Boston and Fifth Turnings…and maybe even Sixth Turnings....

Awakening eras, crisis eras, crisis wars, generational financial crashes, as applied to historical and current events
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Marc
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Boston and Fifth Turnings…and maybe even Sixth Turnings....

Post by Marc »

John X.’s academically-famous city of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and its nearby city of Boston, have obviously been paramount in the news recently due to a terrorism spree. And, as most know here (at the time that I type and post this), the key suspects involve two brothers from a Russian province called Dagestan, located near Chechnya. One of the suspects did state on a Russian social website that he identifies with Islam. (This is not to perpetuate a stereotype of Islam being inherently violent and bad; please read on.)

As John has pointed out, World War II was not a Crisis War for the Soviet Union. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, this arguably caused a rare “First Turning reset” for Russia, the key constituent of the old Soviet Union. If it didn’t, then Russia would likely be in a Fifth Turning — John’s theorized supplemental Turning for countries which don’t have a Crisis War during a Fourth Turning. (The Soviet Union would have actually been in an Awakening era during World War II, despite the severe suffering at the hands of both Hitler and Stalin.)

However, Dagestan, from what I conjecture, is in a Fifth Turning: the dissolution of the Soviet Union was less likely to have really “shaken up” Dagestani society as opposed to the much more industrialized, globally-connected Russia. John further theorized that suicide bombings are characteristic of Fifth Turnings. If so — and this seems credible to me — then our two Boston-bombing suspects very well were in an alienated “Fifth Turning mode” despite their immigrating to America during a Third Turning, and who were quite likely feeling that their parents were suffering from things such as xenophobia. To avenge this, the Boston terrorists may well have been motivated to go on the rampage that they went on.

I have further wondered just what the characteristics are of kids who do grow up in a Fifth Turning. I may change this, but I will theorize that, due to parents tending to produce opposite types in the children that they raise, that there is an idealistic streak within these children — but that it is in muted form due to personal dissolution, and is complemented by the other generational archetypes. This muted idealism is complemented, I conjecture, by sensitivity due to highly protective parenting; also by nihilism due to a “this-world-is-the-pits” attitude; and by a sense of being a “foundational builder” due to this generation being raised by parents and schools as “the upcoming generation who we hope can save the kingdom.” Put all this together with our Dagestani-American terrorists, and we can envision two youths who envisioned being part of a relatively simple visionary crusade — but it was fortified and toxified by nihilistic pain and sensitivity due to parental and personal suffering at the hands of xenophobia, coupled with practical, civic “builder know-how” cultivated at home and in school from parents and teachers who needed them to be “the generation who will re-build the kingdom.”

As some last words, I have wondered if it is possible for a society to actually enter a Sixth Turning due to a Fifth Turning that doesn’t end in a Crisis War. In today’s modern society, I think that it would be remotely possible, but not too likely. It could possibly happen if you have a country such as Mexico or Saudi Arabia (which are both, it seems, in Fifth Turnings) who can somehow keep “the pressure cooker from exploding” due to outside pressures. These pressures would likely be apt to be both positive (such as in the form of very significant monetary assistance as well as additional assistance that could range from ample cheap food brought into the country and massive tuition subsidies from outsiders) as well as negative (such as some powerful country, such as China, threatening to “contain” a country in a way similar to how China might “contain” North Korea if it gets too volatile with its military actions).

Kids growing up in a Sixth Turning, if it is possible to produce such a thing, may well be a kind of “über-Nomad” archetype due to a “slow-motion sense of societal degradation that seems to never want to end,” coupled with elements of sensitivity (due to their suffering) and elements of “civic builder-ism” due to their also being raised as “the generation that will hopefully save the kingdom.” Finally, there is apt to be, I feel, a slight sense of idealism in them, but it is a very simple vision: the vision of a better, stable society that quite simply dispenses with all the dysfunctional elements of political decay.

The characteristics of Sixth Turnings, if they can exist, may well consist of “infrastructural de-couplings” such as via many people in the country using alternative currency systems, setting up alternative businesses which readily accept them, and even building some elements of regional alternative transportation and energy systems. In other words, channeling deep dissolution into turning visions into societal structures “that work.” Coexisting with this may well be attacks by many “common people” against the official infrastructure, which may not necessarily be violent (i.e., many people being lax in paying taxes; or taking over parks and vacant houses, Occupy-style, for housing needs). The endgame of this could be a fracturing of a nation, or a civil war with those supporting the official government fighting those who have a deeply withering sense of patriotism towards it. The über-nihilism of the child generation during a Sixth Turning, I feel, would practically guarantee that there must be a First Turning following it — or, if not, the start of a non-cyclical “Dark Age” that will last for awhile.

Comments, if anyone has any, are welcome. —Regards, Marc

John
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Re: Boston and Fifth Turnings…and maybe even Sixth Turnings.

Post by John »

Marc,

Great minds must think alike, because a "fifth turning" situation was
also the first thing that popped into my mind, when I heard about the
origins of the perpetrator. But you also did a great job of carrying
the analysis forward. I really have no insight into young people
during a fifth turning, other than calling them "would-be Heroes,"
since the fourth turning passes with no crisis war. You've provided
some interesting ideas that are worth exploring.

There is one adjustment: There are some reports that the perpetrators
grew up in Kyrgyzstan. If that's true, then the analysis has to be
adjusted to central Asia which, I believe, also had its last crisis
war in the 1920s -- though I'm going to have to look that up, because
it could be wrong.

This whole fifth turning analysis came out of the London subway
bombings on 7/7/2005. I drew on research that shows that most suicide
bombers come from Saudi Arabia and Morocco, both of which are deep
into a fifth turning.


** Robert Pape's 'Dying to Win' sheds light on suicide bombers.
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/cgi ... 050718pape


** The Somalia connection -- The 7/21 London subway bombers
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ ... tm#e050801


** Belgians shocked that suicide bomber is Belgian woman
** http://www.generationaldynamics.com/pg/ ... tm#e051202


These two came to Boston ten years ago, when they were 9 and 16 years
old. There appears to be a debate going on about whether their
parents "radicalized" them, but we know from the London subway bombing
case that that's not what happens. The parents of the London subway
bombing perpetrators were completely unaware of the bombing were
deeply shocked and saddened at what their children had done.

I just listened to the interview with the Boston bombers' uncle, and
he is expressing exactly the same kinds of emotions as the parents of
the London bombers. He said he would be forgiveness, on behalf of his
entire family and on behalf of Islam, for the actions of his nephews.

One thing that became clear with the London suicide bombers is that
they were committing "altruistic suicide," because they believed that
their parents' community would support and honor their actions. The
Boston bombers were not suicide bombers, but I wouldn't be surprised
if the they were acting for what they considered to be altruistic
regions, expected to be honored by their parents.

John
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Re: Boston and Fifth Turnings…and maybe even Sixth Turnings.

Post by John »

The London subway bombers were radicalized by internet contact with
al-Qaeda imams in the Pakistan tribal areas. As I recall, there were
some visits to Pakistan by one or two of the London bombers.

It appears that the Boston bombers were radicalized through social
networks. It's not known whether they got any formal training, or if
they're part of a terrorist cell in the U.S.

John
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Re: Boston and Fifth Turnings…and maybe even Sixth Turnings.

Post by John »

The two regions -- the North Caucasus (Dagestan, Chechyna, etc.) and
central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan) -- are
linked by history. The two regions are historically connected because
Josef Stalin in 1944 deported North Caucasus ethnic groups to Central
Asia. When Nikita Khrushchev allowed the deported people to return,
many remained behind. Thus, familial relationships between the two
regions remain to this day, and there has been cross-pollination of
Islamist terrorist fighters in both regions.

Andrio
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Joined: Sat Dec 27, 2014 2:24 am

Re: Boston and Fifth Turnings…and maybe even Sixth Turnings.

Post by Andrio »

It's exactly what we're seeing now. Our political parties are doing nothing to prepare us for what's coming, chiefly concerned with maintaining and increasing their own power. Anyone who warns that this can't continue or tries to do something is silenced using any means necessary. Meaning when winter does come...
FSL:

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