The Latest Generation

Sometimes a lot happens in a single month, as it did in July 1945. Sometimes multiple events happen across time but still on the same date, as with Disneyland in 1955 and the Apollo 11 launch in 1969. Sometimes it's hard to tell how much of each of these is coincidence and how much really makes a difference.

Quick note that I generally did NOT attempt to match up time zones with dates for this episode. I’m using dates as given on the sites listed, expecting that usually it’s going to be in local time, which may or may not represent the same period of time in a simultaneous sense.

Information on Walt Disney and Disneyland is easy enough to find…He was born in December 1901, making him 53 when Disneyland opened in July 1955

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney

http://articles.latimes.com/2005/may/05/news/wk-disney5

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-warcrimes-bosnia/bosnian-croat-war-crimes-convict-dies-after-taking-poison-in-u-n-court-idUSKBN1DT1E7

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoot_Suit_Riots

An image of the surrender aboard the Missouri. At the USAF page, even though the Air Force didn’t exist for another two years….

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196195/japan-surrenders/

Quint’s speech in Jaws. Thursday would have been August 2, which is when they were found again. And the ship was sunk in July, not June.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9S41Kplsbs

U.S. Navy site “Documents Relating to Loss of [USS] Indianapolis 

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/loss-of-uss-indianapolis-ca-35/investigation-and-court-martial/court-martial.html

Pictures of survivors of Indianapolis,  six days since their ship sank, three days after they had been located, one day before Hiroshima.

https://www.history.navy.mil/research/histories/ship-histories/loss-of-uss-indianapolis-ca-35/album-of-survivors.html

Potsdam Conference

https://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/potsdam-confwhe

Fun fact: The distance from Tinian to Japan is roughly the distance from Los Angeles or New York to Kansas.

What the generational model might have to say about the commercial success of Solo: A Star Wars Story, and the extent to which it is (or should have been) a remake of Casablanca.

The IMDB pages for Solo

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3778644/

Star Wars (since retitled A New Hope)

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076759/

And Casablanca

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034583/

Another analysis of why Solo should have emulated Casablanca - no impact on my analysis, incidentally, as I didn't read it until after recording was complete. But it ends up in much the same place and for similar reasons.

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2016/06/the-key-to-the-young-han-solo-movie-casablanca-of-course/

Not-too-subtle references to Han-Shot-First throughout what I'm looking at.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_shot_first

Here’s my original blog post that summarizes my Generational Stories.

http://stories.generationalize.com/2015/12/four-stories.html

And how Han is a Nomad even at the end:

http://stories.generationalize.com/2016/01/the-force-awakens-han.html

You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and blogging at http://stories.generationalize.com

Recent union efforts, such as striking teachers in traditionally conservative states, suggested that it might be worthwhile to look again at previous predictions that union activity might be more common during Crisis periods. 

https://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/11/uber.html

https://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/12/mcdonalds.html

https://crisis.generationalize.com/2014/12/poverty.html

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/01/30/most-americans-see-labor-unions-corporations-favorably/

2017 statistics on union membership

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

Source for older history and peak membership in 1954

https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://en.wikipedia.org/&httpsredir=1&article=1176&context=key_workplace

Rosanne answers the door

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrectdcH81U

That was from 1992, a season 4 episode, “Aliens”

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0688730/

https://abcnews.go.com/US/teachers-frustration-decade-cuts-education-fueling-nationwide-revolt/story?id=54813981

https://abcnews.go.com/US/striking-arizona-teachers-cover-capitol-red/story?id=54826629

https://www.workdayminnesota.org/articles/face-janus-afl-cio-launches-nationwide-ad-campaign-calling-working-people-organize

https://pocan.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/pocan-and-sanders-lead-democrats-in-introducing-workplace-democracy-act

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/05/09/bernie-sanders-has-a-new-plan-to-raise-wages-save-the-unions/

This page on the AFL-CIO site mentions organizing wins, although some of them have since had issues.

https://aflcio.org/formaunion/union-organizing-wins

You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and blogging at http://crisis.generationalize.com

The Fourth Turning is a time when changes occur, when issues are resolved and societal structures reorganized. What reorganizations might possibly happen to the United States government in our current Crisis period?

Some thoughts on public goods in the United States

https://www.citylab.com/equity/2017/04/public-goods-are-an-american-value-but-our-stock-is-declining/523899/?utm_source=SFFB

The John Locke entry on Wikipedia specifies that while he had made his consent of the governed concept known by the Glorious Revolution, nobody took it seriously at that time…but a century later, it was included in the Declaration of Independence.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke#Ideas

Is it England or Great Britain, particularly between 1649 and 1792?

The Acts of Union in 1707 created the United Kingdom. Before that there were separate kingdoms of England and Scotland, even though they shared the same monarch (the Union of Crowns) starting with James I in 1603, which itself was due to the marriage in 1502 of James IV of Scotland to Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII.

BUT James I created the Union Jack, combining the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George in a flag that is still used today by the UK. Evidently it wasn’t in common use until the Interregnum, which is to say that in 1688 there was a shared monarch, using a common flag, but still not actually the same country.

(Makes me wonder if that might have affected the view of the colonists on the feasibility of creating a single nation from many states.)

James I styled himself (in the official meaning of the term) as King of Great Britain i.e. the entire island comprising England, Scotland, and Wales. James II, though, was evidently king of “England and Ireland” and separately James of Scotland

https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/evolutionofparliament/legislativescrutiny/act-of-union-1707/overview/union-of-the-crowns/

You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and blogging at http://crisis.generationalize.com

Where I attempt to respond at too much length to a twitter comment about propaganda in the USSR, and probably have just made it worse, because that’s the nature of online communication. Also, I think they did a pretty good job in only losing diplomatic relations for about 16 years, during most of which the government of the USSR was still a-borning.

Here are some of the tweets:

Tom: https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/975203926965399552

Me: https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/975178087879995392

https://twitter.com/SevaUT/status/975180510287814656

A separate example of how safe it might be to call someone a Trump Voter

https://twitter.com/generationalize/status/978894181509853184

The DPRK has never had diplomatic relations with the United States since its formation in 1948.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korea–United_States_relations

Iranian diplomatic relations were broken off in 1979 and have remained the same since then.

Cuban relations were absent starting in 1961 until 2014

Two weeks after a rampage killer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida killed 17 people, several of the surviving students have been eloquently pushing for stronger gun control. It's inspired a common refrain about how Generation Z is coming of age, ready to make a difference. Allow me to resist this temptation in this simplest possible way: There is no Generation Z.

Listen along to find out more, and how this appears to have more to do with these particular kids, at this particular school, at this particular time, then with whatever generation they comprise.

Atari wave Xers remember the Video Game Crash; Nintendo wave were probably a bit too young

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_crash_of_1983

Currently for sale in Parkland, Florida: https://www.zillow.com/homes/Parkland-FL_rb/

https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/kirklandcitywashington,mountainviewcitycalifornia,beverlyhillscitycalifornia,losangelescitycalifornia,parklandcityflorida/PST045217

Easy comparison of Parkland with other cities around the United States.

http://enr.electionsfl.org/BRO/1642/Precincts/ - Parkland is basiclly the Q040, QO42, and QO45 precincts 

https://www.cnn.com/2013/09/16/us/20-deadliest-mass-shootings-in-u-s-history-fast-facts/index.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Arena_bombing  - in June 2017, this al Qaeda bombing killed 22 and injured more than 500. 

https://twitter.com/CharleneCac/status/966124262254960641  A too-reasonable complaint that Oprah and Clooney didn’t give the same sort of support to Black Lives Matter.

If we accept, as proposed last time, that the problem in the 4th Turning is people angry because of a lack of social structures, what does that imply about what will happen next? What social structures might be built up, and what defines what would be left behind?

Another bit of research about work and corporations, historically.

http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/presentations/timeline/riseind/work/

Part of investigation into the history of jobs and large companies.

https://www.marketplace.org/2014/01/22/business/sears-roebuck-19th-centurys-amazon

Research on the recent history of the American Family

http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2015/12/17/1-the-american-family-today/

You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and blogging at http://crisis.generationalize.com

Finishing off 2017 by looking at people getting angry,  why they might be angry, and what part it may have in the Fourth Turning.

This appears to be the original tweet concerning the party in 2040 (it was reused often):

https://twitter.com/ktrestifo/status/940824076842651649

What the heck, it’s short:

me, getting ready for a dinner party in 2040, sipping champagne while putting on my cartier diamond earrings in front of my vanity: what’d you learn at school today, honey?

my future child: in history we talked about 2017. do you remember it?

me: drops my crystalline wineglass

A pre-Election opinion piece that points out that, yep, people were angry Already.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/calm-down-well-be-fine-no-matter-who-wins/2016/11/04/e5ca3c32-a2d3-11e6-a44d-cc2898cfab06_story.html?utm_term=.0c6c029ed55b

The text of the Infamy or Pearl Harbor speech

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Pearl_Harbor_speech

Guns Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond is about how technology, cities, and geographic luck enabled Western Europeans to overcome other cultures around the world. The example from that book is at the start of chapter 14, From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy, which goes into the change from (generally democratic) bands & tribes to centrally-led chiefdoms and larger organizations.

Some specific polls on the less-religious American populace

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-religious/

You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and blogging at http://crisis.generationalize.com

Looking at Hamlet’s reaction to his father’s ghost by considering some comparable people in the 20th century, Bob Newhart and John F. Kennedy.  

This is a way I’ve considered Prince Hamlet for a while, but I was reminded of it by The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, who mentioned Bob Newhart a couple of times.  And by Kylo Ren, who often seems to be playing Hamlet himself.

Celebrity voices impersonated…Some of how Newhart is described here sounds like he’s passed away. As of release, though, he is still quite alive, 88 years old.

In this construction, Bob Newhart is Hamlet, although at 33 he’s a bit old for the part. How old is a long-standing debate - the Prince’s situation indicates that he is in his late teens, but one of the gravediggers suggests that he is 30. 

For more fun concerning Hamlet’s age and motivations, check out “Hamlet: The Undiscovered Country” by Steve Roth.

Here’s a good article about Bob Newhart’s early career.

https://music.avclub.com/the-surprisingly-subversive-album-that-changed-stand-up-1798238091

As noted there, the “Lincoln” bit was “Lincoln vs. Madison Avenue,” where marketing experts are trying to help the 16th President of the United States work on his message, such as doing focus group testing for the Gettysburg address.

Bob Newhart mentioned that he campaigned for JFK because they were both Catholic:

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/31/entertainment/la-et-mn-clint-eastwood-bob-newhart-rnc

And if you really want to push it, this one references Hamlet as well as JFK

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/2002/10/28/hello-this-is-bob/3de12b83-dc7e-40d5-bb3b-e49b23cbb6ce/?utm_term=.1ce6496e7045

You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and blogging at http://stories.generationalize.com

A look at applying a generational model to storytelling, comparing HBO’s Silicon Valley and Amazon’s Betas, both about software developers in the San Francisco Bay area, and identifying a generational difference between them.

Betas and Silicon Valley on IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3012184/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2575988/

and on Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silicon_Valley_(TV_series)

Here’s my original blog post that summarizes my Generational Stories.

http://stories.generationalize.com/2015/12/four-stories.html

You can find me on Twitter: @generationalize and blogging at http://stories.generationalize.com