Yeats, paradigm shifts, and the "fourth turning" theory---

This poem speaks to me in deeper and deeper ways. "Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold" and "The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." Did Yeats know what our future would look like? I mean, he saw a lot of upheaval himself, to be sure. And here we go again, it seems. I'm not quite convinced we are primed for a "second coming," but the theory of the fourth turning as posited by Strauss and Howe  makes a lot of sense to me, too. I sense a "perilous gate" as they define it; there will be a paradigm shift, and only those who can hang on, who have faith and resiliency will be okay. Yeats understood that humankind continually creates difficulties for itself, and with the current national and global trend toward toxic individualism, it is hard to see a positive outcome for many, many people who are innocent but who are also caught up in the upheaval. A moral, spiritual, and climatic shift is in the offing, and while we have so many tools to bring to bear on the issues facing humankind, we are often blocked from using them, due to willful ignorance, fear, and most of all, greed.

It's troubling. Pray for peace, integrity, and compassion. 

C