Talkin’ About A Revolution

Sometimes, we fail to notice changes under our noses, like when we burned our last CD. 

This is not one of those times. The year ahead is going to bring epochal change.

We live in two Americas. Borrowing terms from Chris Arnade’s Dignity: Seeking Respect In Back Row America, there is front-row America consisting of households led by those who have the education and skills to enjoy financial security, safety, and positive prospects, and then there is back-row America living with financial insecurity, volatile neighborhoods, and limited prospects for a better tomorrow. 

Back-row inhabitants are not precisely defined, but the numbers aren’t small. Here’s an indication:

-49% of adults over age 25 do not have a bachelor’s degree or trade certification. (Census.gov, luminafoundation.org)

-50% of U.S. earners make less than $36K annually. Read that again! (Personalfinanceblogs.com)

-32% of U.S. earners say they lack the resources to meet an unexpected $400 expense. (FederalReserve.gov)

-20% of U.S. workers are employed in low-wage retail and food service jobs (Harvard.edu)

Increasing numbers of young people regard the American dream as a fantasy. Not surprisingly, institutions that once held sway are becoming increasingly irrelevant, such as Organized Religion, Science, Journalism, Education (including elite universities), Congress, Government oversight,  and the Judicial System.

Love him or hate him, Donald Trump has done a remarkable thing. He united the interests of social conservatives, the uber-rich, and “back-row America” under a common theme… “Make America Great Again.” In the vernacular, that often translates to burn it down!

The most interesting aspect of the change we are experiencing is the utter blindness accompanying it. Liberal front-row Americans are astounded that Trump was re-elected. The other half of the country is high-fiving. 

We’ve entered a new era, “The falcon cannot hear the falconer.” 

Corporate titans are not confused and are scrambling to book Mar-A-Lago visits and appearances on Joe Rogan’s podcast. In the meantime, they are slashing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives from their corporate agendas to signal the right message.

Bob Dylan was right: “It’s gonna be a hard rain a fallin’!”

So was Tracy Chapman: “Don’t you know, talkin’ about a Revolution…!”

So, what the Hell is going on?

I’ve written about this previously, but Neil Howe (The Fourth Turning © 1997 and The Fourth Turning Is Here © 2023) foreshadowed the era we have entered, though in fairness, not the modality.  His studies revealed that societies work through four generational epochs, each lasting roughly twenty years; he labeled them “Turnings.”

-The First Turning follows a crisis and features stability and renewed social cohesiveness.

-The Second Turning is an awakening, where society’s tenor switches to defiance.

-The Third Turning features an unraveling;  people distance themselves from one another and become self-absorbed.

-The Fourth Turning is a period of crisis, threatening the very foundations of society.

We are in the Fourth Turning. 

Reshaping the status quo will take time. History suggests we could spend another decade or more in the 4^th turning; the timing is not precise.  

Some of the take-down will be good. Government spending is out of control. Since I retired eleven years ago, our debt has doubled to over $35 trillion (no one can comprehend that number). Some economists and policymakers argue that U.S. Debt growth is not a major concern. They are not historians.

One thing is certain: the new boss is loading for Bear. Trump has given wiz kid Elon Musk a book of matches and a can of gasoline. Stay tuned; it’s going to get interesting! 

I was listening to the local public radio station recently in Hayward, WI when a forestry conservation expert explained the necessity of forest fires and the detrimental impact of misguided policies to limit them. He claimed that forest fires are a key component of the biological life cycle of a healthy forest, which caught my attention.

It strikes me that our children and grandchildren will see whether the same concept applies to U.S. institutions! Something tells me it might.

There will undoubtedly be challenging times ahead, which will be amplified in newsfeeds. The media’s business model is based on capturing eyeballs: “If it bleeds, it leads!” But if one steps back and looks at the bigger picture, there has never been a better time to be alive. If you need proof of that, click on this link.

So, where does this leave us?

In my favorite movie of all time, The Matrix, the star Neo, played by Keano Reeves, is offered a choice. To peer into the future by taking a red pill that would enable him to wake up from the illusion he is living to the harsh truth of reality or take a blue pill and remain in comfortable ignorance. The movie’s groundbreaking special effects and portrayal of deep philosophical questions explain its enduring popularity. 

Americans today disagree about the color of the pills they are taking.

Riffing on The Matrix, Suzy Weiss of The Free Press writes about a different choice: taking the black or the white pill. People who take the black pill give in to nihilism and despair, while those who take the white pill respond to moments of change as moments of possibility.

Which pill will we choose?

A wise leader once advised me to make important decisions only after consulting three sources: The head, the heart, and the gut. My head tells me we have entered a red pill era. My heart refuses to acknowledge the black pill. My gut tells me to take the white pill. 

As we head into 2025, I’m taking the white pill! 

How about you?

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Installments of The Secret Within can be found here. 

Former blog posts can be found here by subject category and here chronologically. 

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My first book, Towards A Life Well-Lived, can be purchased by clicking this link. Proceeds from sales are donated to Peace In Schools, a Portland, Oregon-based organization supporting mindfulness training in high schools.