Generations@Work

If you have read any of my previous posts it’s hard to avoid my continuous insertion of at least a passing reference to the work of historians William Strauss and Neil Howe, the authors of Generations and Millennials Rising as well as other books and articles.  As this new and potentially momentous year dawns, and as I attempt to rediscover my blogging voice , I find myself returning to the work of these two historians for answers to some vexing questions about what lies ahead for American social, political, and economic life.

I remain more firmly convinced than ever of the practical and theoretical value of the idea of a generation, and as I plunge again into the seminal American text on the subject, Generations, its explanatory and predictive power as a work of social history seems even more impressive then when I first happened upon it ten years ago.

If one is inclined to think of the idea of a generation as either a light-weight concept and/or one that is easily understood, read Generations.  The idea, as Strauss and Howe discover and articulate, is full of complexity and nuance.  In their hands, it emerges with the sociological and historical gravitas and relevancy that should benefit anyone trying to figure out where we are as a nation and where we are headed.

One major project for this blog over the next year or more will be to look as closely as possible at those individuals and groups likely to shape the economy and the workplace in the years ahead.  It is precisely in projects of this nature that a good sound theory can be of enormous assistance.  Theory provides perspective and an opportunity to see beyond events as they unfold in the temporal lens of the everyday.  While mindful of the admonition of Strauss and Howe not to use their theory in an overly deterministic way, I am excited by the opportunity to apply and test their theory.

I do not want to spend too much time in the posts to come looking backwards.  It is the future that excites me.  Call me stricken by Obama fever but I think we are at one of those moments when we are either going to think and behave like the deer caught in the headlights, or we are going to move intelligently and adroitly around this apparent chasm in the road and in so doing find the means to build a very different country and society.  We know that some amongst us, perhaps too many, will behave like the paralyzed deer.  But we also know that others feel or will soon feel the urgency to find higher ground.  But will this process be random, or can we look to history, and theories of history to help us in our search for those who are already building what is to come?

This is where Strauss and Howe might provide some valuable insights, so at the gross level let’s take a first generalized crack at applying their theory, with the understanding that the details will unfold over many months as I seek to identify those already in the act of creating the next era.

A preview:

The nation is now in the grips of a secular crisis uncannily predicted by the theory of generational cycles.

There is no precise moment marking the beginning of this crisis but one could pick the beginning of the war in Iraq or closer to home the response (or non-response) to hurricane Katrina.

This crisis is likely to last several years if history is any guide but the seeds of renewal and regeneration are already planted.

Many point to the individual failures of George W Bush and perhaps Dick Cheney.  While this might give comfort to many of us given the calendar, the failures of this government are really the failures of a generation, or a constellation alignment of two generations, whose peer personalities made this crisis almost inevitable.

Speaking generationally, the Boomers will continue to influence events for years to come but their time in power has probably passed for good.  The role for the Boomers with a desire for engagement will be as the elder visionaries encouraging two younger generations of pragmatists and builders.

Generation X, now entering their midlife, will step up as the pragmatists with the cool to steady a society rocked by the institutional ineptitude of the Boomers.

And while the real moment of power for the Millennials is likely still some years off, historical forces will call on this generation and they will not be found wanting.  The Millennials, with the majority of their generation now in rising adulthood, will emerge as the dominant force in our revival.

The preface has already been written.  One goal for the posts to come is to seek out and share information about those who are already writing the new chapters.  The Millennials have risen.