The Fourth Turning And The Rise Of Generation X

Preface

As a strength and conditioning specialist and fitness coach I’ve written over 2 million words of content in the fitness space doing my best to communicate different ways of helping people to achieve the best version of themselves for many years now.

However my motivation to start this Substack came as a result of society’s reaction towards COVID more than the impact of the virus itself. I was so set against all the authoritarianism that was ushered in by COVID that I’ve literally felt this unrelenting urge to want to fight back against all the corruption that we are now seeing impact our society at an accelerated rate.

For this very reason I wanted to be able to branch out a bit more on some of my skills and knowledge and talk to you about other key topics of information in order to expand the discussion beyond the narrow scope of fitness in order to engage this environment of information warfare.

To put it simply I’ve had a desire to write about multiple points of interests in order to combat the propaganda on many fronts including geopolitics, finance, history, philosophy, and of course fitness and health. My plan to fight back is to do my best to present information to you and anyone else reading so that you can draw your own conclusions while also formulating a plan for yourself to help you better navigate these chaotic times.

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The Fourth Turning

There’s no doubt we’re living in the middle of a Fourth Turning.

I’ve used this phrase before, but what do I mean when I refer to the Fourth Turning? I’m going to elaborate here so please be a bit patient with me for the next few paragraphs. It may seem like a lot, but I promise it’ll be compelling while also making sense to you very shortly if you’re not already familiar with the phrase.

Basically this concept involves the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory (William Strauss and Neil Howe) which basically describes a recurring generational cycle in both American and global historical events.

According to this theory each generational event is associated with certain personas that are related to the recurring generational events over a period of time. These developing personas are also recognized as archetypes.

As the theory points out each one of these generational personas unleashes a new era onto society that is known as a turning. Each one of these turnings can span over roughly a 20 to 25 year period of time which results in a variety of new social, economic, and political climates. Basically the mood of society is determined at the conclusion of each turning.

The Strauss-Howe Generational Theory also states that these turnings are part of a larger cycle which is referred to as a saeculum that is basically the equivalent of a long human life and can span over the course of an 80 to 100 year period of time, although some saeculum may last a little longer.

Essentially the theory points out that there’s a major societal crisis that occurs after each saeculum in American history which is then followed up by a period of recovery where some time of instability and adjustment takes place.

At the point of this recovery institutional values and the cohesiveness of community is strong. However during this time succeeding generational archetypes will attack and weaken these institutions based on the mood produced from the turnings of the time.

The authors have essentially outlined how these cycles present themselves within U.S. history, but they have also pointed out how the larger cycles also apply to history around the globe.

So here’s my ten cent version of how each Fourth Turning is kicked off as it relates to American history.

1775-The year that began the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord.

After the American Revolution there’s a Saeculum of 86 years until the Civil War.

1861-The year that began the American Civil War.

After the American Civil War there’s a Saeculum of 78 years until World War II.

1939-The year that began World War II.

After World War II there’s a Saeculum of 81 years until COVID and the fallout that followed.

2020-COVID, Fraudulent Elections, Russia/Ukraine, China/Taiwan, Possible WWIII, Record Inflation, Food Shortages, etc. You get the point.

Once again this is the ten cent outline of how each Fourth Turning results in a seismic shift in the direction of our society and you can see that there’s roughly 80 years between each recurring major event.

As a result we’re now living during another Fourth Turning and the fight between authoritarianism and freedom is waging on just as the history books have shown us our entire lives. If there’s one thing that’s certain it’s that we do repeat history, especially if there’s a long enough period of time to span between the major events.

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“There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”—Vladimir Ilych Lenin

So how does this happen?

Given that history presents us with a constant roadmap regarding the outcomes of major events and how those major events occur in the first place then how do we constantly end up back at square one in another Fourth Turning?

I would contend that even though the answer to this may seem like it should be complex in reality the answer is rather simple.

Besides the fact that schools distort, omit, and just flat out lie about much of history in the classrooms these days, the reason why human beings end up getting into trouble in any endeavor in life is because we always tend to stray away from our grounding principles. Think about it. Whenever you’ve experienced any reasonable level of trouble in your life you (as well as myself) have probably ignored or strayed from some grounding principle that would have prevented said problem 99% of the time.

As an easy everyday life type of example you know that going to the dentist regularly to get your teeth cleaning is a good idea that negates the occurrence of cavities, yet many people put off going to the dentist regularly and usually end up paying for it by having to get a filling, or even worse a root canal.

However given that you and me are staring at a Fourth Turning the samples of people straying away from principles that we understand are numerous because the troubles we are experiencing now are involving the very existence of our entire nation. In short, because the number of people straying from grounded principles is large the problems are larger. In fact, the problems are MUCH LARGER.

Ok so you’re probably sitting there thinking Brandon what grounding set of principled rules are you referring to that we are ignoring?

Well aside from decent moral principles I’m referring to the U.S. Constitution.

When you look around you’ll constantly see violation after violation of the U.S. Constitution. Concessions are made on free speech, the right to bear arms, illegal search and seizure, and I could go on and on.

The reason for this is because FEAR is used by the abusers of the constitution to violate it. Fear is a control mechanism.

Case in point somebody gets shot and killed by a criminal so constitutional violators use the emotions surrounding such a tragedy as a reason to violate the second amendment in order to pass laws and to create more hoops for law abiding citizens to jump through if they desire to purchase a firearm.

Even in this very example the law abiding citizen had nothing to do with the death of our hypothetical victim here, but in reality the laws that are passed as a result have no impact on the criminal, but are very impactful on the law abiding citizen.

It never ceases to amaze me how so many people in our society fail to recognize that criminals are the ones to break laws, not law abiding citizens. Seems obvious, but then again we are literally living in a Fourth Turning as I write this.

When it comes to the second amendment example this may not seem like a big deal if you’re only thinking about one person, but when you realistically extrapolate this out to millions of people and thousands of more laws and regulations you now have a multitude of problems. In fact these problems are so large in scale that it impacts society in ways you and myself probably would have never thought of at the outset of giving in to such concessions that violate the second amendment.

The Rise Of Generation X

So how does Generation X fit into this equation?

First of all, Generation X has traditionally been defined as the generation that tends to be directionless and rebellious. As a proud Gen Xer myself admittedly I’m not a fan of the “directionless” attachment to the definition of my generation, BUT I’ll take the rebellious adjective all day long.

In fact, I’ve always been rebellious particularly when I’ve found myself in the minority in certain situations when I’ve observed the crowd all going one direction. In these instances I’ve always turned to go the opposite direction of the herd. One huge example of this was back during the onset of COVID and the mandated lockdowns which I discussed here in my last article with an entertaining and creepy experience I had when I had to do some shopping at Target. Make sure you take the time to read about that one.

So who all makes up Generation X?

Generation X are the offspring of the baby boomers. The baby boomers are those people that were born roughly between 1946-1964. Generation X are people that were born between 1965-1980.

The Generation X crowd has always been one of the smallest generations in terms of numbers, but as many of my fellow Gen-Xers will tell you we’ve also been one of the loudest generations and have also been big on not being told what to do.

So what is this rise of Generation X that I’m referring to?

Well based on what I’ve outlined here regarding the characteristics of Gen-Xers you already know that my generation consists of a lot of rebellious individuals. Furthermore Gen-Xers currently make up about a third of the workforce right now so we also carry a lot of weight in terms of the direction of society.

As a great example of one such individual that’s making a huge impact on our culture at the moment I’d like to point to one Gen-Xer that’s making a lot of noise that I’m sure you’re already familiar with and his name would be Joe Rogan.

That’s right, Joe was born in 1967 and between us I think you know what type of impact Joe has had in this culture war that’s going on in our society right now during this Fourth Turning.

Rogan’s podcast is a juggernaut when it comes to sheer numbers of viewers and he dropped a neutron bomb on the false COVID narrative and helped to pull the curtain back for a lot of people when exposing the corruption and malfeasance associated with both our government medical and scientific communities.

Just for having Doctor Robert Malone on as a guest of his show it shifted the narrative in mainstream culture with everything surrounding the science of the treatment of COVID along with the vaccines.

In fact, I’m convinced that once Rogan had Dr. Robert Malone on his podcast as a guest that was the point in which many political powers started to back off mandates associated with COVID and the vaccines. It was a powerful moment in our modern history that Rogan contributed to by simply having the courage and the genuine curiosity to explore an alternative point of view. After all, it was just Rogan stepping up and taking advantage of one of the most valuable traits that I used think all of us Americans would want and that is FREE SPEECH.

So speaking of free speech (pun intended) let’s take a look at another Gen-Xer that’s apparently stepping up to the plate with his very public battle and acquisition involving Twitter. Yes, Elon Musk is a Gen-Xer and has at least shown some courage by cornering Twitter and forcing them to the table in order for him to take the company private.

Now the way in which Musk did this was quite impressive. He simply identified the insane leftist ideology that had infiltrated that company and used that against them. However once he did this he took a huge next step that many of us aren’t capable of doing. He went and got several billion dollars only to turn around and make Twitter a purchasing offer that they realistically couldn’t ignore without subjecting the company to an economic crash and even worse subjecting themselves to possible civil and criminal fallout.

Now I’m not a big fan of Musk’s transhumanist endeavors, but like you I’ve seen him be a huge advocate for free speech and I’ve witnessed him being very vocal against the lockdowns that were thrust upon society during COVID. That part I respect a great deal about Elon Musk.

I suppose we’ll see if he’s got the stomach to continue the fight, but in my opinion even if he pulls his offer and crashes the Twitter stock further resulting in the collapse of the company then that is a huge win during this Fourth Turning. However, one big detail to understand is that Musk didn’t just buy a company; he also bought evidence of corruption. (Credit Jack Posebiec)

The Wrap Up

In closing there are battles for freedom and for culture being fought everyday by people from every generation, but I wanted to point out a couple of big ones we’re seeing with some well known Gen-Xers right in front of us during this Fourth Turning.

This is what happens during a Fourth Turning. People you may or may not expect step to the plate to fight for freedom. These are people you may or may not have even heard of before. This is what a Fourth Turning looks like.

Remember that this is information warfare in this modern era. You can get involved in the fight for freedom yourself and you can do this a number of different ways in order to contribute. You can influence others around you, share information like this Substack, get involved as a local precinct captain, volunteer to be a poll watcher during elections, or even throw your hat in the ring to run for office.

The point here is that in this Fourth Turning there are going to be new faces and names to stand in the fire and to go down in history to influence those that will hear and read about us in the future. This way they will be ready for when they are facing their Fourth Turning.

After all, I didn’t expect that I’d be writing this Substack until COVID was dropped into my lap, yet here I am. You can do the same.

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Stay strong. Stay focused. Stay active.