Waiting For Spring

The 90s were the beginning of culture wars. Neil Howe, one of the authors of The Fourth Turning had theorized that culture wars were a facet of the Third Turning (1984-2008), but it’s bled into the Fourth (2008-2028?). This is why I’m not convinced of the idea of the seasons of history: the power of suggestion is then too powerful to bring them on: “It’s the Fourth Turning, so we need to create all the events Fourth Turnings typically have so we can look forward to the Spring”.

Patterns make us patternistic thinkers. This is why we’ll never do anything about climate change until the “Spring”). Then we’ll put off arguing about it until a Second Turning revolt breaks out. But look at Eric Clapton--a vehement anti-vaxer, who turned 30 in a Second Turning. You’d think he’d be 60s-chill, but none of that carried over to the fourth turning. A 60s pop culture zeitgeist still exists under the callousness of the fourth turning, but none of it really shines through. You’d think his acid-taking in the 60s would have rewired his brain, but it hasn’t in the ways we would expect--which why expecting certain things like that to happen in a Second Turning is just the idea of “summer fun”, until the fall comes in a third turning.

8 more years until Spring? No--every season is always somewhere.

2/22/2021

[2/22/2025: Spring in the Southern Hemisphere begins in September, when it’s dimming here. It’s literally “hemispheric” as in operating from the left hemisphere and controlling meaning.]