THE THEORY - THE ARCHETYPES - THE SAECULUM

THE ARTIST ARCHETYPE

Living Artist generations: Silent (born 1925-1942), Homeland (born ?-)

We remember Artists best for their quiet years of rising adulthood and during their midlife years of flexible, consensus-building leadership Their principal endowment activities are in the domain of pluralism, expertise, and due process. A lifecycle outline:

• As Artists replace Heroes in childhood during a Crisis, they are overprotected at a time of political convulsion and adult self-sacrifice. 
• As conformist Artists replace Heroes in young adulthood during a High, they become sensitive helpmates, lending their expertise and cooperation to an era of growing social calm. 
• As indecisive Artists replace Heroes in midlife during an Awakening, they apply expertise and process to improve society while calming the passions of the young. 
• As empathic Artists replace Heroes in elderhood during an Unraveling, they quicken the pace of social change, shunning the old order in favor of complexity and sensitivity.

To learn more about this theory, visit www.fourthturning.com.

From The Fourth Turning, William Strauss and Neil Howe, copyright 1996 Broadway Books.
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