This chapter is about preparing for the fourth turning. Remember this book was written mid-unravelling. Given that we have not clearly seen the fourth turning, it still may be useful to prepare. Despite the preparation focus, there is some real gold in this chapter.

The one thing that hit me hard in this chapter is that post season behavior is not appropriate in the current season. It doesn’t work and is not effective. The book makes a point to talk about the public perception and reality of Chappaquiddick. In my book it is never appropriate to drunk drive your car into the river, kill your baby sitter fling and still be a US senator for 40 more years.

Because the times were different, drinking and driving didn’t have the same stigma. Many rich an powerful people had affairs. Besides, he was a Kennedy and he was sorry and it was an accident. As a result, he got a pass and didn’t lose his political career. By contrast, think about Monica Lewinsky.

By all accounts, I would say that she was a victim and yet I think that she is still a social pariah. Don’t get me wrong, I am not rooting for another leftest but I do believe that Clinton should have paid more consequences than he did and she should have bourn a fainter scarlet letter. The point being is that both sides had a say and that they both paid consequences as a result of the whole fiasco. Inappropriate action for the Unravelling that was acceptable during the high (JFK/Monroe).

Most of what the chapter was about was how to prepare for the fourth turning in the third (as the book was written). Even that was broken into two sections. The first was what the country could do. Examples that came from the book were things such as roll with the seasons, shore up defenses for coming trouble and don’t make unbinding commitments. The second was what you can personally do. From that section: focus on your network and locally and brace for collapse of traditional systems.

One thing that is particularly troubling was one of the preparing suggestions. That is prepare children for their role as the hero and to take their rightful role in the saeculum. The book makes the point that prior to World War II (the last fourth turning) government was shoring up debt and simplifying things. As a result, when the Heros went into the war, all they had to focus on was winning.

If we were to accept the premise that Millennials are the next Heros, the country has done no such thing. For instance, Social Security is significantly upside down. If we were trying to simplify, some sort of strategy to close it out (or catch up) would be in place. The reason that this is troubling is that either we are not preparing to leave the fourth turning successfully with the same momentum as post World War II or this is going to be a bloody mess. The only other possibility is that this turning is going to break the typical timeline and Gen Z or Gen Alpha is going to be the hero generation.

None of this should actually be surprising given that the Boomers are still running the country. They are the ‘Me’ generation after all. Another aspect to this is that the return to natural order needs to be made. This means that to elevate the child, they have to go from the poorest generation to the richest. By the same token, the eldest generation (which should be the Boomers now) need to move from the richest generation to the poorest, allowing Gen-X to be in charge.

If the fourth turning actually goes to cycle timing, then it is my prediction that America is in decline. We have failed to navigate the cycles successfully to continue to thrive both in the fourth turning and the next first turning. Honestly, I think that it is going to be China’s turn again. We will follow the path of Western Europe, nowhere near what we wore or could have been.

For all of you doubters out there, I have one last swat to take today with political parties. Both parties use linear thinking making them less suitable for ideologues to thrive in the transition. But, even more so than that, this linear thinking makes parties less capable of leading through transition. Make no mistake, I am reasonably sure the parties will survive. Think about this, Democrats were the party of slavery and succession, then they became the party of Jim Crow. Now they are the party of men can have babies and undocumented aliens. From can’t be white enough to can’t be white at all.

End Your Programming Routine: This in an interesting chapter. Even though the timeline says we should be deep into the fourth turning, I just do not see it. If that is true, we still have time to prepare somewhat. What I find more interesting than the preparations is the explanation that old tactics in the new world. I have always thought that we just needed a more or better execution for that to happen. However, after reading this I now see that as times change, we need to adapt according to the season and not the ideology.