The History Cycle Says We're Moving Right

The more I get immersed in history, the more I think my friend Bob Prechter has it right: there are cycles in darn near everything in life. For instance, there are Victorian times when our American culture insists on living by very strict rules, and there are times when we embrace the idea that "if it feels good it is okay to do it."

It is beginning to appear that America first embraced the current "to heck with the rules" culture in the 1960's. But there's a second part to cyclical thinking, and it goes this way: "The pendulum swings, and swings too far, and having swung, swings back."

If it is true America first adopted the liberal "if it feels good, do it" in the 1960's, could it be we are now in the historic era in which liberal dogma has swung too far, and we are beginning to swing back? People breaking the rules are coming to light all over the place: we had a president who misbehaved with an intern in the White house, and lied about it. We had several corporate executives who broke the rules big time, and took their companies down as a result. Look at the entertainment industry, and the New York Times, and what on earth was Sammy Sosa doing with a corked bat in his rack? We still wink at a lot of rules infractions, but more and more we are at least bringing them to light.

It would appear our culture has swung too far in accepting a "no rules" attitude, and now we are talking about discipline, and asking not what "feels good" but what is "right." Could it be our historic cycle is moving back toward a more structured, more conservative culture? Or am I just hoping?

This is Gordon Sawyer from a window on historic Green street.

http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/6/177504