HOW HISTORY WAS INTRODUCED IN MY YOUTH

And how it inspires me to help pass it on to future generations

I still have the record of my first lessons of history at school when I was nine years old. It is something we would today call a notebook. Most of it was written exactly according to the instructions of our teacher. But some things were not. One could say that they contained my first personal interpretation of history, by way of my illustrations.


Charlemagme at his court in the early 800's (TKA 1961)

These drawings are a reflection too of that time. The man with the firm stride closely resembles a popular comic figure, Captain Haddock of Tintin, whom I was frantically copying in all my drawings and scribbles. Of course, history obtains its meaning very much because we can project ourselves into it. Experience it.


Captain Haddock (Herge)

I have to say that the largest share of my history lessons did not come from school, but from my father, and from many other people, family and friends, teachers, with whom I shared the years of my youth.

At school our teacher picked this notion up by starting her lessons right there, with the experience of family: young people, old people, stories from the past, long ago, a chain – a chain of people and a chain of ‘time, endlessly going back in the past.

The first page of my notebook, the first lessons, dealt with this concept of time, and the timeline you can divide in parts, in dates. All of it was quite clear for me from the onset.


The first page of my history notebook, fourth grade (age 9)

I believe that in order to understand this space of time in the past’ and people long gone, the idea of a finite life, and thus the notion of death, must be clear by that time too, in any child of nine years old. I certainly understood it because I had no difficulty to grasp the implication of old aunts and uncles, even a grandfather, already having ‘died’.

The notebook is not simply a annotation of dates. It contains many references to the way of life of the people, their circumstances, their technologies and livelihood, next to the significant facts of history and the kings, queens, presidents and Popes involved in them.



The professions, the crafts and the arts also were given their proper attention, even in ‘experience’ terms. One example is the letter ‘P’ that I designed for the cover of an imaginary Medieval book, dedicated to a person named Philip.

Why not? It is a good way to experience the dedication of a 10th Century Monk who is working on his masterpiece. That monk would have loved the availability of Photoshop or 3D design, or even mass produced tubes of paint. But in his time they didn’t have any of it.


Viking ship

But I believe it was the key lesson of my father that stirred my passion for history indefinitely. He was always very quick to relate events of our time to examples in the past. And once that happens, you get interested to hear the whole story, and not just the fragments. It comes naturally if you have the basic curiosity of a child.

It has to be fed, this curiosity. It is the curiosity that does not develop just on its own steam. I believe that our current youngest generation is one which shows a good deal of curiosity, and I believe it is critical that we help them answer it in the right way.

For me, the lessons of history have most of all been part of an expedition of my own. I was given ample opportunity to actively absorb it, in our travels, in movies, in books, in family history. It continues to be such expedition to this day. Every day when I travel to certain periods or aspects of history, I largely see facts which I already ‘know’, but I see them in different lights and contexts. And this includes the events of which I had been witness myself, such as the revolution of the sixties.

The active exercise of history is a highly useful effort especially on behalf of our present and future. Not by way of prediction, but by way of projection and interpretation. Every day we absorb these lessons.

My perceptions of Charlemagne and the Vikings, and many other figures of the past have since evolved, of course. Most of all I have many more questions about Charlemagne than ‘knowledge’. And it is unlikely that today I would paint a Viking ship so colorful. But otherwise, the picture is very constant too. The order of history as I grasp it today is founded on these very basic lessons, back almost fifty years ago.

NO MAN ON MARS IN THE COMING DECADE

Our planet is grounded to solve the issues at home first of all

One of the missing topics in President Obama’s inaugural address was Space and America’s future endeavors beyond the confines of our planet. I have no doubt that he considered the subject for the speech, but consciously decided not to include it. For he must have realized that back in the sixties, a period from which he draws many of his inspirations, America’s ambition to put a man on the Moon spawned many different technological – and inspirational - initiatives which multiplied the single benefit of mastering the art of Space travel. Kennedy’s early decision to make this ambition a hallmark of his Presidency, taken at substantial risk, helped build a strong focus across the entire western world on superior achievements in a broad area of technology which otherwise would not have been realized. And in part it shaped our cultural focus. Next to the emergence of pop culture and popular rebellion, “2001 - A Space Odyssey” epitomizes the character of this memorable decade, which sadly had to do without Kennedy to actually see it unroll.

Most certainly we live in a time when great ambitions are needed. In general terms Obama has captured this need in magnificent terms in many different dimensions. One can therefore assume that his decision not to include a renewed or strengthened mission outer space is an immediate function of his understanding of America’s – and the world’s – first priorities. My interpretation of his approach is reinforced when I go through the newly published agenda of Obama’s administration (http://www.whitehouse.gov/). There is no reference of any prominence of a specific plan regarding further US Space programs.

Nonetheless there is one paragraph which refers to the Administration’s stated interest regarding Space:

Ensure Freedom of Space: The Obama-Biden Administration will restore American leadership on space issues, seeking a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites. They will thoroughly assess possible threats to U.S. space assets and the best options, military and diplomatic, for countering them, establishing contingency plans to ensure that U.S. forces can maintain or duplicate access to information from space assets and accelerating programs to harden U.S. satellites against attack.


The priority

This paragraph can be found under the heading of Defense. Space is (or remains) primarily positioned in the domain of the Military, which is where it was established in the fifties and sixties as well. No wonder the paragraph largely reads as a defensive stance: the restoration and safeguarding of freedom in Space.

No reference to this is made in the sphere of economy or technology, where apparently the Space program (apart from the ongoing availability of satellites) offers no special incentive or opportunity, according to those who crafted Obama’s policy principles.

During his Presidential campaign. Obama’s team did have a close look at NASA’s current plans for the future. Some reported that he was specifically interested in these plans. It is an other indication that the absence of ‘Mars’ in his inaugural speech was far from a haphazard omission. Economic gloom, climate change, health care and education all rank higher than any farfetched dream without immediate benefit to America’s taxpayers.

At one time in Nov 2008, one of Obama’s top aides clarified his position:

“Obama believes we should continue developing the next generation of space vehicles, and complete the international space station. While Obama would delay plans to return to moon and push on to Mars, Obama would continue unmanned missions, and use NASA to monitor the forces and effects of climate change, support scientific research, and maintain surveillance to strengthen national security. Obama also believes we need to keep weapons out of space.” (Source: http://www.spacepolitics.com/).

Again the motives seem largely defensive - or protective- rather than offensive or entrepreneurial. Clearly this is not the hallmark enterprise of the forthcoming decade, as new energy and climate control most certainly will be.


The world we live in

Still, if Kennedy’s outreach to the Moon back in 1961 was largely inspired by pressing competition (i.c. from the Soviet Union, who had surpassed the US by getting the first man ever into an orbit around Earth), today’s competition can not be entirely overlooked. The Russians have in the mean time become collaborators, not competitors. No indication exists that Space is anywhere near Moscow’s current issues. But the Chinese have stepped up their development of Space programs and may well become a serious player in this field. Although the chances of China surpassing the US in scale or advancement of their Space efforts are very slim indeed,

Any Space plan that is presented as a mere end in itself (like, most likely, a man on Mars) will be met by Obama’s administration with great reservation. Competition, real progress, measurable economic benefit etc. must be the key considerations if a continued substantial Space effort is to survive in the forthcoming period. We should be surprised if at one point such effort will rise in stature after all, for instance if some ingenious system of solar panels is to be sent into orbit to “harness the energy of the Sun” (one prominent feature of Obama’s inaugural speech).

But perhaps, at best, we will have a good few new men on the Moon by 2020.

Arts and qualities of the left hand

President Obama in his youth

I never realized the enormous chance of left-handed people to become President of the United States, especially in the past fifty years:

Truman, Ford, Reagan, Bush sr., Clinton – and now Obama.
(source: http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/presidents.html)

But of course, you better be born an American, and I am not. I am a left-handed Dutchman.

I share the sense of specialty with all other left-handed people in our world, and I believe much of what people say about it, sometimes a little mythical perhaps, must have been true for all our history.

On the internet I googled the following text:

(There is) ”… this theory, right-handers solve problems using analysis, or the process of breaking the problem into its pieces and examining each piece in turn, hoping to thereby understand the problem;

In this theory, left-handers solve problems using synthesis, or the process of connecting the dots to understand the big picture, hoping to thereby understand the problem.”

Source: http://www.helium.com/items/763455-why-a-left-handed-obama-will-beat-a-right-handed-clinton.“Why a left-handed Obama will beat a right-handed Clinton”. It was about Hillary Clinton, not her husband, the former left-handed President. But the power of synthesis and filling gaps in our understanding of our world, all of this has become more evident as and when we came to see and hear more of the new American President. McCain 's competition in this respect made no difference, for he is left-handed too. (*)



I share a little history of left-handedness among my forebears and (distant) cousins. We all combine this, without exception, with the gift of creativity. Like our left-handed great-grandmother, many of us are avid amateur artists, dreamers and writers.

In the end it is about bridging and crossing the existing rifts between the people of our world. Much synthesis and dots connecting is required.

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(*) And interesting question nonetheless is whether left-handed politicans will be more inclined to the left, on average, or to the right.

INTERNET IS OUR GLOBAL COLLECTIVE SKETCHBOOK OF IDEAS

But it is in need of some codification

We scribble megatons of bytes on the Internet, every day. We post our messages, our blogs, our comments or votes on polls. We share them in smaller and wider circles. Much of it is of little consequence, it is dust passing with the wind, but at times, there is a sparkle, something unique and innovating. And the Internet can help us to pursue it.

At a larger scale, consumer marketing will become a highly democratic process in which all of us share ideas about projects, products, movies – etcetera. Increasingly, producers and consumers are communicating with each other through the internet, even though most of us are not aware of it, or recognize who actually is the producer and who is the consumer.

There are games which trigger their consumer’s creativity, the products of which are subsequently shared with all other online participants of that game. It is obvious that the next generation of games will be a reflection too of the input of the ‘consumers’. Indeed, they are rather more participants of games with global reach.

We have a new American President who, more than any of his predecessors understands the role of internet in achieving unity among all humanity. And perhaps it is inevitable that we do this with ‘fighting games’. So be it. But these games advance too, as for instance a computer game called “Infamous” not yet on the market. But this games promises to put violence on the backseat of a car driven by rationality, and sensitivity. If you use too much violence, you make everybody your enemy. Do you want that?


The worldwideweb: a joy for our souls

Blogging, chatting, Facebook, MySpace, Messenger, all of them have become our regular tools to find our way through the internet, show a little bit of our interests and talents, and share them with any likeminded individual in the world. Many other features of the internet support or accompany this development.

You can voice your opinion on regular polls. You can share your hobbies and further interest. Internet and the world wide web are the bloodline, the arteries and veins almost of our entire social and professional life.

There is however good reason to enhance our sense of values and respect, especially on the Internet, and to avoid such highly unfortunate incident as recently occurred in Thailand. A British national had published a book through the Internet, a novel, which was taken as highly inflammatory against the Thai monarchy. He was arrested and taken in custody, and received a six year sentence. “A Nightmare, this can’t be happening”, is his desperation. Just 10 copies sold of – what likely was – a non-best selling novel.


Imprisoned for insulting the Thai kind in an internet book

I treat everyone respectfully, although I would say that the Thai government response to this case was - and is - highly disproportionate by any reasonable (global) standard.


Shared standards for our chat behavior, aimed at making our exchanges more sensible and fruitful

Perhaps, given the importance of truthfulness and ‘effective communication’ on the Internet, for those who take it seriously, something like a ‘Global Code of Conduct for the Internet’ would not be such s bad idea, even though there will continue to be the inevitable abuse etc.

But otherwise, indeed, if I may speak for myself, I publish all my sketches, my notes and thoughts. and little drawings, if I like. For me, the Internet is my little place in the Milky Way.

A PRESIDENT OF PROMISE

It is almost incredible to realize, but the fact remains that the United States supported and pursued a hard-fought victory over German oppression and racial hatred as it emerged in the NAZI period, whilst at the same time accepting rigid racist practices and policies in their own large backyard as a solid fixture of American society. It continued to sustain such practices well into the sixties, even as it became apparent, through international treaties and emerging common standards in our world regarding discrimination of any kind, that America stood quite alone in this throughout the western world. In 1954, some years before Martin Luther King effectively entered the stage, the US Supreme Court took a landslide decision regarding racist (segregationist) regulations regarding schooling. This decision marked a period in which many such decisions were taken in the battle of the Supreme Court against statutory schemes and state court decisions that served as "an endorsement of the doctrine of White Supremacy” (Source: Legal History Blog – http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/). Yet it took many years more for the US to really come to grips with the concept of equal civil (and human) rights for all, regardless color.



By the same token no one at the time, not even in the sixties, would have predicted the advent of a ‘black’ American president in the early 21st Century. And most certainly no one could have predicted the strong association which this upcoming President has already generated among many, both inside and outside the US, with hope, change and a truly better world.

I have been watching a historic video clip tonight, dating from 1966 when Martin Luther King marched his followers through Chicago. The words he speaks are a prime source of history and to some degree they can still serve a a guiding light for the future. In that march, Dr King was stoned by an angry crowd of ‘whites’. “I’ve been hit so many times, I am immune to it,” Dr King dryly responds. Earlier on, in a speech, he conceded to his tiredness of marching, all that endless marching. It sounded like a desperation. Why does it take the American society so long to come to the realization that all men are equal, wherever they come from.

Civil rights demonstratrion, US, in the sixties

Today we continue to struggle with substantive echo’s of pure racism. We have denounced it, but the sentiments across the racial, ethnic and cultural dividing lines have not disappeared. The new American President no doubt will be a major contribution on the further path of equal recognition, but how far will this be?


Dr Martin Luther King

In King’s last speech he spoke of ‘having been on the mountain top’. “I’ve seen the promised land.” It was a daring promise, an expression of personal courage and an admonition to all to act in similar courage. Next to his eternally beautiful 'I have a dream' speech, his ‘Mountaintop speech’ can stand out as one of exceptional force and truthfulness (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8&feature=related).

“I may not get there with you,” he said. And we know he was so right. But perhaps the next few years will indeed see the American people but also the rest of the world make a few next steps towards that promise. We all need greater understanding, in each of our countries, and greater tolerance, if we want this planet to be a happy place in the eternity of the universe surrounding us.

THE SOCIETY OF OWNERS VS THE PUBLIC SOCIETY

Consumers face their other responsibility: as a voter [1]

My current job is to support, coach and teach a new generation of students to become legal professionals in the arena of International and European law. Our program is new, and thus we have ongoing discussions among the members of our faculty on the development and scope of the various elements of our curriculum. One area is Corporate Law. We concluded last year, with our first group of students, that we came only half way convincing our students that business and commerce is worth studying, both from the legal point of view and its wider context, from the view of the general public interest.

It is not uncommon for law students to harbor a distinct preference for matters of public interest, such constitutional law and human rights and for the causes that can be associated with it. Especially our students coming from countries with a recent background of conflict and war tend to be highly motivated in these areas. Rules that govern the conduct of private citizens or their (business) associations seem popular only with those who look out for a commercial career themselves, either as a corporate lawyer or simply as an entrepreneur.

But even for those students with a predominantly “public” outlook, there is a good reason to develop a keen interest in the rules of business and commerce. First of all: most of the rules that govern commercial processes have the public interest at their heart. We all benefit from effective commercial or corporate legislation and its compliance, both from the view of private predictability (pacta sunt servanda) and from the point of view of (public) accountability.



Secondly, we live in a time when many call for a fundamental reassessment of the rules of private enterprises, for instance of financial institutions and capital markets. This happens after a significant period which saw considerable public property move to the private sector and in which the rules of the market enjoyed a great popularity even as the – alleged - mechanism for improved service and cost reduction in areas traditionally belonging to the public domain.

Thirdly, corporations grow into ever larger conglomerates, assuming (or strengthening) a global market control surpassing the scale of control in the hands of any currently existing (international) public institution.


Royal Dutch Shell: more powerful in the world than many single nations

“While the amount of mergers continue to climb, statistics indicate that the average size of the smaller American law firm have decreased, reflecting an overall lean in the industry towards the megafirm.” [2]

The need for new rules regarding financial institutions today is perhaps most strongly felt in the US, following the collapse of major banks. But even the recent election of a new US President can not overnight swap away the greatly increased influence and actual power of large, multinational financial and other commercial corporations. But they will, by virtue of this irreversible development of increased scale and economic influence, increasingly become subject of public scrutiny at the same time. Or at least: this is what we should wish to happen.



It is therefore paramount that legal professionals, professionals especially of International and European law!, should fundamentally understand the principles and mechanics of corporate law and essential elements of private law (such as torts, contracts, litigation), at the same time. This will be in the interest of the scope and effectiveness of corporate law as much as those of public international law. The rules governing the owner (mostly: the owner of capital) should be well balanced against the interests of society, i.e. the public interest.

But what is the definition of “public interest”? When do we wish to be regarded as free consumers and when should we stress our responsibilities as a citizen? As experience tells us, this definition is in evolution all the time. We have to establish and reestablish our sense of public interest every time and again. We live in such a time; a time of some profound redefinitions. This most certainly is one of them: the redefinition of capitalist’s duties and privileges versus the interest of the lager society’s well-being.

An other important principle that drives the conduct of private business is the principle of freedom. In the western world we have clearly chosen for free enterprise and the primacy of consumer autonomy (of which the idea of a free market economy is a necessary corollary). Despite all regulations of both corporate responsibility and product composition, our economies are largely based on real-time consumer preferences. At the same time we allow for a wide range of mechanisms aimed at influencing consumer behavior.

A cynical view would picture this state of affairs as nothing less than a situation comparable with mass slavery. Consumers have no real choice, we are all driven by greater powers to empty our pockets largely to satisfy theirs. Indeed, we can stage our world as an epic drama not of capitalists and consumers but of vicious predators versus the enslaved masses. Enslaved not by force but by seduction. Consumerism is slavery in the disguise of sweets, candies and endless entertainment with no other purpose than to satisfy the selfish desires of the ignorant.




Lawyers indeed can look at private enterprise, public responsibility and consumer behavior with a great deal of cynicism. Much of our current legislation stems from this – kind of – basic lack of trust (in humanity), however may – politically – be professed otherwise. Legislators are humans too, one must remember.

Nevertheless, at crucial points in history legislation came about that was founded in trust, and that projected a new perspective of hope and improvement, for instance at the level of constitutions or acts of independence (“We the People….”), or at the level of national legislation, such as increased voter’s rights and civil rights. We say: yes of course! But this is not always self-evident. Quite a few treaties, and quite a few national laws had been subject of severe strife before they came about. The soul of any law is the struggle it took to get there; history, debates, memo’s and parliamentary questions.

Equally, when we look at corporate law and market regulation from a positive view: that it should all be there to benefit consumers and to benefit the entrepreneurs who service all those various markets, and not simply to restrict them, or curtail commercial innovation, etcetera. And at times, businesses are crucial as partners in times of change and ongoing – and uncertain – innovation. And this is where the private and the public meet again, at many intervals, for instance in our present time.



Above I mentioned the relatively limited influence of a US President even in the face of major economic crises. But one should say that the influence of this office potentially is very great, as the historic example of F.D. Roosevelt convincingly demonstrates, and not just his. Perhaps I can refer you to a speech of President-Elect Obama, which he held back in February this year [3], standing in a GM Car plant and explaining his view on the desired economic policies. At that time, the financial crisis had not yet surfaced. Yet he was making his point right in the hall of one of the big automobile corporations, General Motors, the same corporation that right now begs for public = taxpayer’s money.

We should as much be critical of the public ideologies as of the market ideologies which govern the rules, but also the debates. And we should be very interested in the development of both, exactly in this forthcoming period of shifting paradigms in almost all spheres.

All of the above is to encourage a sense of curiosity among our students in the corporate side of (international) public life, not in contrast but rather to strengthen their emerging competences in overall international law.

Owners do have entitlements, and so have consumers, but there is our responsibility as a voter too. We all must have some common sense of the forces that drive us to more or less cooperation in the modern world, whether they stem from greed or the desire for power, superstition or whatever kind of idealism. Corporate law is one such territory where careful balances have been stricken. It serves freedom and competition, but it secures their broader responsibilities (or potential liabilities) too.

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[1] ) This essay was originally written as an introduction to the scope and relevance of (International) Corporate Law in the curriculum of the International Bachelor of Law program at The Hague University.

[2] ) (The Illinois Business Law Journal, Nov 13 2007, “Megafirm Merger Mania”:
http://iblsjournal.typepad.com/illinois_business_law_soc/2007/11/megafirm-merger.html).

[3] ) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3R9g5iQcZE&feature=related

It is up to each new generation to articulate its own vision of life

Three generations between 1800 and 1900

History is the ongoing story of successive generations. Yet we are used to perceive it as a gradually unraveling tale in which generations are just a coincidence, an arbitrary addition to all the other pieces of a chess board. But we are not simply the bystanders in a play. We create the various acts of the play ourselves, each one at a time. The generations make their own choices and they make their own mistakes.

What constitutes a generation? The transition between generations often happens only gradually and sometimes two or more generations belong together for having lived out the same convictions and the same themes of their time or epoch. The true divides between generations or periods can only be established afterwards. For instance, I have come to perceive the generations of my parents and grandparents much in the same light, even though there have been substantive transitions within their time. But both carried the last period of nationalist strife and imperial conflict on the soil of Europe, with two World Wars and a simultaneous acceleration in the industrial and technological development of the western world.

When my own generation came of age a distinct rift slashed the connection with the generation of my parents. The nineteen sixties led our world to an entirely new outlook, a transition process which took well over twenty years, up until the end of the eighties. We entered the childhood years of global communication and information and thus of a new period of renewal and change of which we yet have to see the end.

I am part of the so called (Baby) Boom generation, born after 1940. I strongly identify with this generation. I hope I have contributed to the records of my generation in my own very modest way, for I do wish that the character and the dreams of our generation carry through into eternity. Our generation above all is connected with the future. We had visions of the year 2000, a paradise of mechanization and luxury. A world of blue skies and private jets flying through the cities, of Rock Music and holograms, and of a horizon of high rise apartment buildings and industrial food production. When on Jan 1st 2000 (or 2001, which was the proper first day of the Millennium) we woke up, there were still cows grazing in the fields, gassy cars driving around, in ever longer queues, we still had classical music and normal Television, even though everything had been expanded and modernized along the way. Back in the sixties we couldn’t dream of an Information Age, but in 2001 it had solidly arrived.


Two generations: the 1920s and the 1950s

It is my experience that when time moves on, our perspective of the past evolves with it. I find this an utterly fascinating phenomenon. One can sense that the days we can still remember change in color, in relative importance or in their actual meaning, as I can see with more clarity about the transitional period between the sixties and the early nineties. It took those decades to finally shrug off the last remnants of the convictions and adversities which had shaped the larger part of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

But most likely any contemporary assessment of our recent past will be superseded by another. Decades that loom large in our own memory will shrink to mere seconds in future accounts of our time. Some Presidents will be forgotten and some will become legendary. Innovations which today do not seem significant will in future time seem huge and decisive, whereas other developments will fade away in blurry tales.

We do have the advantage, of course, that our time is a period of immense record keeping at ever larger scale. Hardly any incident, small or great, can escape future researchers: our time will offer its records on a golden plate, however flexible the context in which they may be presented to generations after us.

I would very much like to write the history of humanity strictly from the viewpoint of successive generations, the collective of all individuals in each distinct period . I am not the only one thinking in those terms. This I conclude from a brief search on the Internet. One website [1] describes the past six hundred years – the period between 1400 and 2000 – as a succession of some 24 distinct generations, be it from a predominantly American viewpoint, each with its own characteristics. For instance, the generation which faced the Depression and World War II is called the Missionary Generation (F.D. Roosevelt e.a.), and their period is labeled as “The Third Great Awakening”.

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The Silent Generation (Artist, born 1925-1942) grew up as the suffocated children of war and depression. They came of age just too late to be war heroes and just too early to be youthful free spirits. Instead, this early-marrying Lonely Crowd became the risk-averse technicians and professionals—as well as the sensitive rock ‘n rollers and civil-rights advocates—of a post-crisis era in which conformity seemed to be a sure ticket to success. Midlife was an anxious “passage” for a generation torn between stolid elders and passionate juniors. Their surge to power coincided with fragmenting families, cultural diversity, institutional complexity, and prolific litigation. They are entering elderhood with unprecedented affluence, a “hip” style, and a reputation for indecision. (AMERICAN: Colin Powell, Walter Mondale, Woody Allen, Martin Luther King, Jr., Sandra Day O’Connor, Elvis Presley; FOREIGN: Anne Frank, Mikhail Gorbachev)
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I would limit the number of generations to two or three per century, allowing for a broad definition of successive periods, and covering an average of forty to fifty years per generation. We may have to distinguish “early” and “late” varieties of certain generations but they should have largely lived in a continuum of style, advancement, cultural preferences, political paradigms etc. Based on this I have made my own identification of generations between 1800 and 2000. But this is just a first broad brush attempt.


A view of five generations 1800 – 2000 (years of birth):

1790 – 1840 – The Generation of the Restoration (Politicians and Literary figures)

1840 – 1880 – The Generation of Romance and the Bourgeoisie (Victorians)

1880 – 1935 – The Generation of Mass Wars and Invention (Entrepreneurs and Generals)

1935 – 1980 – The Generation of the Popular Revolution (Rock Bands and Managers)

1980 – 2020 – The Generation of Information and Communication (Global Culture)


Every generation is transitory to some extent. In our personal lives we may have developed a clear sense of ‘generation identity’ yet at the same time we are caught in between. We grew up as children of the older generation and we aim to be connected with the generation of our children (and if possible, of our grandchildren). In my framework we can experience at least two distinct periods or generations in one single lifetime.

As a rule, history is described as a tale of wars, leadership policies and great events. The underlying developments and shifts in society do not always get the attention of historians that they deserve.

But history is not simply about the dreams and victories of Kings and Popes, of Emperors and great movements. It must also be about the dreams and convictions of the people. Why not consider history from the perspective of the ordinary man: a good civilian with a keen eye for the things that happen in this world, who intelligently observes the ongoing flow of human passion, the pleasures of the masses and the great thoughts of literature, and who may somehow participate in them or even be part of their creation.


Three generations between the 1960s and 2005

What dreams and convictions were passed on from one generation to the other, what dreams persisted even longer? For instance, the dreams of Jesus Christ or the idea of one Europe as it once was cherished by Charlemagne. And what dreams never got another chance? It is interesting to note that each generation has its thoughts about the end of time, some Apocalypse or Doomsday. But then, we all have our vision of Utopia, or Paradise too. Where has humanity come after we segregated from the kingdom of the animals?

When I try to distinguish my generation (born in the 1950s) from the generation of my parents (born in the 1920s), one single theme stands out: their loyalty to the order of their parents versus our desire to dismantle it. Historic events (i.e. WW II versus the emergence of popular culture) have had a significant influence in shaping these characteristics. It didn’t come with our blood, it came with opportunity and the right economic, demographic [2] and cultural context .

Thus, every generation faces the challenge of achieving its authenticity in the eyes of history. No generation would wish to be cast aside as mere transitory. Each generation faces its struggle of independence of the parents’ generation, each generation creates its own convictions, passions, and fashions. And this applies to the individual too, even though we do not all go to the very limits. Nevertheless we have the freedom to re-invent everything however it suits us.

But even if we accept the idea of a history of humanity as a tale of successive generations we can not, nor should we wish to escape their interaction with the larger historic events. It is impossible to understand the scope and impact of the popular revolution(s) in the nineteen sixties without reflecting on the Cold War, the war in Vietnam, or on any other major issue of the time. Obviously not. We are not talking about separate histories but about another viewpoint from which to relate to largely the same facts. Still it remains an open question to what extent the various elements of ‘history’ truly interact and how they relate in terms of cause and effect. What was the true impact of John F. Kennedy’s assassination from the perspective of the ‘people’s history’? It may become more important to understand these interactions as we have moved well into the age of the masses, of an ever growing world population with many interconnections.

If it was still possible at the time of my parents’ and grandparents’ generation to see ‘history’ as a largely regional affair – for instance: European history, or American history – and to define their progression from a defined social viewpoint (the distinct social segments to which the members of their generation belonged), this will become increasingly difficult for the subsequent generations. Traditional segmentations and class distinctions are rapidly being replaced by dynamic networks both at regional level and beyond. Our virtual reality is becoming a prime reality in which we fulfill many different functions – and satisfy many different objectives or desires. It is probably realistic to say that at this stage it is impossible to assess the ultimate implications of this development, especially the implications for ‘history’, from whatever perspective without some global perspective guiding it.

It has been a fashion for some time to flirt with the idea of ‘the end of history’, following Fukuyama’s famous publication of the late 1980s. The concept has been much debated, often without sufficient consideration to one of Fukuyama’s key points. His thesis on the course, and driving factors, of ‘history’ included the requirement of ‘thymos’, the desire for recognition that pushes certain individuals to project ambitions beyond well trodden paths. Already, some two decades after the self-proclaimed victory of free market capitalism and liberal democracy over any remaining totalitarian system, it is clear to us that History has not stopped there. Foundations for new historic themes are being laid right before our eyes. They are new themes compared with the issues of power and people’s influence of the Twentieth and Nineteenth centuries, such as Climate control, world population, international security, global political and economic institutions and so on. As yet we can not determine how or what ‘history’ will come out of this. It requires the hindsight of people living some hundred or more years from now.

New generations will continue to inhabit our planet either in tranquil succession or with massive bangs. Their future stories, much as the stories of past generations, will be the ongoing tale of humanity, indeed, like Fukuyama said, until de very last man.

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[1] ) Generations in history - http://www.fourthturning.com/my_html/body_generations_in_history.html

[2] ) Some time in the early eighties I attended a business course at which we had a professor of demographics as a guest lecturer. In a persuasive presentation he pictured the course of history entirely as a function of demographics, for instance contrasting a more restrictive elderly society with a young and boundless society, societies which are conducive to a stable democracy and societies which are prone to absolutism or authoritarian rule.