We Are In A "FOURTH TURNING," What Does That Mean?

this spirited man had been expecting this crisis maybe not a global pandemic per se but he knew something was coming for a decade this spirited man had been reading books trying to figure out what the hell was going on his brother a spirited man himself told him to read this book the fourth turning this book turned out to be the spirited man's favorite kind of book a mind blower a book about how and when history repeats itself and this is what the book said history repeats itself in 80-year blocks called saculum but we'll just call them history blocks not exactly 80 years this is history not math but roughly the span of a human lifetime maybe 80 to 90 years within these 80-year history blocks we have four turnings of around 20 years each we usually call them generations this book calls them turnings turnings are sort of like seasons like spring summer fall winter throughout our history we've had these 80-year blocks and the 80-year blocks have been remarkably similar to each other we're in one now the first turning the first season is a high an upbeat era the second turning is an awakening a passionate era the third turning is an unraveling a downcast era in the fourth turning well sorry but fourth turnings suck the fourth turning is a crisis an era of upheaval we're in a fourth turning right now so let's take a look at our seculum our history block the history block that we're in the crisis of right now our high began after our world war ii victory by our we mean americas these are america's history blocks and turnings during a high the getting is good we had the most even distribution of wealth during our high you could work at a gas station and afford to buy a house this high is the period that the maga hats refer to we got hank williams and elvis and little richard and the birth of rock and roll we launched monkeys and men into space this is when the mustangs and corvettes first came out our high ended with the assassination of john f kennedy on november 22 1963. the high is not a high for everyone of course america still had a segregated south homosexuality was illegal and considered a mental disorder the high is a period of conformity the age of non-conformity and of social justice begins during the awakening our passionate era during the awakening we had martin luther king in the civil rights movement acid vietnam protests and vietnam itself the women's liberation movement stonewall and the gay rights movement great movies great music this is when the first macintosh computer came out the awakening is a time of increasing individualism this second turning this awakening ended with the re-election of ronald reagan in 1984. things get messy during the third turning during the unraveling we got the fall of soviet communism in the beginning of the russian gangster state the greatest musicians of the time sang about violence and decay in their deteriorating cities the la riots oj the bombing of bosnia in the columbine high school shootings on the same day september 11th the wars in afghanistan and iraq our unraveling ended with the financial crisis of 2008. a fascinating fact about this book is that it was written during the last third turning published in 1997 but the book predicts now what's happening now in this fourth turning and what's happening now is right on schedule [Music] 80 years ago in the last fourth turning america had her great depression than world war ii 80 years before that the civil war 80 years before that the revolutionary war now it's our turn to save the country so where do you fit into all this what's your role it depends when you were born each generation each cohort tends to embody a specific archetype an archetype that will move the society towards the next high each generation's archetype is the characteristic that will define the generation in its prime in midlife the boomer archetype is the prophet bill gates and steve jobs are boomers and prophets both predicted that one day everyone not just big corporations and governments would own a computer gates even predicted a crisis like covid19 five years beforehand the writers of this book are boomers and prophets gen x is the nomad generation the quintessential gen xer elon musk builds things that move us from one place to another rockets electric cars hyperloops nomadic devices but the millennials raised during the unraveling will emerge as the hero generation during this crisis these are the parkland high students the frontline hospital workers in malala yushof's eye the book says millennials will be the world war ii heroes of our history block we don't know what gen z will do but they will be an artist generation from them we'll emerge the next bill withers tony morrison or bob dylan all born during the last crisis all from an artist generation the history block before ours ended with world war ii and began with the civil war 80 years prior the history block before that ended with the civil war and began with the end of the revolutionary war 80 years prior every 80 years or so something big comes along and changes everything and now we're at the end of our history block right in the middle of our crisis we are in the process of changing our world again the authors of the fourth turning tell us that these crises are like forest fires unpleasant but necessary they clear the woods for new growth as we work towards our next high this crisis will tilt the playing field away from the old and towards the young they tell us but the victory is not guaranteed we will each of us need to rise to the occasion during this crisis we will need to develop and fortify our virtues as we pursue a greener pasture [Music] our western society was built to foster the potential of each individual within it the aggregate effort of individuals keeps it going the spirited man wonders what is his role what verse must he contribute to help extinguish the crisis this spirited man is told that his cohort gen x is the repair generation the one stuck with fixing the messes and cleaning up the debris left by others cleaning fixing repair this particular spirited man from the last pre-digital generation the last of the analogs just happens to have a particular knack for repair and for fixing perhaps his nomad generation is tasked with ferrying his society from one sacrum from one history block to another but where does he start well the zip line at the community center playground has been broken for over a year and this particular spirited man happens to have the tools to fix it

Channel: Van Neistat

Views: 340,471

Rating: 4.9303341 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: xeVyfiP0cLk

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 30 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/CookShack67]

As a GenX nomad, it makes me weepy when he talks about the Millennials as the Hero. Y'all are heros for real. So glad we're on this journey together 🦧🦍❤️

[u/Alphaking1524]

I was really surprised when he posted this because it just lines up so well with everything that’s happening.

[u/Middle-Anything]

I just love his glasses

[u/LordChungus6969_]

Bruh, I got chills watching this...it lines up so perfectly...

[u/Useful_Tomato_409]

war is a force is so good. so is days of destruction

[u/Rlo347]

This got me jacked to the TITS!!!!

[u/Brilliant_Big_2334]

When he wrote Bob . . . I said out loud "Bob Ross." Totally wrong

[u/BOBMUNZ]

Loved this video! Started following Van after his brother plugged him, I was even more excited when he covered this topic.

Vans artistic style is very much his own and I loved his video, another video on this topic that is really good is from Vsauce. Certainly a different style and more in a video essay format but equally good that covers a little more in depth.

I truly hope we are nearing the end of the "Crisis" phase because I'm kinda getting tired of all this dumb shit going on.

[u/Cyborg_888]

I liked the video. I think crypto will replace money after all this is over. Blockchain will prevent Naked Short selling and make the markets more honest. (Unfortunately in another 80 years we will be in a crisis again.)