Shadow

On a cold rainy November day, my thoughts are turning to Highlander. Not really sure why.

Which is why I'm going to take a post to talk about The Shadow.

I saw this Alec Baldwin superhero feature in the theater, and wanted to like it much more than I did. The reasons I had at the time appear clearer now, and more succinctly described: it's a Redemption story that's instead portrayed as a Hero story. Everything about the protagonist - the timing of the story, his more practical than moral methods, especially his unsavory origin - points to a Reactive character. These usually work best in redemptive plots, where the previous evil (original sin?) is overcome. While there are hints that this was considered, the story ends up more about how he Saves The World. Even there, though, he does it without any real sacrifice. In fact we might say that it's more of a Prophet story, where he succeeds through sheer moral superiority. In any case, it's a muddied resolution: too Bad at the start to just Be Good at the end, not bad enough to be Redeemed, not enough sacrifice to be Heroic.

I remember thinking at the time that it would have worked with a Highlander-like treatment of flashbacks to his earlier life, and his struggle to contain it - that the point is that The Shadow really does know the evil that lurks in the hearts of men. Found out later that - go figure - Mulcahy directed both. Ah, well.

Obama

At first, I didnt see Obama's re-election as having a lot of generational or Crisis overtones. Sure, there was plenty of "the most important election of our lives" rhetoric, and a surprising amount if allusion to 1776 and 1860. There's nothing as controversial as slavery or revolution being brought up - and then I realized that was probably the Republicans' mistake. Romney appeared to be - at best - a return to the Bush years. Whether you consider that to mean "when America was great" or "the same old failed policies" it wasn't enough to get a Crisis-era electorate enthused. Going in a more controversial direction - yes, like Ron Paul - might have enabled a redirection of energies from across the political spectrum. And that is what the Crisis is about, after all.

1492

I started work on a way to better comprehend history, using generational cycles to memorize significant dates. One of the first dates I came up with was 1492 - although not for the reason you're probably thinking. A good one for Columbus Day, still.

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1492 - Crisis - The End of the Reconquista

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In the south of Spain, the beautiful palace known as Al Hambra ("The Red One," short for Calat Al Hambra, "The Red Fortress") is a pinnacle of the spread of Islam.  The religion began about 900 years before our historical journey, inspired by the One True God of whom Mohammed spoke. It spread across thousands of miles, east past India, west across the top of Africa and into the Iberian Peninsula, but  was destined to go no further in this direction. The peak was in 718, when Islam controlled all of the peninsula (what is now Spain and Portugal),  and even areas of what is now France (and was then Francia or the Frankish Empire). 

The Reconquista ("Reconquest") was the period during which the Iberian Peninsula moved from Islam to Christian hands. The Crusades were unable to stop the advance north through the Holy Land, but the shorter supply lines in Europe eventually - over hundreds of  years - stopped, then helped push back, the Moorish invaders.   By 1130, half of the peninsula was in the hands of  Christian rulers, and they continued to push Islam out.

 In April 1491, King Ferdinand of Aragon (with the support of his wife Queen Isabella of Castile) attacked Islam's final outpost in Grenada. His battles with the remains of Islam in the peninsula had started 10 years earlier. In December 1481,  Muslims had attacked and subjugated the Castilian outpost of Zahara. The two sides were technically under a truce, although a Castilian raid may have instigated the attack. The resulting outrage gave sufficient support for a series of campaigns (the Granada War) that eventually left no part of Europe under Muslim control.

On January 2, 1492, Al Hambra was the location for the final surrender of Grenada to Ferdinand and Isabella. Among those attending was a merchant from Italy who was planning an exploratory sea voyage to the west. It is probably no coincidence that Ferdinand and Isabella were willing to give the merchant the financing he sought.  With a goodly treasury and a sense of triumph, they may have considered the route to the Indies a relatively easy goal. In any case, Christopher Columbus would set off on his voyage five months later.

Agreeing

There are a number of possibilities for what happens at the peak of this Crisis - a subject I intend to come back to. The last week, though, suggests that it could be what I call "The Last Crusade," a war against Islam. Whether the Mohammed parody was the actual impetus or an effective cover, I see comments from left and right - professional bloggers and Facebook friends - indicating that many folks consider the current state unsustainable.

I won't try to predict what the implications of this potential peak would be, much less the effective outcome. It's simply a possibility that fits well with what has gone before. And which seems more likely at this moment because of the universality of sentiment.

Perhaps that is a sign of the Crisis: when people start to agree on the action, even though they might disagree on the reason.

Caution

I perhaps get too much of my material from Mystery Science Theater 3000. Still, the collection of older movies watched collectively in the 3rd and 4th Turnings yields interesting context and comparisons. One surprising revelation came watching "Hired!," a training short for car salesmen.

The newly hired young Chevrolet salesperson trying to put together lead lists is reminiscent of other Grey Flannel Suit men from the 1T. He is having some trouble getting sales, mostly attributed to insufficient training from his boss. The state of the economy isn't mentioned, which is surprising because it's not from the First Turning: It was released in 1940. The Great Depression is just barely over (people might not even realize it), Germany has just marched into Poland, and the Battle of Britain is ongoing. The economy has nonetheless recovered to the point where people are back to selling cars, hiring new salesmen, and training them and their bosses.

(The generational breakdown, though, is right in line with late 4T. The boss is a Reactive griping about the young Civic who is unable to sell effectively. Complaining to his father (evidently a Missionary (Prophet)), gets him an earful about the training his mentor gave him. The advice turns out to be appropriate to today's Xers and Millennials, too.)

The Crisis happens different ways in different places, and at different times. Just as it was hard to say when it started, we should expect the end to be hard to see as well. Watch out when you think we are done. The really hard part might still be ahead of us.

11

This is less the 11th anniversary of 9/11, than the 10th anniversary of one year later.

Every day between that Tuesday and one year later, we expected that the follow up was coming. Surely Al Qaeda hadn't put all this effort into a single day - certainly, another one must be on the way? And there was the occasional possibility - Flight 587, the anthrax attacks, the Beltway sniper. None were as horrific, as terrible, as we expected. The entry into war in Afghanistan was mild enough, for most Americans, and so it went for that whole year.

When the one-year anniversary happened, it was like crossing a finish line. There were commemorations, retrospectives, but mostly a chance to put an endpoint on what had happened. And here we are again, with a chance to move forward. One that, maybe, we will accept.

Singles

In this Saeculum we've gone from single pop songs in the 50s, to huge rock operas taking 4 vinyl sides, then back around to single digital tunes. Maybe the 4T is just too much to keep track of bigger chunks of music.

Hmm... "Fanfare for the Common Man," which is pretty close to a "single" in classical music (right down to its 3-minute length) was composed by Copland in 1942, in the middle of the war.

Then again, maybe it's that the 2T is the only time with ideas big enough to support that much unified and organized music. Was the Ring cycle done during the Progressive era? I think it might have been. If so, we can expect that singles will be the way music is consumed for another 40 years, at which time someone will figure out a way to package digital music into a form that requires an hour of steady listening.