Chin up, head high, and proud, we encourage one another to “do the right thing” during the Downswing of “We,” but we are also weary and worn. It is a time of duty, obligation, and sacrifice. Regimentation has replaced inspiration, process smothers innovation, and policy precludes personal judgment.
The Downswing of a “We” is when we exhale from the emotional exhaustion that comes from trying so very hard to be “good.”
Pulled by the gravity of the Moon, the rise and fall of the tide is a reliable phenomenon in every large body of water on our planet. Likewise, the social trends the Pendulum measures are immutable. But these trends have long escaped our notice because, unlike the twenty-four-hour cycle of the tide, a complete cycle of the Pendulum is eighty years.
Figure 10.1 The first half of a downswing of “WE.”
The Granger Collection, NYC
Born Yesterday was the 1946 hit play on Broadway that openly mocked the “Me” perspective. In it, wealthy and powerful Harry Brock makes a trip to Washington, DC, to buy a senator. Harry is loud and domineering. The play revolves around his girlfriend, Billie Dawn. “I started in thinking,” she says, “I couldn’t get to sleep for ten minutes.” Dawn is clearly an ignoramus, but without shame. She says to her tutor, Paul Verrall, who has been hired to educate her so that she can blend into Washington society, “I’m stupid, and I like it,” though he dissuades this attitude. Under his tutelage, the bimbo becomes a bookworm. Critic John Lahr for the New Yorker stated,
WE |
Billie’s transformation acts out on a personal level the public awakening for which the play argues—the shedding of corrupt laissez-faire attitudes for more responsible social policy.1 |
Born Yesterday opened on February 4, 1946, and ran for 1,642 performances. It was then adapted into a 1950 film for which Judy Holliday won an Oscar for best actress. In the words of Lahr, the play is a theatrical argument for “the shedding of corrupt laissez-faire attitudes for more responsible social policy.” Is it any wonder Born Yesterday was revived on Broadway in 2011, when society was again approaching the Zenith of a “We”?
Figure 10.2 Characteristics of society at the Zenith of a “WE” cycle.
| WEZENITH CHARACTERISTICS | |
| TAKING A GOOD THING TOO FAR | |
| “WHEN A STUPID MAN IS DOING SOMETHING HE IS ASHAMED OF, HE ALWAYS DECLARES THAT IT IS HIS DUTY.”—George Bernard Shaw | |
• Personal liberties stripped away • Self-righteous • Duty, obligation, sacrifice • Secretly dissatisfied |
• Long for freedom • Regimentation • Process smothers innovation • Claustrophobic and oppressive |
Music
Let’s look now at the values reflected in popular music during the Downswing from the “We” of 1943. Notice how the lyrics of the number-one hits reflect the hunger of unmet needs while at the same time encouraging the public to “do the right thing.”
Figure 10.3 Popular music themes after a “WE” Zenith.
