Josh Chafetz complains, "Why is it that those who call for 'dialogue' never have any substantive contribution to make to the dialogue? Look, if you have a point to make, then make it. But if not, then don't call for more talking simply to forestall action."

Perhaps Josh has discovered the Silent Generation. Social science based on cycles of history may or may not be useful, but that doesn't stop people from trying. Go to Fourth Turning to see some efforts.

The short version of the story: does anybody else remember Vice President Agnew dismissing thirty-something "vicars of vacillation?" He was trashing the same cohort who are now the sixty-somethings running the New York Times (and occupying most of the faculty committees, but that's a rant for another day.) Such people were born during a major secular crisis (the Depression and World War II) and had no major coming-of-age challenges (perhaps apart from civil rights -- how many of the Guilty Southern White Boys are sixty-somethings?)

The circumstances of their youth lead to the following tendencies: "Overprotected as children, they become underprotective parents. Their principal endowment activities are in the domain of pluralism, expertise, and due process. Their best-known leaders include: William Shirley and Cadwallader Colden; John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson; Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson; Walter Mondale, and Colin Powell. These have been sensitive and complex social technicians, advocates of fair play and the politics of inclusion." (from Fourth Turning).

I have read the book. The authors have a maintained hypothesis that Europe's last secular crisis ended later than it did in the Anglosphere. Thus, Europe's Silent Generation is a few years younger than the Anglosphere's.