I don’t think the 80 year cycle is purely generational. It’s about memory. At 80 years there is no one left who was there to remember why things were done. What was wrong with the past. They see it through amnesia of the present and only see things as shackles rather than sensible guardrails.
The only institutions that seemingly have ever managed to overcome the 80 years rule are the religions. They managed to codify the rules in venerable texts that to question became sacred and thus immutable.
Everything else is man made not god given so can and should be torn down in the eyes of the new generations.
Or to put it more pithly, history doesn’t repeat but it sure does rhyme.
I did say it was a sketch! But I’d say that generations, memory, and organisational power and influence are all bound up here. Even after 40 years the emerging generation can’t remember particularly well what problems the institutions were set up to solve (e.g. poor health, poor housing, bad working conditions, hunger, etc), because they’ll know them only from stories they have been told. So they focus much more on the problems that have evolved as a result. And institutions also acquire institutional friction over time that mkes them less effective and less responsive to change. (See Donald Schon’s idea of ’dynamic conservatism.’( Hence the ‘reform’ of these instituions becomes possible and is argued to be necessary. Sometimes in bad faith.
Are universities the keepers of the texts or just mirrors of the texts? They, slowly, (science advances one death at a time) reflect what is the current orthodoxy.
As an example in the real world, if I was Xi, I'd be deeply fearful for the CCP and its future. China is in that Rubicon moment of people not remembering how bad things were in China before the revolution. What was the before time that caused the CCP to behave the way it did / does?
With reference to your comments on Quincy Jones, Austin Kleon also wrote in his substack about him this week: “Anyone who says they’ve figured out how to make records sell more than 50 million copies is lying and smoking Koolaid. It doesn’t work like that. You just find a group of songs that touches you and gives you goosebumps. I go by my goosebumps.” RIP “music titan” Quincy Jones. He shows up in one of my books, and might just show up in the next. I bought his book 12 Notes: On Life and Creativity a while back and I’ve been meaning to watch Quincy, the Netflix documentary co-directed by his daughter Rashida Jones. (If you’ve never read his 2018 Vulture interview with David Marchese, it is a wild ride”).
I don’t think the 80 year cycle is purely generational. It’s about memory. At 80 years there is no one left who was there to remember why things were done. What was wrong with the past. They see it through amnesia of the present and only see things as shackles rather than sensible guardrails.
The only institutions that seemingly have ever managed to overcome the 80 years rule are the religions. They managed to codify the rules in venerable texts that to question became sacred and thus immutable.
Everything else is man made not god given so can and should be torn down in the eyes of the new generations.
Or to put it more pithly, history doesn’t repeat but it sure does rhyme.
I did say it was a sketch! But I’d say that generations, memory, and organisational power and influence are all bound up here. Even after 40 years the emerging generation can’t remember particularly well what problems the institutions were set up to solve (e.g. poor health, poor housing, bad working conditions, hunger, etc), because they’ll know them only from stories they have been told. So they focus much more on the problems that have evolved as a result. And institutions also acquire institutional friction over time that mkes them less effective and less responsive to change. (See Donald Schon’s idea of ’dynamic conservatism.’( Hence the ‘reform’ of these instituions becomes possible and is argued to be necessary. Sometimes in bad faith.
Also: universities and libraries have done pretty well. The old European universities date back 600 years or more.
Are universities the keepers of the texts or just mirrors of the texts? They, slowly, (science advances one death at a time) reflect what is the current orthodoxy.
As an example in the real world, if I was Xi, I'd be deeply fearful for the CCP and its future. China is in that Rubicon moment of people not remembering how bad things were in China before the revolution. What was the before time that caused the CCP to behave the way it did / does?
With reference to your comments on Quincy Jones, Austin Kleon also wrote in his substack about him this week: “Anyone who says they’ve figured out how to make records sell more than 50 million copies is lying and smoking Koolaid. It doesn’t work like that. You just find a group of songs that touches you and gives you goosebumps. I go by my goosebumps.” RIP “music titan” Quincy Jones. He shows up in one of my books, and might just show up in the next. I bought his book 12 Notes: On Life and Creativity a while back and I’ve been meaning to watch Quincy, the Netflix documentary co-directed by his daughter Rashida Jones. (If you’ve never read his 2018 Vulture interview with David Marchese, it is a wild ride”).
Austin’s whole substack / blog is well worth a read for anyone pursuing the creative life( he’s the author of the bestselling ‘Steal like an artist’ - his latest post is here https://austinkleon.substack.com/p/dont-let-your-dreams-give-up-on-you)
FWIW:
A Post Mortem Autopsy: From A Diddy Party to a Pity Party https://shorturl.at/eIVYI
Introducing The Paycheck to Paycheck Voter https://shorturl.at/6AIkb
Remember Remember the 5th of November https://shorturl.at/PFtAJ
The Red Badge of Courage Being Called Uncle Tom https://shorturl.at/onCf7
Black Women Blaming Black Men For Harris Loss https://shorturl.at/mq0kH