If you are struggling to keep up, you got a break this week with the chapter only a couple of pages long. My feeling is just because it is short that doesn’t make it clear. In fact, I am really grooving on the book and the theory but this chapter makes no sense at all. Even the definitions seem to have conflicting opinions about the meaning.

Chapter five is all about the Gray Champion. The origin of the name comes from a short story written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1835. The story takes place in colonial Boston (1689) and is about a much disliked Governor Andros. The Gray Champion is an unknown, unnamed character that stands up to Andros and his troops as well as warns the rest of the people about the ills of letting Andros proceed.

Strauss and Howe tend to take a more recent view of the Gray Champion. That is a person that stands up to the status quo. In the story, he represented the Puritan ideals which were directly opposed by the British monarchy and the colonial system. Theoretically, the Gray Champion would re-appear whenever Puritan values were threatened. Strauss and Howe specifically mention Paul Revere and John Brown as an examples of that. The Gray Champion is the harbinger of the forthcoming crisis.

A more common interpretation of the Gray Champion is an individual that leads through crisis. Names that we would all recognize are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and F. D. Roosevelt. What is important about this version is that these are all individuals that are not born of the Hero generation but lead the Heros through the Crisis.

I didn’t find out the second definition until I was researching the Gray Champion to write this. That definition seems to make more sense in terms of the overall theory because I cannot fathom as to why a Gray Champion would be required to initiate a crisis. But if I really try, maybe I can take a stab at it like the difference between WWI and WWII.

Make no mistake, both were horrific events. The reason WWII was the crisis and not WWI is several fold. The first being WWI created WWII by the settlement that was reached and the punitive restrictions placed on Germany as a result of the war. The second being is that WWI sort of happened. It was Rube Goldberg of assassination and alliances that set the war into motion. As a result, there was no real warning or concern about a building conflict. It was a war that grew as time went on (much more like an unravelling).

I am not totally sure who the Strauss and Howe Gray Champion is in WWII, but maybe it is Winston Churchill. He was certainly instrumental in holding the line against Germany and dragging the United States into the war. Even with that, I am not clear why a Gray Champion is required if the crisis is unavoidable. Maybe it is more of a coincidence rather than a requirement?

Strauss and Howe stress that a war is not required for a crisis despite the fact that our most significant events and cycles have been bookmarked by such events. It was Howe’s speculation that the crisis might have begun with the 2012 financial crisis. If Howe was right, would that make Ron Paul the Gray Champion? Also, if that were true, how are the Millennials (Heros) fixing it? We will have to wait another 7-10 years to find out I guess.

Under the more common definition, I was reading that Trump might be considered the Gray Champion. I definitely see him as determined and visionary using strong arm tactics just like Lincoln and FDR. I personally do not want to give him that title but somebody is going to get it and it would actually fit right under Howe’s opinion of the crisis dates. By that token, we are there and he is the leader and what Trump is doing seems to have effect.

Just like I wrote about last week, even though Gen X is in the fall season and should be generally in power, the fact that the Baby Boomers are the stronger generation makes Trump an exceptional character. He is not of the Millennial generation but leading through crisis. The same would be true with Gen X in charge but the point is that everything fits the theory perfectly.

End Your Programming Routine: Yeah, so I don’t totally get it. I guess that I get what the Gray Champion does but I don’t get why it has to be. It makes me wonder who that figure actually is. It also makes me want to keep an eye open for that person. The most logical person would probably look like a conspiracy theorist, dismissed and discredited by the status quo. As always you have to end your programming and keep looking at the evidence if you want to be ready for the crisis.