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

by William Strauss

unemployment, trade wars, collapsing financial markets, and hyperinflation (or deflation) ■ Social distress, with violence fueled by class, race, nativism, or religion and abetted by armed gangs, underground militias, and mercenaries hired by walled communities ■ Cultural distress, with the media plunging into a dizzying decay, and a decency backlash in favor of state censorship ■ Technological distress, with cryptoanarchy, high-tech oligarchy, and biogenetic chaos ■ Ecological distress, with atmospheric damage, energy or water shortages, and new diseases ■ Political distress, with institutional collapse, open tax revolts, one-party hegemony, major constitutional change, secessionism, authoritarianism, and altered national borders ■ Military distress, with war against terrorists or foreign regimes equipped with weapons of mass destruction