Epilogue to Tracking the Storm

Over a year ago, I posted the first excerpt from my book about the coming great crisis that is coming to engulf our country. If you haven’t read that post, you should go read it now, and then come back to this one. I’ll wait; the situation where we find ourselves as a society is momentous enough that you need to arm yourself with this knowledge. I chose to give away major portions of this book because of my love for our country, and the fact that I believe as a historian, I have seen a clearly defined pattern of history that is now upon us. This coming election, in just a few weeks, is a part of this event, though perhaps only future historians will know in what ways.

There is still time. You can download a pdf if you enjoy reading on your computer or also purchase a printed copy of the book (Pick up your copy of Tracking the Storm today !). If I knew you personally, I’d just give you a copy, this is that important. No, the book won’t somehow enable you personally to save the country. Not only are we far past that (no one was going to stop the Civil War by 1858…it was coming, one way or the other…Lincoln’s election just was the event that was the final straw). But, not only is it not likely for one person to stop this, but the flow of history is such that events happen in their flow, in their timing, and it is our time for this kind of event. I’d give you the book—I have given away most of it here in the blog–though to help you personally prepare. You can’t stop a hurricane…it is coming where it comes, but you can personally get ready.

As you read this last excerpt (the nineteenth installment–find earlier sections here), a few weeks from this critical election, I hope you get ready.

After King James II was deposed from the throne in London, having thrown the Great Seal into the Thames River, his family lived in Versailles under the protection of Louis XIV of France. Thirteen years later, in 1701, James passed away and his son, the infamous “water pan baby” that we spoke about in Chapter Five, became the claimant to the throne, the defender of the Stuart family claims. James III, as he was known in France, attempted invasion of England in 1708 and again in 1715, successfully landing in Scotland, the site of the old Stuart family lands. He was unsuccessful both times. James III also had a son, Charles Edward Stuart, and after the failed invasion in 1715, hopes for any return of the “legitimate” king of England turned to Charles. Known more popularly as “Bonnie Prince Charlie,” he was raised in Rome with a constant storyline that he was the rightful heir to the throne of England.

In 1745, some 57 years after William of Orange had first sailed from The Netherlands to invade England, Charles landed in Scotland, largely alone. In those 57 years, the old Scottish clans had not grown any more pleased with English domination leading many clans and Scots to flock to his banner. Through the fall, Charles was militarily successful, capturing the city of Edinburgh and winning several small battles, while at the same time politically garnering more support. Unfortunately, the British government was not about to allow Charles to merely march south to London, so on April 1746, a larger British army defeated Charles’ army at the Battle of Culloden. Charles evaded capture and was able to make his way home, living his remaining days in exile. The cause to restore the Stuarts was finally, fully, dead.

Yet, in reality, there was never much of a cause. Certainly the “losing” side in the Glorious Revolution, political “Tories” as they were known in the decades after William’s conquest, might have enjoyed the legitimate line of Stuarts restored. Yet, they did not make any real efforts to support either James III or Bonnie Prince Charlie.

This is the reality of what a Great Crisis brings: total change from the previous. Anyone alive in the 1950s could tell that the country was radically changed from 1929, when the Great Crisis began. Some wished to go back, to end New Deal programs, afraid of the military-industrial complex, but there was no going back.

Unless something unusual takes place changing the pattern, we are going to go through our own Great Crisis. We are clearly in the fourth phase. Though, as I have said before, as participants we can’t tell precisely where we are, it seems that the invasion of Iraq and contentious election in 2004 would indicate a move into the Great Crisis. Interestingly, that would be 75 years from the start of the last Crisis in 1929. Or, if we move 80 years from the 1929 start year of the previous Crisis, we find the date to be 2009, so the year after President Obama’s election when the emergence of the Tea Party opposition first took center-stage.

Of course, the reality is that we will have to see what, precisely, the actual Crisis is before we’ll know for sure. In Strauss and Howe’s excellent book The Fourth Turning, they predicted possible demands for a new Constitution, a possible nuclear threat from terrorists, economic panic, some pandemic that destroys life, urban militia styled warfare or a war with a rogue state. They wrote those possibilities in 1997 and now in 2011, any of those possible outcomes looks likely.

For now, what you know is that there is a 500+ year old pattern that always leads to a Great Crisis, the idea of the saeculum that Strauss and Howe first wrote about. Now, though, more, you understand that once the fourth turning occurs into the crisis phase, there remains the final move into the actual Great Crisis. Through all four Anglo-American cycles, those “roads to crisis” have left us clues, another pattern to follow. In that pattern, we are able to discern common attributes, and of those 12 common attributes or concepts, we have matched a high number of them. Does that mean the Great Crisis will start in a year or so? No. We can’t say that. But, based on the previous roads to crisis, we can say that there usually is no great gap as the issues move forward. Tension seems to rise. The philosophical divide increases. Both sides of the issue grow increasingly fraught with worry that their “way of life” or “viewpoint” will be marginalized or removed completely. They become willing to “fight” for their view, either to change or defend status quo. At that point, we simply need the final trigger, often an event that is shocking that then forces the hand of the government to respond and that response, as we noted, brings an open and outward response.

Knowledge is power. Now you know. Take advantage of the knowledge.

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You can read the rest of chapter 13 in Tracking the Storm; the book provides powerful clues about what is coming, rapidly, to the United States. There is little doubt that a storm is approaching the country, the outer edges of the winds already swirling around us. What does that portend for the nation? Through the clues of history, we can find direction and steps to undertake to prepare. Many believe there won’t be a storm, or maybe that the worst is over. With history as a guide, I demonstrate that we haven’t yet even reached the Great Crisis.

Gripping and “a scary yet necessary read,” Tracking the Storm moves through the past 400 years of Anglo-American history to illustrate the various clues provided that show the steps to the coming crisis. I will tell the story of political instability, economic distress, rapid technological changes and a growing philosophical divide that challenged previous generations. At the end of each Great Crisis, the nation had been radically changed. Pick up your copy of Tracking the Storm today !