From where do we get the term and concept of “Millennials”
as the current generation of young people in America today?
From
a 1991 book that explains American cultural history as a repeating cycle of
four generational types: Generations:
The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069 by historians William
Strauss and Neil Howe.
Straus
& Howe posit that these four – Idealist, Reactive, Civic,
and Adaptive – have distinguishing mind-sets, with strengths and
weaknesses that emerge at different times in the generational life-cycle of
childhood, young adulthood, mid-life, and old age.
Idealist,
motivated by abstract goals and principles;
Reactive,
motivated by a cynical practicality;
Civic,
motivated by a community spirit and can-do optimism;
Adaptive,
motivated by the desire for compromise and consensus.
The
cycle began with the children of the Elizabethans in England, who grew up to be
an Idealist generation migrating to the Jamestown and Massachusetts Bay
Colonies of the New World in the first decades of the 17th century.
Strauss
& Howe then proceed to recount almost 400 years of American history through
these four generational lenses, giving example after historical example in an
ultimate demonstration of the French aphorism, plus ça change, plus c’est la
meme chose — the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Every
generational type has its assets and liabilities. This is most clearly
demonstrated in times of major crisis, which often occurs at the end of the
cycle:
The
Idealists in their 60s and 70s provide the moral leadership, like Benjamin
Franklin and Franklin Roosevelt;
The
Reactives in their 40s and 50s provide the practical leadership, generals like
Washington and Patton;
The
Civics in their 20s and 30s do the actual fighting, as in the Revolutionary War
and the “Greatest Generation” that fought WWII;
While
Adaptives are youngsters whose job it is to keep quiet and not disturb the
adults doing serious things.
Idealists
are most dangerous when they are young and prone to drive the country off a
cliff in a moral crusade, like the Civil War, or the lunacy of the Black
Power-Chè Guevara-Ho Chi Minh-Jane Fonda-Woodstock 1960s.
Civics
are most dangerous when they are old and become Greedy Geezers demanding the
country bankrupt itself in paying tribute to them for their patriotic
sacrifices. Witness the explosion of government “entitlements” since the
1980s.
Adaptives
are most dangerous when their compulsion to compromise precludes moral clarity
with grave problems festering and never solved, like all the fruitless efforts
to straddle the gulf between freedom and slavery in the 1850s, or today’s
unwillingness to confront our $20 trillion national debt.
Reactives
can be dangerous anytime, for they are the generation of edges and extremes,
the heroes and the bums – Thomas Jefferson and Benedict Arnold, Babe Ruth and
Al Capone, crotch-grabbing hoodlum pop stars and soldiers of incredible bravery
in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A
full generational cycle is about 80 to 90 years, a saeculum for Strauss
& Howe, Latin for a “natural century.”
As
we approach the third decade of the 21st century, we have seen the
passing of the great Civic generation (the GIs) of the 20th century,
born 1900-1924, save for those few now deep into their 90s. And we are
seeing the steady year-by-year passing of the 20th century’s
Adaptive generation (the Silents), born 1925-1942, the youngest of whom are now
in their mid-70s.
The
generational lineup in 2017 is thus:
Idealists
(Boomers), born1943-1961, now late 50s to early 70s;
Reactives
(Xers), born 1962-1981, now mid-30s to mid-50s
Civics
(Millennials) born 1982-2004, now teenagers to early 30s
Adaptives
(Gen Z) born 2005-2025(?), now children to pre-teen adolescents
This
happens to be the precise lineup, according to Strauss & Howe, to best
solve a major crisis facing the country. There’s one major problem.
Millennials have failed to become a true Civic generation so far.
Instead, they’ve become Generation Snowflake.
One
principal reason is that Boomers have failed to provide moral leadership for
the country. The last president to do so was Ronald Reagan, a Civic born
in 1911.
Bill
Clinton, our first Idealist president born in 1946, was a moral
sleazebag. It takes a very long time for Idealists to mature.
Neither Bill Clinton nor his wife have to this day.
George
W. Bush, also born in 1946, was (and is) a good decent man, but proved unable
to stand up to the deluge of Leftist Hate that washed over his presidency.
Barack
Hussein Obama, Jr., born in 1961, was the worst mistake American voters have
ever made, a Hate America radical Leftist elected only because of the
color of his skin. Had he been a white guy, no one would have paid any
attention to him.
Now
we have a President of sufficient age (born in 1947, just turned 71) to reach
the level of maturity for an Idealist to provide moral leadership. It
takes most Idealists a long time to reach that level, and Donald Trump is no
exception – it is still work in progress, as his Tweet storms testify.
His
speeches, appointments, and executive actions prove he has made marvelous
progress. Thus it is crucial that President Trump complete that progress
as soon as possible – while there is still time for Generation Snowflake to
grow up and become Civics.
Here’s
a thought experiment. In the 1930s when the GI Generation was the same
age as Millennials are now (born 1900-1924), we had the Great Depression blamed
on capitalism, rampant sympathy for the Soviet Union, and Marxist
intelligentsia dominating cultural and political discourse.
In
those circumstances, it would have been all too easy for American youth to
rebel against any form of patriotism towards their country. Suppose they
had?
Suppose
their reaction to Pearl Harbor had been to ask, “Why do the Japanese hate
us? What have we done so wrong to deserve this? Why should we die
on some remote Pacific island that means nothing to us because we made the
Japanese hate us?”
Instead,
they rose to the challenge to become the most heroic generation American has
ever had since the Revolutionary War – for both the Revolution and World War II
was fought and won by Civic soldiers.
Today,
we are at such a turning point in the history of our country. America
faces an enemy just as evil and just as determined to destroy us as the
Japanese of Tojo or the Nazis of Hitler. Even more dangerous, in fact,
for the enemy is not external on foreign shores, but is within and among us,
inside the gates.
That
enemy is the Nazi
Left – fellow Americans so deranged with hate they fantasize about killing
the President of the United States via staged mock assassinations of him,
fantasize about killing all Republicans in Congress as they state in twitters
supporting a Nazi Leftie’s attempt on Steve Scalise, and yes, fantasize about
killing all whites – for Whites are the New Jews to the Nazi Left.
In
poll after poll, a majority of Millennials bear a distinct animus towards
President Trump, more so than other generations. Yet if he could
transform Generation Snowflake into a true patriotic pro-American genuinely
Civic Generation, confident and optimistic about their future and that of their
country – instead of fearfully needing safe spaces from reality – Trump could
save America from the crisis it now faces.
How
could he do this? Branding. Let’s unpack that.
Millennials
are into brands more than Xers or Boomers. Xers focus more on
practicality, Boomers more on quality and value. Millennials are into
what’s popular, they buy the brand of the most popular product, they
need to feel emotionally connected to a brand in a way that Xers
and Boomers don’t.
These
are the results of The
Generational Perspective Study recently conducted (March 2017) by Alliance
Data’s Analytics and Insights Institute.
Now,
who do you suppose made his fortune of billions of dollars by branding his
name? Donald Trump is a proven genius at branding.
Now
he faces the greatest branding challenge of his life – and his country’s life
depends on it. He has got to make himself, his presidency, and his
country cool to Millennials.
If
you are for Trump and what he’s doing for the country – more and better jobs,
more prosperity, more freedom, more responsibility – you are cool, you
are a winner.
If
you are against Trump and want the opposite – lousy or no jobs, more poverty,
less freedom, more dependency on government – you are uncool, you are a loser.
If
you have the brains to understand that the Fake News Media, the Democrats, and
the Deep State Bureaucracy have invented this Trump-Russia-Collusion Hoax with
no evidence whatever as a pure scam to destroy his presidency, then you are intelligent.
If
you actually believe the Fake News Media inventions and lies, then you are stupid,
a brainless 2-digit-IQ twit.
How
does Trump achieve this – what specific techniques and tactics would he have
his people employ? Beats me. He’s the branding guru, not me.
He’s spent his lifetime at it, made billions doing it, not me.
All
I know is that Trump must do it, and that he can do it.
I
also know Steve Bannon is a devotee of Strauss & Howe’s generational model.
In
2010, Bannon wrote and directed a documentary film, Generation Zero,
as an explanation of the 2008 financial crisis according to the Strauss &
Howe generational theory. Bannon places the blame for the crisis on the
Boomers of the 60s.
What
Bannon, now the President’s Chief Advisor in the White House, needs to focus on
today is the opportunity his now-matured Boomer Boss has to convert Millennials
from Generation Snowflake into the Next Great Generation that can save America.
The
President has a head start – 37%
of Millennials voted for him (the same percentage as voted for Romney in
2012). There are millions of Millennials who are not Snowflakes,
who love their country, admire their president, and yearn for a moral revival
in our culture.
There
was a chance for a moral revival with Ronald Reagan – but it was too early. It
was the wrong generational setup in the 80s, Boomers still too immature and too
much Xer cynicism to overcome. We had to wait for the next great Civic
generation to emerge.
It
is still in emergence – but nonetheless, we have the right generational setup
now. Let us pray that Providence will guide our President into optimizing
the opportunity history is giving him.