Several years ago, Dr. Henry Cloud talked about leadership lessons from Navy SEALs at a Leadercast conference I attended. He has since repeated those words on social media:
"My Navy SEALs friends taught me the moment they touch ground after parachuting in, they immediately ask themselves 3 questions: Where am I? Where is the enemy? Where is my buddy? That's great advice for us in ALL of life. Find the answer to #3 and u can better answer #'s 1 & 2"
Our current daily experience here in 2021 feels like war. We've been dropped in the middle of a conflict and feel disoriented. Is this normal? How can we get back to the normal we used to know? Why are we under attack?
Disoriented is the key word to identifying cultural experience in the middle of a Crisis Era.
What is the crisis?
In The Fourth Turning by William Strauss and Neil Howe, the generational saeculum is defined as "seasons of time" that "alternate between opposite extremes (spring versus autumn, summer versus winter" (p. 31). This wheel of time rolls forward, and we roll with it, experiencing the rhythm of change through the course of humanity. Each season, beginning with Spring, has its own flavor, but the most distinctive of them all is Winter. Winter is the Crisis Era, a time of maximum strife, or as the book quotes Gerhard Masur, "a sudden acceleration of the historical process in a terrifying manner" (p. 39).
The American Revolutionary War. The Civil War. World War II. Roughly 80 years mark the distance between each one of these major conflicts, in which an unsettled dissatisfaction with the status quo is suddenly, violently decided.
And now we're here, asking ourselves the questions of conflict:
Where am I? (In history? Geographically? Politically?)
Where's the enemy? (Is it implicit bias? The government? COVID? Capitalism? Global warming?)
Where's my buddy? (Can I trust the person I voted for? Live beside? Work with?)
Just as Dr. Cloud said, the third answer ends up making a world of difference to figuring out the other two.
What is the purpose of the crisis?
Just like the seasons, the Crisis Era is unavoidable. Knowing that we're in one means that, just like the old "Bear Hunt" song, we "can't go over it, can't go under it, can't go around it, have to go through it!" The SEALs' three questions, if answered, are indeed good for survival of the crisis itself. But there's a fourth, implicit question, that is essential for moving beyond the crisis, perhaps the genesis of the crisis itself:
Why am I here?
Navy SEALs already know the WHY when they land in enemy territory. They already have a mission: whom to rescue, why that matters, and the greater purpose of serving their country.
Average Americans today do not.
Underlying every question of about "following the science" or ignoring it, opening the borders or closing them, accepting riots or penalizing them, declaring gender or dismissing it, is the existential question of "Why am I here?" Answering this WHY clarifies goals and outcomes. It defines the mission. Leaving it unanswered results in confusion, chaos, a sense of futility, and ultimately, a crisis.
Why don't we know why?
The crew of the popular TIMCAST IRL explored this issue with a guest recently, landing on an astute observation of the truth. A nation formed on Judeo-Christian values has abandoned those values. Without a clear value system, the mission is lost. America is in an existential crisis: if we don't know what we believe or why we're here, we don't know what to do next.
But a boundary-less existence cannot continue forever. Postmodernism, in a sense, was a grand experiment-- the saecular Autumn, known as an Unraveling Era. It pushed beliefs to absurd limits. It asked ridiculous questions about purpose, proposing there was no such need at all. Multiculturalism and nihilism fused, a whirlwind of value vectors that has turned into a tornado. And now that the economy, politics, and cultural bonds of trust have been stripped to the bare bones, it is time for something new.
Reboot!
In my home in central Florida, it is possible to grow plants nearly year-round. Our abundance of sunshine and lack of frost make the ideal growing environment, or so one would think. However, when I first began gardening here I learned that growing plants is one thing, but keeping them healthy is another.
In other regions of the country, colder temperatures penetrate the ground, killing unhealthy bacteria and parasites that would attack most plants. Each winter, the soil receives a kind of "reset", which enables healthy growth in spring. In some plants, this cold is actually necessary for seeds to germinate-- without it, they remain dormant and lifeless in perpetuity.
Meanwhile in Florida, the average gardener must battle those pests that overwinter in the warm soil and accept that some things, without a real winter, will never grow.
The saecular winter's purpose is the same. It serves as an experiential reboot, tearing down the old growth of bad ideas and confusing ideologies. When forced to wrestle with the why's and how's of our existence, we make room for something new-- and something good.
After the American Revolution, the United States emerged as an autonomous nation with its own independent economy and agency, instead of a subservient colony.
After the Civil War, the United States emerged as a nation without slavery, with industry instead of agriculture as its economic engine.
After World War II, the United States emerged as a global champion and enforcer of capitalism over socialism.
Money is simply an expression of value (better said here). Our economic decisions as nation bespeak our deepest values as a nation-- but what values will emerge on the other side in Spring?
That begins with you. Decide what you believe, and be willing to fight for it. Figure out your mission. Find out why you exist. If you don't already know, I recommend starting right in the beginning.
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