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Sex farms for prison guards. A recent news story about a prison shootout exposed a sad and shocking aspect of the United States' vast penal system - that many female inmates, even juveniles as young as 13, are prostitutes to corrupt guards. Of course, this is really no surprise as this country has long been in the habit of crimininalizing and warehousing Gen-Xers and then not caring about them afterwards, so that it is now the developed nation with the greatest proportion of its citizens behind bars - a dubious distinction for the "Land of the Free." Ex-Inmates Say Prison Sex Abuse Rampant But now that Millennials are rising into young adulthood, this corruption is finally getting the attention it deserves. And while we're on the subject, is it any wonder something like Abu Ghraib could happen, given that our penal system is a country-wide sex abuse nightmare? If we're going to be exporting freedom and justice to far-flung places, we could use a lot more here at home. Posted by Steve at 6:09 PM
Ytt discussion well worth a listen. Phil Mariage sent me this email:
Phil's show is unique on radio for bringing different generational perspectives together, so it was definitely great to hear from him. The podcast, as well as past podcasts, is available at- http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kuar/ondemand.ondemandmain?action=viewPodcast&podcastId=215 The related topic on the Fourth Turning discussion, mentioned in the podcast, is at- http://www.fourthturning.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2575 Posted by Steve at 3:54 PM
More generations. For some good generations blogging, check out Generations in Conversation, from Duncan Macleod, a prolific online journalist who is also a minister living in Australia. He concentrates on spiritual and cultural topics with respect to generations, which makes his blog a nice complement to mine, since I tend to obsess on politics and war. Posted by Steve at 6:21 PM
House debate is as much generational as it is partisan. I watched part of the House debate on the war resolution and was struck by the generational divide across political sides. It was basically Democrats from the Silent generation objecting to the madness, their primary stand-in being Pennsylvania Congressman Jack Murtha, who gets the pile-on from a bunch of Team America Boomer and Gen-X Republicans standing up for freedom and the never-ending battle against Islamic extermism. I didn't hear any young Democrat voice an opinion. Clearly the Bush administration has thrust American foreign policy in the direction of a major paradigm shift, which is essentially what this generation gap is about - the old guard is resistant. And that's not saying they're unwise to be so; paleoconservatives like Pat Buchanan make excellent arguments against U.S. interventionism. But as long as the younger generation speaks up on this issue through one party exclusively, the issue will be framed as that party sees fit, as the 256-153 "pro-war" vote indicates. Posted by Steve at 6:25 PM
Enron: The Ultimate 3T Story. For a good lesson in how a generational constellation can achieve an extreme of behavior which is ultimately dysfunctional, watch Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. This movie demonstrates how the rise of the company and its malfeasances – both how it took advantage of deregulation to game the marketplace and how it used fraud to prop up stock prices – were enabled by the Third Turning generational constellation. It focuses on three individuals in particular: Andrew Fastow, the Gen-Xer who cooked the books, Jeff Skilling, the Boomer executive whose inventive practices justified the company's schemes, and Silent CEO Ken Lay, who gave the firm its veneer of respectability. You also get a good look at the Gen-X traders, the workhorses who shamelessly manipulated energy prices. Jeff Skilling's idea of accounting for "hypothetical future value" to reward an idea immediately, because otherwise different people unfairly get the credit further down the development cycle, is very selfishly fitting for the Boomer generation and the dot.com era. All in all, this documentary movie is an excellent lesson in how the generational constellation in the 3T directs energy at enriching the few (execs making mega-millions, traders retiring young) at the expense of the many (Californians suffering rolling blackouts for no reason other than Enron’s manipulative schemes). Posted by Steve at 4:19 PM
The pragmatic visionary. It was nice to be mentioned on the blog of Thomas P. M. Barnett, a strategic planner with a vision of how our world can evolve in the next generation so that globalization continues to advance and benefit more of the planet's people, without a repeat of the disaster that derailed the process back in the era of the World Wars. You see, there are many people who read Strauss and Howe's generational works, especially their prediction of a cycle culminating in a transformative Crisis Era, and assume that means we're doomed to face an impending "clash of civilizations" type Great Power war - which is just not an accurate interpretation of the theory. What Strauss and Howe say is that at the end of the generational cycle there is a transformation of the civic order, an age of institutional reform which reshapes the outer world (just as the Awakening Era reshaped the inner world). This process will always be messy and painful, but it won't look the same each time it happens - not considering how military realities change and political and economic systems evolve with time. Tom Barnett's strategic vision, outlined in his book The Pentagon's New Map, and further developed in the sequel and of course on his excellent weblog, explains how institutions can evolve in our future to extend globalization's reach - no doomsday required! Posted by Steve at 5:54 PM |
| Lost | 106+ |
| G.I. | 82-106 |
| Silent | 64-82 |
| Boomer | 46-64 |
| Gen-X | 25-46 |
| Millennial | ?-25 |
| Homeland | ? |
| High | 1946-1964 |
| Awakening | 1964-1984 |
| Unraveling | 1984-? |
| Crisis | ?- |
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Strauss & Howe Generations Sites
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The Fourth Turning Discussion Boards
Generations at jamesgoulding.com Generations on Wikipedia Model for the Saeculum The TimePage LifeCourse Associates |
Blogroll
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Aging Hipsters
Generational Dynamics Generations in Conversation Generation Next TimeLog Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow Ypulse |
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Where noted, background information on generations theory is copyright 1996 Broadway Books. All other content on this web site is copyright 2002-2007 Generation Watch and Steve Barrera. All rights reserved. |