In my series of blog posts on "The Fourth Turning Is Here" in part one I provided an overview of the theory behind the The Fourth Turning and what we have seen in similar periods in the past.
In part two of this series I outlined where we are in The Fourth Turning and what might lead us to the climax period and when this crisis period we are in will end.
In this final blog post of the series I will summarize what happens on the other side of the crisis period.
What can we expect insofar as changes in the attitudes of the populace and how society might change as we progress through the final stages and beyond in The Fourth Turning,
When I first read the book, The Fourth Turning, over 25 years ago, the prediction of where we were heading was sobering and depressing.
As I was entering into the later stages of my life the last thing I wanted to hear was that crisis, chaos and societal challenges were in the future.
Then again, I also understood that the theory of The Fourth Turning and the seasons of history meant that everyone would necessarily have to endure the crisis period at some point in their lives.
Some were born into the crisis period. Others came face to face with it when they were just coming of age or in mid-life. Some saw it in their elder years.
Everyone would have to face the Fourth Turning challenge to our society at some point in their lives.
Despite the fact that there was a feeling of pessimism in me when I first read The Fourth Turning in the last 1990's looking to the future, the book also suggested that the seasons of history pointed to a more optimistic future on the other side of the crisis.
During a good part of my life, families had been weakening.
Virtue, values and ideals have been under attack.
Gender roles have gotten more confused and indistinguishable from each other.
Decisions were made more on what felt right than what worked or what was right.
Trust in our Institutions was consistently eroding.
Individualism ruled over the community.
There were deep divisions in society on almost all issues. There was little unity of agreement on anything.
The vision of the future became increasingly foreboding with each successive decade of my life.
The silver lining in The Fourth Turning is that it will inevitably cause the mood of the society to change.
It will have to change if society is to survive the crisis.
There are brighter days ahead once we get beyond this crisis period of history.
Families will become more important.
The gap in gender roles will become wider and more clearly defined.
Common sense and doing what works will become more important than what someone "feels" is right.
Our Institutions will be trusted again.
Community values will become important. Those that buck the system will be looked down on.
There will be a new unity of purpose and an optimistic outlook on life and society's future.
This graphic from the book summarizes how social moods change in each of the four turnings.
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| Credit: https://krusekronicle.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/moods.gif |
We will not go back to the halcyon days of the 1950's and early 1960's. History does not repeat but it does rhyme. However, we should be at a place with less division, a clearer view of what is right and wrong and a society in which there is more accountability and individual responsibility than has existed for a long time in the United States.
It is just sad that our society will have to be tested in ways that most of us have never experienced to get us to that point.
However, that seems to be necessary in order to get more unity, less division, more simplicity, less complexity, stronger families, children who are more independent and community values that are more clearly defined and accepted.
History tells us that there is real hope that there are changes for the better on the other side of the mountain in front of us right now.
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