Understanding Fourth Turning generational cycles reveals why your life feels like constant upheaval—you’re living through society’s crisis phase and the messy transition between what was and what’s next. I’ve been grinding 70-hour weeks for years. It’s hard building for a future I might not fully see, while watching the world fall apart as everyone screams about conspiracies, elites, and the end of everything.
And tonight, in the middle of processing an anime plot twist that pissed me off, I stumbled into something bigger.
What if my entire life—your entire life—has been one long societal transition?
Not a breakdown or even the end times, but rather the messy middle between what was and what’s next.
Let me show you what I mean.
Fourth Turning Generational Cycles: The Pattern We’re Living Through
Every 80-100 years, society goes through a massive transition. The Fourth Turning generational cycles explain this pattern perfectly.
~1770s-1820s: Agricultural → Early Industrial (steam engines, revolutions, upheaval)
~1870s-1920s: Industrial Revolution peak (railroads, electricity, factories, labor unrest, World Wars)
~1970s-2020s: Information Age (computers, internet, globalization, and now AI/automation)
We’re in the Fourth Turning right now—the crisis phase. The part where the old system collapses, and a new one gets built.
If you were born between 1965-2000, you grew up in the OLD system (stable jobs, clear paths, institutional trust), and you’re living through the COLLAPSE (jobs disappearing, institutions failing, chaos everywhere).
You won’t fully see the NEW system stabilize.
The people born in 1850 (farmers) died before the industrial system stabilized. Similarly, the people born in 2020 will grow up in whatever comes next.
But YOU are navigating the wilderness. Building the bridge only so others can cross.
Why This Feels So Heavy
Each generation, according to Fourth Turning theory, has different responsibilities.
The Greatest Generation (born ~1900-1925):
This generation grew up in the Depression, fought WWII, rebuilt the world. They unarguably had it the hardest.
Silent Generation (born ~1925-1945):
This generation grew up during WWII/post-war and benefited from stability their parents built. They were conformist and institutional.
Boomers (born ~1945-1965):
THIS GENERATION grew up in prosperity, and social media KNOWS IT! They had it easiest economically. Peak comfort, they enjoyed the infrastructure built by The Greatest Generation and Solidified and Institutionalized by the Silent Generation. These guys and girls got to reap what their parents sowed.
Gen X (born ~1965-1980):
These lost souls grew up in the Unraveling, they didn’t start it, but they shouldered it. Their parents were so busy enjoying the fruits of their grandparents’ labor that; Cynicism, divorce, latchkey kids, became the mottos of this generation. For all their struggles they got to watch institutions weaken. The parents of these children were so busy enjoying their lives in self focus, this generation inherited the nickname, The forgotten generation.
Millennials (born ~1980-1995):
Hit adulthood during the 2008 crisis. You could accurately say this generation saw and possibly even started the collapse. Altruistically or maliciously, you can decide, but regardless this generation spoke loudly about issues like student debt, the housing market collapse, being forced to live in a gig economy.
Gen Z (born ~1995-2010):
The cycle repeats itself; these poor guys and girls ARE growing up IN the crisis. They never got to see or even hear first-hand stories of what once was, but they will be the ones who rebuild, with their own flavor and in my opinion we should all shut up and let these folks do their job. While the rest of us played our role, these kids are bearing all the responsibility. They are the new Greatest Generation. So, if you are a Gen Xer, or Early Millennial and you remember listening, with reverence, to your grandfather talking about the trials and tribulations of war; or your grandmother talking about working two jobs raising a family before she could afford her education to start a career (modern feminists… These were you unknown heroes), this generation of kids will be doing the same work.
Gen Alpha (born ~2010-2025):
Will grow up in the NEW system after it stabilizes and will benefit from what Gen Z builds. The cycle repeats itself and this is important, because Alphas will be raised by Gen Xers and Millennials, mostly and this means our jobs as the destroyers of the system may be over, but now our job has become bridge builders. See we have a particularly strange burden to bear, because while most of Gen Z confuses us for Boomers, we have the light to prevent the Alphas from glutinously overindulging on the fruits of Gen Z’s labor. We aren’t the Boomers, but rather a hedge against Boomer 2s.
If you’re Gen X, Millennial, or older Gen Z, you got the worst hand. I personally think it’s proper to pause for a moment and realize exactly how “all in this together” we really are, because if you’re in one of these generations… You’re carrying the weight of the transition with no clear map.
And it’s okay to feel sorry for yourself about that.
The Spiritual Question about Fourth Turning Generational Cycles
So I asked myself: Why does this keep happening?
Patterns keep repeating every 100 years, and we forget the lessons, or have to relearn them? On the other hand, why does it feel like some people just “know” things without being taught?
The only answer that makes sense to me: Reincarnation.
Not the “we all become one…” version. But this:
We cycle through DIFFERENT roles across lifetimes until we’ve experienced ALL of them.
Maybe you were the oppressor in one lifetime and in this one you are the oppressed. Perhaps you were once the destroyer and next time you’ll be the builder. I don’t believe this situation is complicated, but it’s certainly deep when you think of the infinite possibilities, because it is TRULY scalable to any dynamic you decide to subscribe to… Personality type, religion, gender, race, ethnicity, or culture.
You experience EVERY perspective and every part of every system. Until then, you can’t truly understand the WHOLE. Of course, this would be nuanced based off of your belief of collective consciousness and reincarnation itself, but for me… This is the answer.
That’s not merging into oneness but rather COMPLETING the picture.
If that’s true, then your life isn’t random, but rather has purpose. You’re even playing a specific role THIS time, while learning a specific lesson.
Who Have I Possibly Been Before?
This led me down a rabbit hole tonight.
I wanted to know: Who from history thought like I do?
So, based on my discussions, beliefs and thought patterns, I used AI to search through quotes from great thinkers of the past, and cross-reference what it found matched my traits against actual knowledge (known facts and phrases) of these figures to determine accuracy and known or projected personality type. I didn’t do this to boost my ego, but rather to understand.
Here’s who came back:
Marcus Aurelius (Stoic Emperor, 121-180 AD) – Accept what you can’t control. Focus on what you can. Do your duty despite the chaos. INFJ personality type.
Heraclitus (Greek Philosopher, ~500 BC) – Everything flows. Patterns repeat. Unity of opposites. Change is the only constant.
Ecclesiastes (Biblical Wisdom, ~300 BC) – “What has been, will be again; there is nothing new under the sun.” Cycles repeat. There’s a time for everything.
Carl Jung (Psychologist, 1875-1961) – Shadow work. Individuation. Collective unconscious. Integration of opposites. Likely INTJ/INFJ.
Viktor Frankl (Psychiatrist, 1905-1997) – Meaning comes from suffering. You can’t control circumstances, only your response. INFJ personality type.
Søren Kierkegaard (Philosopher, 1813-1855) – Existential anxiety. Leap of faith. Individual truth. Paradox of faith. INFJ personality type.
All of them saw patterns. All of them lived through transitions, and all of them wrestled with the same questions I’m wrestling with now, and most of them were INFJs, just like me.
Fourth Turning Generational Cycles: What Role Are You Playing?
For me, I think I’m learning:
- How to BUILD without CONTROLLING
- How to HELP without SAVING
- How to SEE the system without being TRAPPED by it
I’m the bridge-builder in the wilderness. Not the hero or the savior, but rather, just the guy doing the hard work so the next generation can cross.
Hopefully that’s enough.
The Real Work: Self-Introspection
Here’s what I realized tonight:
I don’t want more people in my life who can’t be self-introspective.
The people I want in my life:
- Question their own thinking
- Recognize their patterns
- See their projections
- Do the work
Because that’s the only way forward.
Not through conspiracy theories, echo chambers, and especially not through blind faith in systems or leaders.
But rather through thinking about how you think. That’s what Marcus Aurelius, Jung, and Frankl did. They turned inward, examined themselves and asked the hard questions.
And that’s what I’m demanding from myself and from you.
What role are YOU playing this lifetime?
What lesson are you here to learn?
What patterns keep repeating in your life—and why?
If you’re reading this and feeling the weight of the transition, here’s what I want you to know:
You’re not broken or failing, but you are living through the hardest part.
The part where the old system is dying, and the new one hasn’t been built yet.
Your job isn’t to see the promised land. Instead, it’s to survive the wilderness, and help others do the same.
That is enough, actually.
And if you can figure out what ROLE you’re playing this lifetime and what lesson you’re here to learn… you’ll stop fighting the chaos and start using it.
Because chaos isn’t the enemy.
It’s the transition.
And transitions are where everything changes.
Understanding Fourth Turning Generational Cycles: Final Thought
I don’t know if reincarnation is real, if the Fourth Turning will play out exactly as predicted, or if I’ll ever see the payoff for all this grinding.
But I know this:
Patterns repeat. Roles cycle. And the only way to understand the whole system is to experience every part of it.
So maybe your life isn’t a mistake.
Maybe it’s just your turn to carry the weight.
And maybe that’s exactly what you signed up for.
Stay sharp. Stay skeptical. And remember: the bridge-builders never see the other side. But without them, no one crosses.
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