“History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted. The Fourth Turning necessitates the death and rebirth of the social order. It is the ultimate rite of passage for an entire people, requiring a luminal state of sheer chaos whose nature and duration no one can predict in advance.” – (Neil Howe –The Fourth Turning)

Right now we are in the middle of another Fourth Turning, which takes place every 80 years or so. Things are looking risky and unpredictable, which is par for the course in the Fourth Turning cycle.

With the arrival of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the CRISIS predicted by Neil Howe in his book “The Fourth Turning”  is definitely in motion.

Nathaniel Hawthorne spoke of a “Gray Champion” that appears during the Crisis to speak words of challenge and hope to a nation in distress.

Previous Gray Champions are George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and FDR. Each one belonged to the “Prophet” (Boomer) archetype, rising to lead the nation through a crucial period in the nation’s history, when a crisis of monumental proportions happens.

  • The last Crisis was the Great Depression and World War II. The Gray Champion: FDR.
  • The previous Crisis (80 years prior) was the Civil War. The Gray Champion: Abraham Lincoln.
  • Go back another 80 years and you have the Revolutionary War. The Gray Champion: George Washington.

Neil Howe (demographer and history scholar) predicted the coming Crisis in his book, The Fourth Turning:

“Just after the millennium, America will enter a new era  that will culminate with a crisis comparable to the American Revolution, the Civil War, the Great Depression, and World War II. The very survival of the nation will almost certainly be at stake…”

“Sometime before the year 2025, America will pass through a great gate in history, commensurate with the American Revolution, Civil War, and twin emergencies of the Great Depression and World War II.” (from the Fourth Turning)

The Pandemic Is The Crisis and Trump is the Gray Champion

It seems clear now that the Covid-19 Pandemic is the Crisis we have been long expecting during this Fourth Turning, and Donald Trump is the “Gray Champion,” the wise prophet who will lead us through it and point the way in the “rebuilding” project that takes place in the years that follow this crisis. Neil Howe describes this season with the following words:

“Real hardship will beset the land, with severe distress that could involve questions of class, race, nation, and empire. Yet this time of trouble will bring seeds of social rebirth.”

We are witnessing a crucial page in history, folks. We are coming into a “reset” that will pave the way for revival and restoration!