	Generational Dynamics
	Forecasting America's Destiny ... and the World's

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 22-Mar-06
The Congressional calendar this year is just 97 days

Web Log - March, 2006

The Congressional calendar this year is just 97 days

It's the shortest Congressional calendar in 60 years, according to a report on CNN.

In weeks that they're in town at all, they're only in from Tuesday night through Thursday.

But most weeks they're not in Washington at all. They take 2-3 weeks off for any holiday - President's day, Saint Patrick's day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, and so forth.

In January they were in session just one day -- for the State of the Union address. And in August, they're not in session at all.

This all ties in with the theme I've been exploring: The countries around the world that fought in World War II are now almost in a state of paralysis, now that the generations of heroes who fought in that war are almost completely gone.

Last week I described the ideological paralysis in China's People's National Congress.

Before that, I described how Israel is becoming increasingly dysfunctional. France rejected the proposed EU constitution on a generational vote.

In America, personal savings have plummeted to Great Depression levels, and public debt is growing exponentially, but all that the Washington politicians can do is call each other names.

This actually isn't surprising, according to Generational Dynamics principles. The problem is that the people in charge today are from the Baby Boomer generation, born after World War II. They because adults in the 60s and 70s where they achieved their greatest glories by winning political battles against their war hero parents. Meanwhile, their war hero parents took care of things, made sure that the country was safe and solvent.

Now the Boomers are in charge, and they never developed the skills to actually do anything, except to complain what other people do. Since the same thing is happening in all countries that fought in WW II, the same sort of paralysis setting in in all these countries.

Conflict risk level for next 6-12 months as of: 9-Feb-2006

W. Europe 1 Arab Israeli 3

Russia Caucasus 2 Kashmir 2

China 2 North Korea 2

Financial 3 Bird flu 3

Key: 1=green 1=Low risk 2=yellow 2=Med 3=red 3=High 4=black 4=Active

This paralysis won't last forever, of course. Sooner or later one of these crises will occur, and then everything will start to change very, very quickly.

In the meantime, that's why the Congressional calendar is only 97 days long this year. If all you're going to do is call each names, what's the point of sticking around? (22-Mar-06) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 22-Mar-06 The Congressional calendar this year is just 97 days

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 22-Mar-06
The Congressional calendar this year is just 97 days