Generational Dynamics Forum - New Site

The direction of popular fiction is very telling since, as Strauss & Howe taught us, Fourth Turning crises are visceral and products of the masses rather than the elites.

The study of trends in popular literature over generations is fascinating. Heroes are popular during the descent into the crisis and during the crisis, Superman, Lone Ranger, Conan the Barbarian, Doc Savage and dozens of other fictional heroes were all created in the early 30's. The 60's - 70's ran more to the creation of antiheroes and flawed heroes such as Elric of Melnibone, Spiderman and so forth. In the 80's and 90's the most popular literary characters simply used force to get their own way, the Hulk gained hugely in popularity as did Wolverine, and movies showed the same evolution. As a friend of mine put it recently, anyone who bothered to think about what happened in the Star War's prequel series, started rooting for the Empire! That's an example of how much things changed in what the creators thought would sell over 25 years.

[quote]As I've been writing for years, my expectation is that the coming Clash of Civilizations world war will pit the "axis" of China, Pakistan and the Sunni nations against the "allies" of the U.S., India, Russia, Iran and Israel, among others. The events of the last few weeks, since the killing of Osama bin Laden, appear to have pushed events very far along this trend line.[/quote]

Popular fiction is seeing it too John: http://www.dragonsfuryseries.com/

[quote]I met Bill Gates several times when I was a technology journalist, and he's a very interesting guy who is now devoting his life to a worthy cause that he believes in passionately. Unfortunately, it falls to me, the gloomiest person in the world, to point out that reducing child mortality only worsens the population explosion and the food shortage, and will mean hundreds of millions of additional deaths in the coming Clash of Civilizations world war. [/quote]
Right on, John. This is what often happens when someone who has been successful in a narrow field of expertise thinks he can duplicate that success in an area he knows nothing about. Gates is making everything he touches worse. He should shut his foundation down, flush the money down the toilet, and retire.

To me, the evidence seems to point to the US being the first in the West to recover from the bottoming out of the world economic structures. I think this will happen because the US has been far more willing than any other advanced country to allow salaries of manufacturing workers to stagnate or drop. Most of Europe and Asia have worked to keep salaries of manufacturing jobs on the increase and added generous pensions (FAR more generous than anything in the US outside congress and a few board rooms) on top of it, along with very early retirements. As a result, the manufacture of complex items are moving from China and Europe to the USA now, as was recorded in that link I posted a couple of days ago.

While US companies are carrying a record load of debt, they've bought back a lot of shares and have also refinanced all their debt to be nearly interest free.

The USA is in a position much more similar to Germany during the Great Depression than any other nation equivalent in size or wealth, as far as I can see. The coming crash will certainly hurt us, but I believe the pain will be far worse in Europe and China. And that pain will of course be part of the precipitating factors in the new world war.

18-May-11 News -- Pakistan military demands 'flag meeting' over US incursion


Germany limits information exchange with U.S. intelligence

[i][url=http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?xct=gd.e110518b#e110518b]** 18-May-11 News -- Pakistan military demands 'flag meeting' over US incursion[/url]
** [url]http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?xct=gd.e110518b#e110518b[/url][/i]


[i][url=http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?xct=gd.e110518#e110518]** 18-May-11 World View -- EU proposes Greek 'soft' default[/url]
** [url]http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi-bin/D.PL?xct=gd.e110518#e110518[/url][/i]



Contents:
"Pakistan military demands 'flag meeting' over US incursion"
"Germany limits information exchange with U.S. intelligence"
"Pakistan promises to continue targeting sanctuaries"

### World View - EU proposes Greek 'soft' default
"EU official proposes 'soft' default of Greece's debt"
"Austria: 'If you've cheated your way into the euro ...'"
"France's first lady, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, is pregnant"
"French politicians outraged at treatment of Strauss-Kahn"
"The 'Gang of Six' bipartisan deficit group may be collapsing"
"Kurds clash with Turkish troops in eastern Turkey"
"Bill Gates calls for worldwide vaccination program"
"Brain wave sensor technology being used in novelty cat ears"

Keys:
Generational Dynamics, Pakistan, Flag meeting, China, Germany,
John Kerry, Asif Ali Zardari

Keys:
Generational Dynamics, Greece, Jean-Claude Juncker,
Austria, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Carla Bruni Sarkozy,
Jack Lang, Elisabeth Guigou, Gang of Six, Tom Coburn,
Kurdistan, Bill Gates, Neurowear