I consider my Grandfather, born in 1923, to be between the Hero and Artist archetypes. Before he passed away, he wrote a book about the first 18 years of his life. In it, there are lots of excellent stories about meeting my Grandmother for the first time, surviving the Great Depression, and because it was Nebraska, surviving the Dust Bowl. He experienced the full brunt of "the storm" as a child old enough to understand to some extent what was going on, but too young to be able to make decisions that might have helped the family.
One of the stories he talked about was how after the drought ended, there were heavy rains in Colorado. This caused huge flooding, including the bursting of a dam, upstream from his hometown in southern Nebraska. Afterwards, the moist and silt-covered land became very fertile. As farmers planted crops, a new pestilence came upon them: locusts (or at least that was what my Grandfather called them).
In his book, he describes a scene where the sky suddenly turned black off to the west and the tornado sirens started their song. As usual, everyone ran inside to take cover. But instead of a rainstorm, it was a swarm of locusts! He described how he could not see across the street for several hours as what appeared to be millions of locusts swarmed throughout the town and destroyed most plant life. After a while, they moved on as quickly as they appeared. But the farmers who had survived the Dust Bowl and spent their last savings planting a new crop on the now moist soil were devastated by the swarm. They shook their fists at the angry gods who had done them in, as they were now bankrupt, destitute, and homeless. The Principle of Maximum Ruin at work.
When I read that scene, I thought about whether something like that could happen today. My gut told me that this is something that would happen in a crisis era, although I could not say why. Unlike John, I am religious, and I am led to believe that a story of Biblical proportions like his must have Biblical underpinnings. My Grandfather said that many at the time thought that the end of the world was at hand because it was of Biblical proportions. Obviously, that was not the case.
Or was it? Is it possible that each crisis period somehow leads rise to these type of events that cannot be fathomed during any other period? If so, America must have done something right in the 1930's and 1940's to overcome to fate the world was tumbling towards. Multiple universe theory suggests there exists many universes where we did not overcome, perhaps where humanity itself ended, during each crisis stage in history. A religious person could say it is a punishment from God. I would argue a somewhat religious, somewhat scientific viewpoint that it is society's actions for the 10 years prior to that event that led it away from God and made them vulnerable to such an event. Many could say the same today with all the bickering in our government. A good example is talk about the appropriateness of "In God We Trust"--this will either either anger God -or- diverted our attention from the real problems facing us, like Nero fiddling while Rome burned. Either outcome is not pleasant.
Well, I think this question is very pertinent today as I stumbled upon this link:
http://www.businessinsider.com/mayfly-cloud-2010-6
Is this history repeating itself? We have technology now that my Grandfather didn't so we can watch this stuff as it takes shape. Like weeds in a garden, it cries out for immediate attention lest the "dark forces" (for lack of a better term) multiply, take root, and start to swarm. In normal times, we would provide that type of attention. But now we are in a crisis period, seemingly incapable of solving any problems. At a time that we can't fix the oil spill in Gulf of Mexico, spilling red-color sludge into our ocean's waters (again, looks like Biblical proportions), do we think we still have the acumen to address this swarm? I hope so, but current evidence points to "no".
What is most fascinating about Generational Dynamics is that we are not only learning that history repeats itself, but we are learning _why_ history repeats itself. Of course, the sad part is, there's nothing anyone can do to stop the bad ship that has already sailed. Sure, we may beat the Mayflies and oil spill this year, but next year will be something even worse. Eventually, the dam will burst despite our best efforts, and that will intensify the bickering and finger-pointing--making us even more paralyzed.
As John says, the only thing we can do is to prepare. Reading books like my Grandfather's seems like a very pertinent road map to what this country may face in the next 10-15 years. John is good at pointing out the blips on the radar that are heading towards us, and many storm clouds starting brewing in May. May God help us all!