The Fourth Turning: What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America's Next Rendezvous with Destiny

by William Strauss

As judgmental Prophets replace Artists in midlife, they preach a downbeat, values-fixated ethic of moral conviction. Entering midlife, Prophet generations display first a reflective distance and gradually a sober severity in a phase of life previously known for tolerance. In their own eyes, they are pillars of rectitude. To others, they are ineffective hypocrites—though they are also begrudgingly respected for their capacity to focus on core issues of right and wrong. Midlife Prophets begin reshaping institutions from the inside out, taking the insights they had earlier cultivated in private life and projecting them into public life. They come to political power slowly but resolutely, beginning with relatively weak leaders tolerant of their peers’ self-immersed impulses. As they resacralize institutions not in line with their values, passionate splits emerge between factions with competing moral positions.