Brands excoriation of the political class felt to many like a breath of fresh air. But while Brands humor-infused brew of Marxism, anarchism and New Age spirituality may seem like the mere rantings of a rebellious entertainer who frequently refers to himself as a Jungian Trickster, I would argue he represents a more dangerous omen.
The Occupy Wall Street movement (if there ever was such a thing) and emerging generations of young Americans more generally is being led by Brand and other pied pipers away from practical reality and into an illusory world of pure imagination. What in 2009 had the makings of a New Deal-oriented mass strike upsurge is being steered off course by Wall Street interests in a rehash of 1968.
The Occupy Wall Street movement (if there ever was such a thing) and emerging generations of young Americans more generally is being led by Brand and other pied pipers away from practical reality and into an illusory world of pure imagination. What in 2009 had the makings of a New Deal-oriented mass strike upsurge is being steered off course by Wall Street interests in a rehash of 1968.
I did some research on Tue May 01, 2012 6:36 am (quoted below) on the Long Wave Cycle (a generational cycle) which predicts the above effect. The youth will take over after 2032, and the kind of world they will create will be one of extreme idealism. This is FDR New Deal style of dangerous. This will launch big government on a bigger scale than we had ever seen before, i.e. "international cooperation" as code word for loss of local sovereignty. The youth will put in place the U.N. Agenda 21 with a gleam in their eye as they are trained and indoctrinated now to believe for example that man-made global climate change hoax is real and is a real problem.
Here follows the research, and I urge everyone to study this carefully.
I haven't verified whether this long wave cycle principle repeats throughout history, but I assume he has, since he said he spent 10 years perfecting it:
http://www.longwavegroup.com/principle/lefi_map/lefi_map.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58qtcPst2OI
I had read an article that ties this cycle into generational cycle attitudes. I am trying to find it, as I think it explains a difference in world view between Boomers, Gen X, and Gen Y.
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Okay I found it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strauss-Howe_generational_theory#Defining_a_generation
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/2011/11/03/bad-moon-rising
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/the-gathering-storm
Code:
Prophet Nomad Hero Artist
High Childhood Elderhood Midlife Young Adult
Awakening Young Adult Childhood Elderhood Midlife
Unraveling Midlife Young Adult Childhood Elderhood
Crisis Elderhood Midlife Young Adult Childhood
High Childhood Elderhood Midlife Young Adult
Awakening Young Adult Childhood Elderhood Midlife
Unraveling Midlife Young Adult Childhood Elderhood
Crisis Elderhood Midlife Young Adult Childhood
High = Spring
Awakening = Summer
Unraveling = Fall
Crisis = Winter
Prophet = Boomers (born 1946 - 1964), 40 percent of the workforce
Nomad = Gen X (born 1965 - 1979), 16 percent of the workforce
Hero = Gen Y (born 1980 - 1994), 25 percent of the workforce
Artist = Gen Z (born 1995+)
Boomers = vision, values, and religion (loyalty, idealistic, entitled)
Nomad = liberty, survival and honor (survival, pragmatic, alienated)
Hero = community, affluence, and technology (order, righteous, protected)
Artist = expertise and due process (continuity, flexible, overprotected)
Some links on different attitudes between the current generations:
http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/2431/boomers-generations
http://jojackson.suite101.com/veterans-baby-boomers-gen-x-gen-y-and-gen-z-a185353
http://www.enotes.com/soc/discuss/what-different-characteristics-generation-x-e-90271
I made some interesting comments here:
http://relativisticobserver.blogspot.com/2012/03/hackers-part-3.html?showComment=1335903496830#c239549748064135439
Quote
I presented the generational research in the Transparency blog, which explains why we are not going to agree on the use of the government to enforce values:
http://relativisticobserver.blogspot.com/2012/04/transparency-way-of-future.html?showComment=1335900204476#c1703906618219560883
At least we can be rational about understanding why we have different political philosophies.
We Gen X did not grow up entitled. We have to struggle on our own to get where we are. We don't feel entitled, and thus we are not stakeholders in the society that the Boomers built. We trust the free market, because that is what we were dealing with on our own. Social security won't be there for us. The boomers took more than all (debt every where). We've had to scrap and negotiate hard to get some. And instead of giving back to us now the peace of individual freedom that we want, they want to put their value system on us (which will continue to escalate the wars).
So there is conflict ahead.
The Heros are going to rebuild new institutions and fighting the wars to tear down the current corrupt ones. We Nomads are caught in the cross-fire and just trying to find a way to not get squeezed out. Thus we have no choice but to discard the social contract, as it won't be rebuilt in time for us.
http://relativisticobserver.blogspot.com/2012/04/transparency-way-of-future.html?showComment=1335900204476#c1703906618219560883
At least we can be rational about understanding why we have different political philosophies.
We Gen X did not grow up entitled. We have to struggle on our own to get where we are. We don't feel entitled, and thus we are not stakeholders in the society that the Boomers built. We trust the free market, because that is what we were dealing with on our own. Social security won't be there for us. The boomers took more than all (debt every where). We've had to scrap and negotiate hard to get some. And instead of giving back to us now the peace of individual freedom that we want, they want to put their value system on us (which will continue to escalate the wars).
So there is conflict ahead.
The Heros are going to rebuild new institutions and fighting the wars to tear down the current corrupt ones. We Nomads are caught in the cross-fire and just trying to find a way to not get squeezed out. Thus we have no choice but to discard the social contract, as it won't be rebuilt in time for us.
http://relativisticobserver.blogspot.com/2012/04/transparency-way-of-future.html?showComment=1335900204476#c1703906618219560883
Quote
So now we can understand why boomer's (you) politics are loyalty, enforcing idealistic values, and maintaining entitlements.
And Gen X's (me) politics are liberty, pragmatic survival, individualism (honor), and distrust of values and institutions. I am libertarian anarchist. So trying to convince me that the entitled state should enforce values, is like me telling you that we should privatize the government.
Fascinating.
It explains why we are going to disagree about any political/social topics, such as Hackers, Transparency, media's role in society, etc..
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Some useful tables (although I think this deviates in some cases from the generational theory in the prior comment):
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/2011/11/03/bad-moon-rising
The Boomers (elders) and Heros (youth) are archtypes and will be at odds. Boomers will judge them to have threatened values (remember the Heros are protected), yet ironically the above link claims the Boomers did more drugs, volunteered less, have lower college education, and higher teen pregnancy than the Heros do.
And Gen X's (me) politics are liberty, pragmatic survival, individualism (honor), and distrust of values and institutions. I am libertarian anarchist. So trying to convince me that the entitled state should enforce values, is like me telling you that we should privatize the government.
Fascinating.
It explains why we are going to disagree about any political/social topics, such as Hackers, Transparency, media's role in society, etc..
===========
Some useful tables (although I think this deviates in some cases from the generational theory in the prior comment):
http://www.financialsense.com/contributors/james-quinn/2011/11/03/bad-moon-rising
The Boomers (elders) and Heros (youth) are archtypes and will be at odds. Boomers will judge them to have threatened values (remember the Heros are protected), yet ironically the above link claims the Boomers did more drugs, volunteered less, have lower college education, and higher teen pregnancy than the Heros do.
