http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/04/telephone-calls-recorded-fbi-boston

Or any of your thoughts and views on other issues.

Thanks

In the UK, I believe the most recent Third Turning was marked by the ejection of Margaret Thatcher from government, by her own party. We look at the 80s in the UK as a time of political polarisation, but it only looks that way ‘from the inside’. You have to bear in mind that Thatcher won three general elections in a row: 1979, 1983, 1987; because there was a broad public consensus in favour of her politics. The Labour party may have been diametrically opposed to the Tories, but no one was voting for them. The real political divisions, within British parties, only began to emerge from 1990 onward, particularly with regard to Europe and Britain’s place in the world.

If the British WW2 Crisis only ended after austerity (1954), then if we posit that the High ended with the beginning of the post-war boom (1972), that would mean the British Awakening would have taken place between 1973 and 1990. Thus, I am a British Gen-Xer, which makes so much sense to me. I feel far more a Nomad than anything else.

For what it’s worth I also believe we are still going through an Unravelling right now. No significant institutions have completely collapsed as yet. Yes, some banks went down, but we saved enough of them to prevent a complete economic implosion. Until the penny drops that the big problem in the West is not our debt, rather our lack of significant economic growth, we will continue to ‘Unravel’.

If Howe and Strauss see Idealist generations strong in religion, education, and culture they also see some unpleasant vices — arrogance, ruthlessness, and selfishness. In that I see Karl Rove. It may be that history sorts out the virtues from the vices, Virtues usually prevail because they are attractive outside their generation. Vices usually implode because they invariably turn into unsupportable burdens. It may be that boomers are unable to sort that out themselves — but Generation X and the Millennial Generation, if unable to do the Idealist efforts, will be able to decide which Idealist agendas succeed and which fail based upon pragmatism and rationality.

The Lost and GIs determined that the FDR coalition of conservationists, Big Labor, feminists, western agrarians, and Dixie populists would prevail. It may be that Asian and Latino intellectuals from Generation X will do what Jewish Lost did, providing the pragmatic basis of a new political order.