Prophecies

The subtitle of The Fourth Turning is "An American Prophecy," and of course both Strauss and Howe are Boomers, the current Prophet generation. Part of their Prophecy is that a great and deadly War (Crisis) is coming soon, One That Will Remake the World. (And which, go figure, will be followed by a new Golden Age (High), which is what any good Prophecy should also have.)

Unlike other prophets, they do let us see behind the curtain to know how it is done. That we all can understand the future and the past better, now, is their greater gift. It's still amusing - and reassuring - that their theory of history predicts that, as Boomers/Prophets, their vision of the future would be apocalyptic - that is, they are exactly the people who would see history in the way that they do.

Gatsby

My concern about the new Gatsby movie is that it's going to be treated like a lament of the excesses of the 1920s, as if Fitzgerald knew about the Crash and isn't it clear that this was going to happen? The book came out in 1925, four years before Black
Monday, so it was popular even when most investors (including the public) were expecting the party to continue indefinitely.

As a Reactive - like Gatsby and Nick and Fitzgerald - I see "The Great Gatsby" as symbolic of aspiration, of trying your best and beyond, of wanting to be more. It's a tragedy that he fails, not that he tries.

And he doesn't fail because he's bad - no shock, that, him being a Reactive and all - but because he's taking on Society. Some positive aspects of society oppose him: Daisy is married with a child and it's Not Okay - but it's the negative that gets in his way and ultimately kills him. It's the upper-class jerk Daisy is married to who's seeing the lady and leads people to think Gatsby was driving, and who is unapologetic about the lie and its consequences.