The Crumbling Time
June 2025: Where's the exit door?
2025. I have noted the "Fourth Turning" phenomena before in this series; here's a quick explanation. It appears that culture experiences an 80 year cycle of 20 year "turnings". The first is the beginning, the new. It is creative, exciting, and shapes the focus of what follows. The second 20 years are when some of the creations fail, and those that don't solidify into the “Nature” of the cycle. This midpoint in the cycle, the 40 year mark, is typically its peak. The third turning is when the cracks appear, inconsistent and incoherent assumptions cause conflict, and the culture begins to rot. The fourth turning is the end of the cycle, with destruction of the old that frees resources, energy, and inertia so the next cycle to be completely different.
Has this been the history of America? The government really got started about 1785. The first cycle ended in 1865; the end of the Civil War. America in 1875 was vastly different from 1855, two decades prior. The second cycle ends with the Great Depression and WWII, 1945. Once more, one could not have predicted in 1935 what 1955 would be like.
So.... 1945 to.... 2025. Am I crazy to sense the end of this third cycle? Like the second, the money is failing and the world is at war. It's the hubris of Empire that denies WWIII is underway already, and given 80 years of "progress" since Hiroshima, it is sadly possible that we will end the American Empire with mushroom clouds an order of magnitude more destructive.
Again, so.... Just wow. I will be criticized even by my closest friends for "projecting" or "manifesting" such a dystopia for life on Earth. I seek rather, to get real about the role we all play in this drama, as individuals and as communities.
We are not powerless, but the work begins inside. To live a peace full, loving life I myself must be peace full and loving inside. Any sense of hate I notice outside only points to more inner work I must do. When I get angry over the lies that permeate culture, that work means uncovering how and when I lie to myself and others. This points to healing projection and doing my shadow work.
Let’s go universal. It's useful to remember that words matter, in the sense that they convey energy which we interpret and give meaning. It is ironic that we speak of reality as material by which we imply it is solid. It is not. The word material is also used as meaningful; in this I agree, reality is meaning full. We have many sayings about the universal: as above, so below; macro is micro; all is one. Yet we seldom interrogate our inner world from these perspectives. By definition, we humans can never know the Ultimate Truth about reality; this is why uncertainty is required, and any belief I hold in which I infuse an aura of 100% accuracy is delusion. I could be wrong is always included in my beliefs. I don’t like that, but there it is.
At the level of Self, we all have myriad issues. We are poor at connecting cause with effect; we confuse correlation with causation. We are prey to addiction: distraction (media, sports); instant gratification (usually through debt, making us essentially slaves); disposable everything (in someone else's back yard); and self-medication (drugs legal or not). We get offended and angry by words and deeds we don't like, yet can't control (hopeless) and so we isolate ourselves or strike out at others we feel are hurting us. By concentrating political discourse onto a few dominant online platforms, social media erased the necessity to co-exist with differing opinions because they were expressed by my neighbors throughout a day. Instead, everyone is now crammed together in algorithm-driven echo chambers that amplify outrage, foster resentment, and make ideological conflict inescapable. Not to mention, limiting any real conversation face-to-face even with the person sitting next to me in any setting.
A basic tenet of addiction recovery is that I must realize I hurt more by staying where I am, in belief or habit, than I will by changing my beliefs and habits. A key to healing trauma is interrogating the experience and finding a new story to tell myself about what happened. Another saying: pain is mandatory, suffering is optional. Empire’s end is mandatory, and will likely hurt; suffering because of Empire’s End is my choice. This is the gateway to crafting the culture that comes next.
At the level of communities, the web of relationships is our currency. Sure we think of the US dollar as currency, but because of its very nature as a debt-created marker that is easily transferred to others, it is phantom wealth. Social capital, the state of the health of your relationships in your neighborhood, is real wealth. Giving and receiving gifts graciously, ‘paying’ attention, acting with compassion and (always) integrity; this is as important within Empire as it is outside of the Empire’s system. The greater my real wealth, the easier this transition to the next First Turning will be for everyone.
In terms of healthy relationships, let’s also feel sonder:
Sonder [ son-der ] noun
“The feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles…
In a state of sonder, each of us is at once a hero, a supporting cast member, and an extra in overlapping stories.”
If you have ever experienced a large gathering, let’s think of attending a sold out event in the Rose Bowl, with 100,000 of your friends….unless some or most are non-player characters (NPCs) [1] we are usually so preoccupied with ourselves, that we miss seeing the humanity in everyone around us. Healthy relationships always have room for agreement and disagreement. No one is perfect, and no one matches my own experiences and beliefs exactly either. We have common ground with everyone, some more than others, obviously. But what has happened in the Modern world is an erosion of our ability to find that common ground. Instead, someone such as Gabor Maté has to say this out loud:
“That place where we call other people animals: if you want to live there, that’s your choice. I don’t want to live there. I want to understand people. I want to understand what happened to them. I want to know why they behave the way they behave.”
That awful place he speaks of has become a common habitat where too many ignore the inherent (and obvious) humanity of others. Someone dares to disagree with another, and is subject to ridicule, abuse, exile, or worse. Our media (of all types) fails to provide us with role models that resolve conflict effectively. Look to any entertainment that shows conflict, and the resolution process involves a gun or a bomb if not a fantasy ‘super power’. Empire acts invincible, relying on propaganda to scare other countries into submission. Yet it hasn’t won a victory in war since WWII. Given that 80% of the Nazi military was destroyed by Russia, not the UK and US, one could argue that the Civil War was the last war ‘America won’ on its own.
It’s the sudden downturn in global relations most people call the Israel-Iran war that prompts this post. After three years plus of Russia-Ukraine, it is disturbing to see similar propaganda strategies and tactics: censorship, lies, spin, and distraction being used regarding this latest bloodshed. For someone whose #1 issue since my teen years has been peace, or the lack of peace, we are further from this goal than ever before. There is even talk now of “needing” a nuclear weapon to effect an end to any nuclear research in Iran. How ironic: using a nuke to prevent another sovereign nation from getting one in self-defense. Search “Dancing with Tears in Our Eyes”…or watch any of the myriad videos posted on social media from either Tehran or Tel Aviv and try to tell me this Empire will go out quietly.
There’s one last point I feel is necessary in this review: grief. Empire has immunized us against facing death head on. We hope to live forever, which we cannot. But in our fear of death, we have distracted ourselves from healing that fear. Many, too many, have turned away from any spiritual connection or real understanding of life or death. We absorb the argument that a (flawed) understanding of Science™ negates the need to walk an ineffable path to Spirit. We grieve what we love, when it leaves our world. Healing from the death of others is a process, not an event. As the last Empire dissolves and the next one is beginning there is a lot of overlap, creativity, and grief. It is difficult to navigate my choices: am I able to face my fears, cope with my grief, and go down an unforeseen path to a new beginning? Or will I stay stuck in the light from the fires burning the old to ashes, unable to move outside my comfort zone, even at the cost of my soul? Where are our rituals and ceremonies that give us the courage to know Death? Why has Empire led us into a fear-full darkness, rather than into the light of knowing? We see the effects of this lack of healing from loss all around us. I sincerely hope we can find appropriate ways to heal from the grief arising both during and after the death of Empire, and that what follows quickly emerges with tools, support, rituals, and ceremonies that facilitate our relationship with Death...and each other.
[1] A role play term for an entity meant to fill out the scene, like an extra, but with a bit of information you need to get the most out of life if you just ask