Have you ever
wondered why civil rights suddenly burst onto the scene in the 1960s? Why technology boomed in the 1980s and
1990s? Why so many people are embracing
religion these days?
I’ve
discovered why.
There’s
a three-part cycle in the procession of western civilization. A cycle
that goes back at least 500 years. Each part in the cycle expresses a totally
different world view which influences our politics, economics, and
culture.
Mind,
Body and Spirit. Plato wrote in The Republic that if we looked at the
parts that make up a man, we would find his society. Plato was right. The three parts that make up a person take
turns dominating the way we look at the world --- with profound effects upon
our lives and our history. For about 32 years
our priorities shift in a way that produces very predictable results --- even
as the priorities of the other time periods are shunted to the background.
In
this book, I take you on my personal journey of discovery back through
time. A journey revealing that the past
— in ways that affect us politically, economically and culturally — is predictable. A journey that will teach us to recognize the
signs — to understand the organizing principle.
So that, for us, the future may become predictable, as well.
What
is the organizing principle?
Different
world views occur — one, two, three —
in a repeating cycle that can be traced through at least the last 500
years of the history of western civilization.
The same three world views in the same order. Together, they make up a single cycle. This book follows five cycles.
What
are these world views?
In
the 1720s and 1730s, a Great Awakening swept the United States, while Pietism
took Germany by storm and John Wesley founded the Methodist church, preaching
some 42,000 sermons in the fields of England.
And
then nothing of much interest happened in evangelical religion until...
In
the 1820s and 1830s, a Second Great Awakening swept the United States, an Erweckung
(Awakening) spread across Germany, while France and Switzerland participated in
a Reveil (Revival).
And
then once more — nothing.
Until
the beginning of the 20th century, when Pentecostalism and
Fundamentalism were developed and spread rapidly in the United States and
western Europe.
That’s
one. Spirit.
In
the 1770s, we had a war in America that was all about the proposition that “all
men are created equal.” In the years
that followed, people like Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James
Madison, John Jay, Benjamin Rush and Thomas Paine became active in anti-slavery
clubs.
And
that’s the last we heard of anyone politically powerful caring about slavery
until...
The
1860s, when concerns about the rights of African-Americans led to a civil war
to end slavery.
What
happened then? Nothing. By the 1890s, civil rights was dead.
Without
a glimmer of popular interest in it for at least half a century, before
becoming a powerful movement in the 1960s, bringing greater rights for blacks,
women and others who were being treated less than equally.
That’s
two. Mind.
According
to writer Alan Woods, beginning in 1795, France was run by “a bunch of
self-serving and disreputable opportunists” made up of “businessmen, financial
speculators, people who had grown rich out of swindling the army,” and the new
landowning commoners. In England and
the United States, it was the time of the First Industrial Revolution.
This
was followed by a period in which nobody had much to say about financial
speculators or economic revolutions. And
then, suddenly, we had...
The
Second Industrial Revolution — the Gilded Age — which peaked in the 1890s with
corporate “robber barons” becoming megamillionaires even as inventions like
electricity, radios, phonographs and automobiles spread rapidly across the
western world.
But
that time came to an end. We stopped
hearing praises heaped on our “captains of industry.” Inventors didn’t stop inventing, exactly, but
far fewer important inventions made it to the consumer.
Until...
Until
now. Until a time period that began
around the 1980s, when new multibillionaires were made — when people like Bill
Gates and Donald Trump became household names.
When suddenly every home had a personal computer, internet hookup, fax,
copier, and several mobile phones.
That’s
three. Body.
For
the last couple hundred years, the full cycle has taken about a century to
complete. When we go further back in history —
before industrialism and democracy — the cycle is about a third again as
long. World views that currently come
and go for a period of about 32 years, used to last for nearly 45 years. At the same time, the countries of the world
have become more and more interdependent, more and more similar in their level
of development, and as a result, more and more synchronized. One hundred years ago, the Russian Revolution
took place in a Mind Era in Russia, even as the rest of the world had just
entered a Spirit Era. But with its
recent history embracing capitalism and oligarchs it is clear that Russia has
now “caught up.” Even as some countries
--- like Iran --- still experience their cycles on a different schedule ---
Iran’s revolutionary history of late indicates that they are presently at the
tail end of a Mind Era.
Most
countries today, however, are transitioning from a Body Era into a Spirit
Era. Governments, businesses, families
--- all of us --- we’re floundering
as the world around us changes and the values we’ve held for these past 30
years no longer appeal. This book
explains what is happening and what our new values will be. It prepares us for the rise of the working
man, big government, big brother and, yes, spiritual awakenings. It also talks about the soon-to-be fall of
the corporate gravy train, out-of-control consumption, and style over
substance.
It
prepares us for this time when we will reach out to something greater than
ourselves. So that the group, for many,
will come to be valued as more important than the individual.
I’m
twittering as CatherineDong about what the future holds as most of the
industrial world enters a new Spirit Era in mid 2010.
Read
the sample below, and if you find it compelling, then follow me on Twitter and
email me at ccdong@predictinghistory.com
if you would like to be put on a mailing list to let you know when the book
comes out.
Yours
sincerely,
Catherine
Claxton Dong, Ph.D.
Excerpt from Predicting
History
Timeline for Mind Era Revolutions
Diagram & Table of Mind, Body & Spirit Eras
2009 © Catherine
Claxton Dong. All rights reserved.
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