The Fourth Turning Tipping Point

The Fourth Turning Tipping Point

Jeff Thomas

A Fourth Turning is a period in history when all the negative developments over a four-generation period reach a crescendo – a time when the sociopaths are the rulers and are putting the squeeze on the populace.

In addition to an effort to institute totalitarian rule, symptoms include the breakdown of both morality and logic. Black is white; up is down. Confusion and chaos increase in both frequency and magnitude as the Fourth Turning advances.

Those of a libertarian mindset tend to be especially sensitive to and cognizant of these symptoms as they unfold. Since a classic Fourth Turning takes place over roughly twenty years, by the time the halfway mark is reached and the symptoms are peaking, it may appear that “It just keeps getting worse. Won’t people ever wake up and understand that this is crazy?”

Well, historically, the answer has always been “Yes.”

There’s always a turning point, even if it seems that it’s not only a long time coming but that there’s no level of oppression that won’t be tolerated by the masses.

The reason for this is that a Fourth Turning is made possible by complacency. Although there has been a deterioration in self-reliance and reasoning for three generations, a population does not become truly complacent until the latter stages. The deeper the complacency, the greater the oppression by leaders.

Interestingly, complacency is at its greatest in populations where there previously was the greatest prosperity. Therefore, in the present Fourth Turning, the countries that have been most dramatically impacted have been those that had previously been the most prosperous.

So, if we are to see a turning point, when will it be, and what will cause it?

Historically, there is generally both a political turning point and a social one. They’re not always concurrent, and that’s the case this time around.

In February of 2022, the US placed sanctions on Russia as a result of the Ukraine war. This was predictable. However, the US concurrently confiscated the private property of Russian citizens.

At the time, this didn’t get a lot of publicity in the West, but I believed that, in retrospect, it would be seen as the political turning point. The reason is that most of the countries in the world do not see themselves as world powers. They see themselves as countries that are continually impacted by world powers.

As such, they try to cooperate with the big boys and suffer as little as possible from what the big boys do.

For them, the announcement by the US was a direct threat: “... if they confiscated assets of the Russian people, they could do the same to us.”

This generated a quiet move away from US influence. Representatives of many countries started to travel to Moscow and Beijing to form new alliances, new trade agreements, and new loyalties to replace the ever-riskier relationship with the US.

Such changes don’t happen overnight, but in the last year, we’ve seen moves away from the petrodollar, the US reserve currency, and increased applications to join the BRICS. Recently, Malaysia became the first country to announce that its preparation to step away from the US is now complete, and they are formally distancing itself from the US.

This trend will expand over the coming year as more countries “come out” in their intention – a trend that will serve both to isolate the US and to increase the collective strength of the BRICS.

But what of that other concern – the social tipping point?

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