Nat Cap Club

Reducing the Destruction of Global Climate Change

And

Understanding Your Generation Type

I show here the similarities between fighting global climate change and World War II.

In order to understand this analogy, understanding Generation Types is real helpful.  It’s partly from the book “Generations: A History of America’s Future, from 1584 to 2069.

WWII and Global Climate Change.

We did not prevent the destruction created in WWII. No corner of the world was spared the destructive impact. There’s no need to list the details here. But it was stopped from spreading. And the healing happened. The degree of healing? It was as much as it. As much as was possible for this time in the history of civilization.

It took awhile for the entire world to get involved. But in the end, they did. WWII was not won along by leaders, college or high school graduates, one sex, nationality, race or etc. It took everyone, from children on up to the elderly. Those who had very little schooling to those with Ph.d’s.

Those in the trenches were from every walk of life. They were called the GI Generation, the Greatest Generation ever.

The same is true for today.

We cannot prevent the destruction of Global Climate Change. Much of it has already happened. Hitler has invaded Poland and France. And so on in Italy and Japan.

Destruction did not end when England made its heroic stand. Nor when the US got involved Full On.

So too today. A step at a time, people & nations are getting more committed. More Full On. More Totally, Dude.

Understanding Generations

Below is just a quick overview and my additions.

In their book Generations, they describe 4-generation types.

It is not perfect, and the authors don’t claim it is. But it should give you some structure in helping to make sense of things.

And thus enable you to better understand and be clearer in your Actions.

Each one about 20 years long, give or take a few years. Each one has distinct trends in the key aspects of their lives – how they were raised, coming of age experiences, etc.

I use the analogy of the seasons.

Two dominant ones, two transition ones. Winter & Summer, Spring & Fall.

(I did not put much thought into the corresponding seasons)

Season	Description	Current	Role	Example
Winter	Civic	GI generation	In the trenches	The GI’s
Spring	Adaptive	Nixon’s “The Silent Generation	Softening of the potential destructiveness of the idealist passions.	Bobby Kennedy Martin Luther King
Summer	Idealistic	Baby Boomer	Moral & Idealistic leaders -	FDR, Churchill
Fall	Reactionary	Gen X’ers	The Generals – the ‘get it done” types. They replied “Nuts!” when asked to surrender.	IKE, Patton, etc

Civics’ come of age during a secular crisis. Global Climate change seems to fit the bill on that one.

Idealists provide the inspiration.

Idealism is a double-edged sword.

It can lead to our greater good, to follow our better Angles of our Nature.

The anti-war, civil rights and a respect and caring for our Earth from the ‘60’s

Or it can lead to extremism that is destructive and intolerant.

Right wing religious zealots over the past 20 years.

Adaptives provide the needed moderation to the Idealists.

I suspect that the loss of Martin Luther King & Bobby Kennedy will be felt the strongest in the healing period that is sure to come.

Reactives.

The Generals of WWII came of age during the wild good times of the Roaring Twenties. A Reactive generation type.

The Gen X’ers came of age during the Dot COM Gold Rush of the 1990’s. Go all out, FULL On, got nothing to loose.

The GI’s were young during the Great Depression. FDR’s ‘Make Work’ programs gave them faith in the value and leadership of government. Then when they were asked to put their lives on the line, they did so with enthusiasm. Part of that willingness must have come from that trust during the rough times.

Twenty Something’s, you are the next Civic generation.

 

The NatCap Club reaches out to you.

And to all Generation types.

To all of you:

No matter how much or how little your education.

Suburbs, city-nice-area, city-not-nice-area, or out in the country.

White, blue or green collar.

Truck drivers, cops, civil servants, janitors, middle managers, union workers and trades people.

Oh yes, and to all political persuasions. Just like in WWII, we needed everyone to make it happen.

=====_+_+_+_+_+_=====

I suppose the Allies could have lost WWII, and we’d still have survived. Not fun. Very, very unpleasant & painful, but we would have.

I haven’t made up my mind if the same is true with today’s secular crisis.

Mitakuye Oyasun!

[translation from Lakota- All My Relations!]

- Bob Oehmen, Wednesday, April 15, 2009