The will to power will return: DHH on civilizational cycles and the return of ambition

Short summary

DHH reflects on why the West lost its 'will to power,' contrasting France's 1980s nuclear build-out of 43 reactors in seven years each with today's managed decline. He draws on Strauss and Howe's 'The Fourth Turning' theory of cyclical generational phases—High, Awakening, Unraveling, Crisis—to argue the current Crisis will eventually produce a new hero generation that rejects present ineffectuality. The piece is an essay on civilizational ambition, not a technology topic.

• •France built 43 nuclear reactors in the 1980s averaging seven years each; such ambition seems inconceivable today
• •Strauss and Howe's Fourth Turning theory frames current decline as a cyclical Crisis phase preceding a new High
• •DHH argues the next hero generation will reject managed decline and reclaim bold ambition

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.