Generational Dynamics Forum - New Site

Just for fun, I was wondering if it would be possible to start classifying pairs of great historical people into the 4 generational archetypes determined by their proximity to their most influential crisis war. Why? I am curious to see if certain leadership characteristics will come forward. e.g. What if Julius Ceasar and Napoleon were in the same category, or would we find Napoleon together with Hitler?

What about Adam Smith, Malthus, Rockefeller, Ayn Randt, Greenspan, Bernanke. Are they equally distributed amongst each generation, or do they prefer to belong to one or the other.

I realize we are talking about individuals here, and not groups of people. But perhaps you could argue that it's the dynamic of the group that brings these people to light.

What I am hoping for is that certain leadership skills we intuitively recognize, will start to fall into clear generational archetypes:
- Hero
- Artist
- Prophet
- Nomad

So first we would need to come up with a list of historical figures, the date of birth and the relevant crisis war impacting their lives. If a crisis war takes place within the last 50 years of their lives it's also prudent to mention the crisis war before they are born.

- Francois Mitterand, born 1916 was 28 when WWII crisis ended in 1944
- Ronald Reagon, born 1911 was 33 when WWII crisis ended in 1944
- Abraham Lincoln, born 1809 was 44 when Civil war ended in 1865
- Napoleon Bonaparte, born 1769 was 45 when napoleonic wars ended in 1814
- Henry the Great, born 1553 was 45 when the French Religious was ended in 1598
- Adolf Hitler, born 1889 was 56 when WWII crisis ended in 1945 and was born 18 years after the Franco-German War.

Once this is done, we can assign them in individual archetypes and come up with historical people far broader then Strauss-Howe.

What do you guys think. Interesting?

Sincerely,

Robert.
PS: I almost feel that such a classification could be made easy with a wiki.

That is interesting. I recall that Howe and Strauss did that to some degree http://www.booknotes.org/Watch/17548-1/ ... rauss.aspx though I've not seen an extensive study. If you create such a document and post your results here, I suspect that you will get a lot of input.

Lincoln and Hitler would both belong to the Nomad generation. Reagan, Mitterand, and Napoleon are heroes and Henry the Great would be an artist.

Note: although violence continued until 1598, the crisis part of the war ended in 1572, with the climax being the St. Bartholomew's massacre.

rolivier79 wrote:Just for fun, I was wondering if it would be possible to start classifying pairs of great historical people into the 4 generational archetypes determined by their proximity to their most influential crisis war. Why? I am curious to see if certain leadership characteristics will come forward. e.g. What if Julius Ceasar and Napoleon were in the same category, or would we find Napoleon together with Hitler?

What about Adam Smith, Malthus, Rockefeller, Ayn Randt, Greenspan, Bernanke. Are they equally distributed amongst each generation, or do they prefer to belong to one or the other.

I realize we are talking about individuals here, and not groups of people. But perhaps you could argue that it's the dynamic of the group that brings these people to light.

What I am hoping for is that certain leadership skills we intuitively recognize, will start to fall into clear generational archetypes:
- Hero
- Artist
- Prophet
- Nomad

So first we would need to come up with a list of historical figures, the date of birth and the relevant crisis war impacting their lives. If a crisis war takes place within the last 50 years of their lives it's also prudent to mention the crisis war before they are born.

- Francois Mitterand, born 1916 was 28 when WWII crisis ended in 1944
- Ronald Reagon, born 1911 was 33 when WWII crisis ended in 1944
- Abraham Lincoln, born 1809 was 44 when Civil war ended in 1865
- Napoleon Bonaparte, born 1769 was 45 when napoleonic wars ended in 1814
- Henry the Great, born 1553 was 45 when the French Religious was ended in 1598
- Adolf Hitler, born 1889 was 56 when WWII crisis ended in 1945 and was born 18 years after the Franco-German War.

Once this is done, we can assign them in individual archetypes and come up with historical people far broader then Strauss-Howe.

What do you guys think. Interesting?

Sincerely,

Robert.
PS: I almost feel that such a classification could be made easy with a wiki.

While I find such classification very interesting I don't feel it will be as easy as you suppose it can be. First would be the differences of ideas of when the generations actually begin and end. There has never been 100% agreement on the dates or qualities of the different generations. I do like however the ones you did put into categories...Hitler definitely deserves his.

It very good idea, but i think that something like that have already been done. There is for sure some web site or even a good book about it. I read it somewhere but i cant't remember, if anyone knows please reply.

Yeah; besides, I already answered the question as to which generation those people belonged in.

John , here is an interesting video from PJTV regarding the "liberal mind" who are the children of the 60's and who began entering college in the 80's and their thinking. It is eleven minutes long.

Liberal thinking ----indiscriminateness --- http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=174&load=7788