Pickles and parenting styles
It runs through my body like a bolt of lightning. I’ve experienced exactly the same situation before — a classic déjà vu. I’m sitting on a park bench, little clouds quickly pass by in the sky, and the rhythm of a new Spotify playlist surrounds me as I observe my surroundings.
That’s the funny thing about déjà vu, it feels so familiar and it makes you wonder. Has this happened to me before, or was it fate that I’m sitting right here, in these exact circumstances and at this specific moment in time, and the great universe wanted to give me a little mental nudge to show me that I’m on the right track?
Rationally, I pretty much always buy extra sausage sandwiches for snack. I listen to new playlists more often, and as often as time or weather permits, I sit on a park bench. Taking these circumstances into account, it is very likely that there was a situation in the past that is 95% the same as this one now. So what is different this time?
After all, it applies to all the great and small stories of our humanity. A very good book I have read on this subject is called “The Fourth Turning” -what the cycles of history tell us about the fate of the United States. In this tome, Strauss and Howe tell us about generational theory.
This distinguishes 4 different generation types, which always develop in this order one after the other: the prophets, the nomads, the heroes and then the acrobats, before everything begins again from the beginning. Already the philosopher Homer or the Old Testament have described similar cycles.
This generation arises from the always same education styles as well as external influences like crises, which were mostly brought about by the previous generations. Therefore, we will not escape this cycle so quickly and it is helpful to know where we are and where we are going.
The most important thing is the parenting style, which is as follows:
Prophets, Boomers yrs 1956–65, are tight,
Nomads, Generation X yrs. 66–80, are overprotective
Heroes, Millenials born 81–95, are relaxed
Acrobats, Generation Z yrs. 96–2009, are underprotective
Considering the data, which is very well broken down to the 14th century, we are at the beginning of the 4 Turn, the Crisis. This started with the 2008 financial crisis and the expected peak is set at 2025, although Corona has probably accelerated that a bit.
Now I know what’s different this time. The pickles were not placed between the extra sausage but on top of it, making the top of the bun slightly soggy. We will learn from this, grow, forget some of what we have learned, lose ourselves in the madness and chaos, then sort it out again and with a little luck we will emerge from this cycle a little smarter.
