankhamen, whom you may have heard of.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hymn_to_the_Aten -Written by Akhenaten, it bears some resemblance to Psalm 104, indicating at least some cross pollination between Jewish and Egyptian holy writ.   https://thefounding.net/pilgrims-identified-israelites/ - a short essay built around Bradford http://www.gutenberg.org/files/24950/24950-h/24950-h.htm Project Gutenberg version of the History of Plymouth Colony They called Dutch a strange and uncouth language, which raises the possibility that their attitudes towards “savage” natives might have been similar in Holland… For no obvious reason, perhaps worth noting that this is contemporaneous with Hamlet, first performed around 1602. (Yes I know he's a Dane, not Dutch.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayflower https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Colony http://mayflowerhistory.com/clothing/ https://www.plimoth.org/learn/just-kids/homework-help/what-wear   You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and occasionally blogging at http://crisis.generationalize.com

On the occassion of President Joseph Biden's 81st birthday, re-upping some observations on the first and last Silent Generation POTUS.    (Even if he only made the Silent cutoff by about 6 weeks.) ===================================== President Joseph Biden is the first President from the Silent Generation, and presumably the last. Is that going to be a problem, here in the Fourth Turning? Perhaps not, considering how little we understand about how leaders change in the later Elder period of life. His governing style might not be the standard for how the Artist archetype is expected to manifest.   Here's the excerpt again:   “As the forces of history amass under Boom leadership, the Silent can remind Boomers of kindness, 13ers of conscience, Millenials of caution. The danger will lie in any attempt by aging Silent leaders to get too much in the way of the thickening forces of history - for example, if an eightyish President (or Supreme Court) insists on scrupulous process at a moment when younger generations begin to coalesce around the need for decisive action. The last time this happened, during the Presidency of old Compromiser James Buchanan, the foot dragging of elder Adaptives helped foment the most destructive crisis in American History. The same could occur if antiquarian Silent leadership helps usher in the Crisis of 2020.”   Neil Howe & William Strauss, Generations, published 1991, page 395 the Silent generation section of “Completing the Millennial Cycle” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_by_age Reagan's meetings with Gorbachev in the last 18 months of office.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Summit_(1987) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Summit_(1988) Mitch McConnell was born 2/20/1942, is a more definite silent, if only by a few months. Nanci Pelosi was born March 26 1940 a solid Silent  Chuck Schumer was born November 23 1950 and is a very solid Boomer…but even he is 70  The generational attributes come from Chapter 12 of Generations, the last two rows of Figure 12-7, Peer Personalities, by Generational Type  

Prompt the First: Did The Marvels do poorly because it's a Hero movie? My Stories model can be found at http://stories.generationalize.com/   Prompt the Second: Clothing of the 2nd turning Here's something where I was previously considering the role Clothing in the Second Turning. Prompt the Third: On the significance of the Paradise Theater https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Theatre_(Chicago) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Theatre_(album) “I've got faith in my generation" was from "Rockin' the Paradise," conceptually during the early life of the theater. A couple of singles, including "The Best of TImes" ...not clear how seriously that was meant in 1981 “Our memories of yesterday will last a lifetime” Yes it's about being with someone, but also about right then being good and important The follow up album, "Kilroy Was Here" is also a concept album, with scenes set in the Paradiese Theater (or at least in A Paradise Theater, in some universe.)  

A consolidated version of the Mapping History episodes for the Second Turning Having completed mapping the Fourth Turning, Looking Back to see how Mapping History ties them all together 1534 - Returning to the early 16th century, where the Protestant Reformation has begun. Henry VIII began as a "Defender of the Faith" against Martin Luther, but within a few years is opposing the Church because he's unable to get an annullment of his marriage. It's a good landmark on our map, showing up almost exactly halfway between the Reconquista and the Spanish Armada, while being well-alligned with the spirtual concerns often seen during a Second Turning. 1629 - Between Puritans, creeping authoritarianism, breaking of norms of governing and an overall concern about how religion is making itself known in political affairs, the monarchy of Charles I should be a very effective landmark for this history map. But like some of the others we will come to view in the Awakening periods, the complexity of the political map can make it difficult. It's still useful for understanding what else is happening in the 17th Century, and seeing some of the connections that join different points in time. It was July 8 1841, in the middle of a revival, Jonathan Edwards would quietly give a sermon. It's our landmark for the Second Turning that's also known as the Great American Awakening. That Deuteronomy quote: https://biblehub.com/deuteronomy/32-35.htm https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Sinners_in_the_Hands_of_an_Angry_God Twenty-five-year-old William Lloyd Garrison published the anti-slavery weekly newspaper, The Liberator, starting on the first day of 1831.  The Letters of William Lloyd Garrison: I will be heard, 1822-1835 includes in its annotations on page 92 an objective summary of the circumstances of the Todd libel case. In 1896, at the Democratic National Convention, Williams Jennings Bryan rises to speak about the question of coinage, of money, but also about who was to be represented in the halls of power. Barely old enough even to be President of the United States, he makes a speech, full of religious symbolism,  that wins him the party's nomination for that office.  On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke in support of a strike of sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. The speech he gave, with biblical imagery and references, especially to the Israelites, their escape from slavery, and what their leader, Moses, was allowed to glimpse before his death,  has since become known as the Mountaintop speech.  Video of the speech can be found on Youtube. The brief audio clips used here came from the internet archive. https://archive.org/details/IHaveBeenToTheMountaintopFullSpeech In the podcast audio, it might not be quite as clear as intended that "John Brown's Body" being referenced was a marching song of the Union army during the American Civil War. John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry, which led to John Brown's trial and execution, occurred just a year before the election of Abraham Lincoln as president.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown%27s_Body

Prompt the First - Is the Fourth Turning driving everyone crazy? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster - 1947, so not technically, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Chicago_disaster Cleveland East Ohio Gas explosion USS Mount Hood RAF Fauld explosion Futamata Tunnel Explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultana_(steamboat) - 1965, right around Lincoln's assassination “The official cause of the Sultana disaster was determined to be the mismanagement of water levels in the boilers, exacerbated by the fact that the vessel was severely overloaded and top-heavy. “ A lot of other major explosions as a part of the war, and some incidental to it - Prompt the Second - Is The Fourth Turning a bad time to be a white collar criminal? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Bankman-Fried https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernie_Madoff   Prompt the Third - How crazy is this current presidential election, really? Lincoln had a “unity ticket” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unity_ticket The only unity ticket to win the [United States] presidency was the National Union Party in the 1864 presidential election, which ran a unity ticket between Abraham Lincoln of the Republican Party and Andrew Johnson of the Democratic Party.    FDR changed his VP a couple of times - Garner, Wallace, Truman (last election, was VP for only a few months before FDRs death)   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1940_Democratic_National_Convention It was mid-July 1940, which also means it was just after the fall of France (June 22) which may have been why FDR changed his mind on running.    

A consolidated version of the Mapping History section for The Fourth Turning

Back with another episode of The Latest.    Prompt the 1st 1783 - Highlander and Ukraine  I flipped back and forth on "Ukraine" and "Crimea" in the episode: 1783 was annexing Crimea. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_the_Crimean_Khanate_by_the_Russian_Empire   Prompt the 2nd - Can a Gen xer have an opinion on Olivia Rodrigo On Olivia Rodrigo - bad idea right? Is 3'04” - a properly short radio single https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Idea_Right%3F From the album Guts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guts_(Olivia_Rodrigo_album) Vampire, the first single from the album - similar in type, very different in style. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_(Olivia_Rodrigo_song) "This is supposed to be gen z's hayley williams/avril lavigne, there's truly no hope" https://twitter.com/maryarchived/status/1700621540998488219 "Anyone over the age of 20 doesn't get to give their opinion on Olivia Rodrigo" https://x.com/honestpapito/status/1701261920022512014?s=20  A search of "olivia rodrigo over 20" https://twitter.com/search?q=olivia%20rodrigo%20over%2020&src=typed_query I mentioned "late '80s glam" by which I really meant "late '80s glam metal" which maybe is better known as "hair metal" because how they wore their hair was seen as a big part of it. Guns n' Roses, that is, and often also represented by Poison, Cinderella, Warrant, Skid Row. (I avoid including Motley Crue because they were one of the first ones who took on such a look, when they started, while a lot of the others were following a style.) Prompt the Third: October the 7th. To start, here's what 40 years ago looked like A civilian 747 shot down by air defense forces of the USSR after flying over restricted space, killing all 269 aboard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007 Military exercises two months later that may have brought the US and USSR very close to nuclear war. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Able_Archer_83 The Day After, a depiction of what such a nuclear war might have looked like, which ran a few weeks later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After WarGames, released in June 1983 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames Red Dawn, released about a year later, in 1984 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dawn   Tracing back through the Ottoman Empire is going to be a bit of a maze but here's some of my links https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Empire Treaty ending of the Greek War of Independence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Constantinople_(1832) Austro-Russian–Turkish War https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanzimat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Ottomans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Constitutional_Era https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Turks