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The average human’s lifetime spans ~6 distinct historical eras today, each 12-15y long. So it’s like living through a 6-part movie series. Historically the average was 1 because lifespans were shorter and history was much slower.
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Era boundaries tend to be a rough global consensus within a 2-3 year band so you’ll likely be born in the middle of one and die in the middle of one too. So 5 full eras and 2 bookend half-eras. Which means cold open part 1, leave before learning how part 7 ends.
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I think recent eras are: 1964-1979: long 60s 1980-1993: long 80s 1994-2007: long 90s 2008-2021: long Weirding 2022-2033: long 20s Enough time has passed that long 80s, long 90s feel like “history” to me now. Don’t remember long 60s since I was only 5 when it ended.
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to be fair I was 12 When it happens so maybe I don't see the connection. Is there not the end of history / liberal democracy triumphant meme through the '90s that falls apart with the beginning of terror and war on terror?
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That’s the thing… it doesn’t. It’s literally a straight line from earlier wtc bombing, 1993. It was not a black swan. The on-continent nature of the attack, and the tactical innovation (box cutters on airliners) was shocking to American citizens but the conflict itself was not
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The clash-of-civilizations thesis from Huntington was always the Yang to the Yin of EoH, but not actually influential. Fukuyama was his student, and in with the post-9/11 neocons and more directly influential. WoT was viewed as EoH endgame, not CoC opening.
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There was a reason it was so easy for the neocons to bullshit the WoT into the Iraq War and connect it to the unfinished 1991 first gulf war agenda. It was all neatly wrapped up in EoH foreign policy. 9/11 just provided a particularly solid casus belli.
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This continues today. Militant Islam is not taken seriously on its own terms as a civilization with an agenda the way China is. The Islamic theater is largely a Cold War unfinished mop-up while oil still matters. The “world caliphate” is not a serious contender in futures.
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