Sunday, February 03, 2008
Tecumseh's Curse Explained by Periodic Presidents Theory
There was a story that when William Henry Harrison and his federal troops defeated Native Americans led by Tecumseh at the Battle of Tippecanoe in 1811, and then when Harrison ran for President in 1840, that Tecumseh threw a curse on him saying that he will die in office and that future Presidents will die in office. Harrison won on a ticket of "Tippecanoe and Tyler Too" in 1840 and took office in 1841 March, and gave his inaugural address on a cold winter day. He caught pneumonia so bad that he died a month later.
Since then Presidents elected in a year ending with 0 have died or been severely injured in office. This includes Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in 1865, James Garfield, assassinated in 1881, William McKinley, assassinated in 1901, Warren Harding, of a mysterious cause in 1923, Franklin D. Roosevelt, of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945, John F. Kennedy, assassinated in 1963, and Ronald Reagan, seriously injured by an attempted assassin in 1981. So the curse seems to have worked. Our present President, George W. Bush, was elected in 2000, which is not only a year ending with a 0, it was a year that ended with three zeroes. Will he succumb to the curse? Is this all a coincidence?
One can argue that it might be a coincidence. People like to point out that Booth assassinated Lincoln in a theater and ran to a warehouse, while Oswald assassinated Kennedy from a warehouse and ran to a theater. There are numerous other coincidences. Many of these can be explained as simply random occurring events, and maybe Tecumseh's curse can be. However, a reason for this curse can be found in my Periodic Presidents Theory.
This theory is an offshoot of Strauss and Howe's turning theory, which describes American history as a series of "turnings" that repeat in patterns of 4; that is, a First Turning followed by a Second Turning followed by a Third Turning followed by a Fourth Turning, and then followed by another First Turning and the pattern repeats. Right now, we are on the boundary between a Third Turning (unraveling) and a Fourth Turning (Crisis).
The Periodic Presidents theory develops this further by describing 12 types of American Presidents. These are, with their realizations in the current series of turnings (called a saeculum):
0. Crisis (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
1. Outspoken (Harry S. Truman)
2. National Hero (Dwight Eisenhower)
3. Golden Age (John F. Kennedy)
4. Gap (Lyndon Johnson)
5. Expansive (Richard M. Nixon)
6. Regressive (Gerald R. Ford)
7. Supportive (Jimmy Carter)
8. Optimistic (Ronald Reagan)
9. Held Back (George H. W. Bush)
10. Popular (William J. Clinton)
11. Nero/Hamlet (George W. Bush)
I call the ones in blue Dominant Presidents. These Presidents are the characteristic President of their Turnings. The Dominant President of the current Third Turning, for example, was Ronald Reagan.
So how does this explain the curse? These Dominant Presidents preside over a world of change, as one turning turns into another. For example, the crisis-hangover mood of the 1950s gave way to something different under Kennedy's administration. Something was going to be done about racial segregation in the South. Something was going to be done about poverty in the United States. Kennedy presided over change that represented the culmination of the First Turning High. Nixon expanded our country's international reach by opening up China to the rest of the world. Reagan replaced the malaise of the 1970s with the optimistic view of "Morning in America". All of these Presidents called for change. And maybe some people don't want change. That makes these Presidents more subject to attacks and assassinations than other Presidents.
There is exactly one Dominant President sequence (usually just a single President but the Era of Good Feelings lasted through two Presidents) in each turning. So how often do these Presidents come? Since there is one per turning, and since saecula last 80 years, and there are 4 turnings, there are therefore 80/4 or 20 years in a turning. So a Dominant President comes every 20 years. That is just the interval called for by the curse: every 20 years comes a Presidential election year that ends in 0.
And that explains the curse. You can call it a curse by a Native American. You can go astrological and call it the curse of the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn. But it still occurs every 20 years, and that is the result of the turnings of history. The coincidence is that this 20-year pattern matches the 20-year recurrence of Presidential years ending in 0.
Now this theory would not be believable unless it had some kinks in it. It does. William Henry Harrison was not a Dominant President. He was succeeded by a Regressive President, and then the President of Change came with Polk. Warren Harding died of mysterious causes, but he was a Popular President, and not a dominant Optimistic President, who happened to be Woodrow Wilson. But Wilson died shortly after he left office. Reagan was not killed by John Hinckley, only seriously wounded.
The latest chink may be happening right now. Dubya Bush may very well finish his term peacefully. This is because he is a Nero President, which is not a Dominant type. The 20-year pattern has gone askew. The next President will be a Crisis President (hopefully not another Nero!), the most Dominant of types. He will herald change to our society, as Barack Obama says in his speeches; in fact, according to Jim Kunstler, more change than he bargained for. So therefore it is the next President who will have to beware the curse. Further, if it is Obama, his similarities to Lincoln are so striking that he will be especially susceptible.
Since then Presidents elected in a year ending with 0 have died or been severely injured in office. This includes Abraham Lincoln, assassinated in 1865, James Garfield, assassinated in 1881, William McKinley, assassinated in 1901, Warren Harding, of a mysterious cause in 1923, Franklin D. Roosevelt, of a cerebral hemorrhage in 1945, John F. Kennedy, assassinated in 1963, and Ronald Reagan, seriously injured by an attempted assassin in 1981. So the curse seems to have worked. Our present President, George W. Bush, was elected in 2000, which is not only a year ending with a 0, it was a year that ended with three zeroes. Will he succumb to the curse? Is this all a coincidence?
One can argue that it might be a coincidence. People like to point out that Booth assassinated Lincoln in a theater and ran to a warehouse, while Oswald assassinated Kennedy from a warehouse and ran to a theater. There are numerous other coincidences. Many of these can be explained as simply random occurring events, and maybe Tecumseh's curse can be. However, a reason for this curse can be found in my Periodic Presidents Theory.
This theory is an offshoot of Strauss and Howe's turning theory, which describes American history as a series of "turnings" that repeat in patterns of 4; that is, a First Turning followed by a Second Turning followed by a Third Turning followed by a Fourth Turning, and then followed by another First Turning and the pattern repeats. Right now, we are on the boundary between a Third Turning (unraveling) and a Fourth Turning (Crisis).
The Periodic Presidents theory develops this further by describing 12 types of American Presidents. These are, with their realizations in the current series of turnings (called a saeculum):
0. Crisis (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
1. Outspoken (Harry S. Truman)
2. National Hero (Dwight Eisenhower)
3. Golden Age (John F. Kennedy)
4. Gap (Lyndon Johnson)
5. Expansive (Richard M. Nixon)
6. Regressive (Gerald R. Ford)
7. Supportive (Jimmy Carter)
8. Optimistic (Ronald Reagan)
9. Held Back (George H. W. Bush)
10. Popular (William J. Clinton)
11. Nero/Hamlet (George W. Bush)
I call the ones in blue Dominant Presidents. These Presidents are the characteristic President of their Turnings. The Dominant President of the current Third Turning, for example, was Ronald Reagan.
So how does this explain the curse? These Dominant Presidents preside over a world of change, as one turning turns into another. For example, the crisis-hangover mood of the 1950s gave way to something different under Kennedy's administration. Something was going to be done about racial segregation in the South. Something was going to be done about poverty in the United States. Kennedy presided over change that represented the culmination of the First Turning High. Nixon expanded our country's international reach by opening up China to the rest of the world. Reagan replaced the malaise of the 1970s with the optimistic view of "Morning in America". All of these Presidents called for change. And maybe some people don't want change. That makes these Presidents more subject to attacks and assassinations than other Presidents.
There is exactly one Dominant President sequence (usually just a single President but the Era of Good Feelings lasted through two Presidents) in each turning. So how often do these Presidents come? Since there is one per turning, and since saecula last 80 years, and there are 4 turnings, there are therefore 80/4 or 20 years in a turning. So a Dominant President comes every 20 years. That is just the interval called for by the curse: every 20 years comes a Presidential election year that ends in 0.
And that explains the curse. You can call it a curse by a Native American. You can go astrological and call it the curse of the conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn. But it still occurs every 20 years, and that is the result of the turnings of history. The coincidence is that this 20-year pattern matches the 20-year recurrence of Presidential years ending in 0.
Now this theory would not be believable unless it had some kinks in it. It does. William Henry Harrison was not a Dominant President. He was succeeded by a Regressive President, and then the President of Change came with Polk. Warren Harding died of mysterious causes, but he was a Popular President, and not a dominant Optimistic President, who happened to be Woodrow Wilson. But Wilson died shortly after he left office. Reagan was not killed by John Hinckley, only seriously wounded.
The latest chink may be happening right now. Dubya Bush may very well finish his term peacefully. This is because he is a Nero President, which is not a Dominant type. The 20-year pattern has gone askew. The next President will be a Crisis President (hopefully not another Nero!), the most Dominant of types. He will herald change to our society, as Barack Obama says in his speeches; in fact, according to Jim Kunstler, more change than he bargained for. So therefore it is the next President who will have to beware the curse. Further, if it is Obama, his similarities to Lincoln are so striking that he will be especially susceptible.
