I learned this week that our good friend Sue Bradley has gone home to be with Jesus. She went into the Lord's arms early in the morning on April 26, 2013.
In
2008 and again in 2012
with input from Steve
Quayle and I, Sue
began working on one
of her last articles
titled The
Fourth Turning: The
Protocols and The Gray
Champion. A
couple months back,
she had emailed me
from her hospital room
and said she was about
to expand this Fourth
Turning work based on
some “Zenith 2016”
material I had just
shared with her.
Unfortunately, like
with the passing of
David Flynn, the world
will probably never
know what Sue was
about to reveal. What
we do know is her work
was partially based on
a book published in
1997, The Fourth Turning, which describes itself as “a book that turns
history into
prophecy.” It
explains cycles of
life and generational
archetypes through the
examination of Western
historical paradigms
over the past five
centuries. By
surveying the past and
identifying
contemporary markers,
William Strauss and
Neil Howe, the authors
of the work determined
an astoundingly
prescient forecast in
which they saw a
cascade of incidents
that would ultimately
lead to chaos and the
“Fourth Turning.”
Keep in mind they made
these predictions over
sixteen years ago,
long before the
September 11, 2001
attacks on America or
the financial issues
of today. Among the
scenarios they foresaw
were:
The
first
could be economic
distress with a
government beset by
fiscal crisis, the
state laying claim to
federal tax monies,
federal marshals
enforcing orders, tax
rebellions, special
forces and an ensuing
constitutional crisis:
The
second is a
terrorist attack,
involving an airliner,
a military response,
authorization for
house to house
searches and false
flag accusations
against the
administration;
A
third scenario is
an economic
disaster involving
Wall Street and a
federal budget impasse
which results in a
stalemate;
The
fourth
consideration is
Eco-environmental
malaise with the
Centers for Disease
Control announcing the
spread of a new
communicable virus
with quarantines and
relocations;
The
fifth projection
is geopolitical in
nature with growing
anarchy throughout the
former Soviet
republics prompting Russia
to conduct training
exercises around its
borders, a Russian
alliance with Iran,
soaring gold and
silver prices and
global military
responses.
In
describing these
insightful scenarios,
Strauss and Howe felt
a catalyst would
unfold as a result of
a specific dynamic
and, “An initial
spark will trigger a
chain reaction of
unyielding responses
and further
emergencies” (the
war on terror?).
According
to Strauss and Howe in
1997, this chain
reaction was already
prepped to unfold as
the result of natural
cycles or
“Turnings” in
which generations are
doomed to forget—and
thus to repeat—the
mistakes of the past.
The authors
describe a Turning as
“an era with a
characteristic social
mood, a new twist on
how people feel about
themselves and their
nation. It results
from the aging of the
generation [before
it].” A society
enters a Turning once
every twenty years or
so, when all living
generations begin to
enter their next
phases of life. The
living generations or
“saeculae”
comprise four cyclical
“Turnings”,
characterized as:
The
First Turning (THE
HIGH),
an era of enthusiastic
collective
strengthening and
civic development,
having burned the
brush and swept the
ashes of preceding
structure.
The
Second Turning (THE
AWAKENING),
is built on the
energies and
accomplishments of the
High but finds
increasing yearning
for introspection with
a high tolerance for
spiritual expression
outside the parameters
of predetermined
standards.
The
Third Turning (THE
UNRAVELING),
begins as the
“society-wide
embrace of the
liberating cultural
forces” loosed by
the Awakening shows
signs of civic
disorder and decay, a
heightened sense of
self-reliance and an
increasing withdrawal
of public trust. This
builds to a near
crisis of downcast
pessimism and a
palpable pall that can
only be remedied by
yielding to the next.
The
Fourth Turning (THE
CRISES and the era we
have now entered),
is by far, the most
perilous as societies
pass through the
greatest and most
dangerous gates of
history. As desperate
solutions are sought
for “sudden
threats” on multiple
cultural fronts,
confrontation is
passionate and
decisions are often
reactive, aggressive.
“Government governs,
community obstacles
are removed, and laws
and customs that
resisted change for
decades are swiftly
shunted aside.
.. A
grim preoccupation
with civic peril
causes spiritual
curiosity to
decline… Public
order tightens,
private risk-taking
abates, and... child-rearing
reaches a smothering
degree of protection
and structure.
The young focus
their energy on
worldly achievements,
leaving values in the
hands of the old. Wars
are fought with fury
and for maximum
result.
[i]
Through
the examination of an
enormous amount of
political and cultural
history, Strauss and
Howe processed over
five hundred years of
Anglo-American
cultural nuance into
remarkable,
well-organized and
predictable cycles and
it is from this
reservoir they finally
stake an uncanny
claim:
Just
after the millennium,
America will enter a
new era that will
culminate with a
crisis comparable to
the American
Revolution, the Civil
War, the Great
Depression, and World
War II. The very
survival of the nation
will almost certainly
be at stake. [ii]
Strauss
and Howe saw the
United States of that
time (1997) in the
Third Turning,
“midway through an
Unraveling,” roughly
a decade away from the
next Crisis or Fourth
Turning:
America
feels like it’s
unraveling. Although
we live in an era of
relative peace and
comfort, we have
settled into a mood of
pessimism about the
long-term future,
fearful that our
superpower nation is
somehow rotting from
within.
The next Fourth
Turning is due to
begin shortly after
the new millennium…
Real hardship will
beset the land, with
severe distress that
could involve
questions of class,
race, nation, and
empire…
The very survival of
the nation will feel
at stake.
Sometime before the
year 2025, America
will pass through a
great gate in history,
commensurate with the
American Revolution,
Civil War, and twin
emergencies of the
Great Depression and
World War II.
The risk of
catastrophe will be
very high. The nation
could erupt into
insurrection or civil
violence, crack up
geographically, or
succumb to
authoritarian rule. If
there is a war, it is
likely to be one of
maximum risk and
efforts — in
other words, a TOTAL
WAR.
[iii]
The
striking details
contained within The
Fourth Turning
illustrate the
precision that was
distilled with a close
examination of
historical patterns
and contemporary
application.
Although
the authors note that
the events described
are not absolute, they
also insist that the
cycles, these
Turnings, cannot be
interrupted. As summer
follows spring, an
Unraveling precedes a
Crisis of Faustian
proportions:
It
will require us to
lend a new seasonal
interpretation to our
revered American
Dream. And it will
require us to admit
that our faith in
linear progress has
often amounted to a
Faustian bargain with
our children.
Faust always ups the
ante, and every bet is
double-or-nothing.
Through much of the
Third Turning, we have
managed to postpone
the reckoning. But
history warns that we
can’t defer it
beyond the next bend
in time. [iv]
While
a “Faustian
bargain” sounds
ominous, Sue wrote,
there is little
evidence that the
Anglo-American
“Dream” has
undergone the
introspection and
discipline necessary
to buffer the arrogant
recklessness of this
generation and its
administration.
NBC’s
Chuck Todd noted on
the evening of
November 4, 2008 that
Barack Obama was a
changing of the guard
in the United States
from the Baby Boomer
presidencies of
William Clinton and
George W. Bush. The
Toronto Globe and Mail
referred to
President-elect Obama
as being a member of
Generation X, being
born in 1961. And
Strauss and Howe
assigned Generation
X—the Thirteenth
Generation—to those
who would bring us to chaos and the
start of the Fourth
Turning . . .
culminating in a Zenith of
events scheduled for
the year 2016.
Stay
tuned. Part Two coming soon.
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