Owls: Born 1996 – 2007

No value population has ever been faced with greater issues of generational synthesis than the Owls. This is a value population that must simultaneously come to terms with the tribalism of the Patriots, the individualism of the Performers, the pragmatism of the Techticians, the faith of the Believers, and the competitiveness of the Transformers. All of these qualities are encountered in a particularly complex and convoluted, one may arguably add hostile, period of global history, a time of unprecedented technology-driven intellectual and emotional din.

Thus it should in no way be surprising if the key value trait of the Owls proves to be an urge to distill and synthesize competitive value concepts, to hunt for broad worldviews that are blessed with ‘absolute’ integrity and meaning. Birthed in an era of boundless political posturing, of endless and often dubious information, of fierce ideology proliferation and pontificating doubletalk, Owls are reasonably characterized as seekers of “clarity,” pinning their survival to a seeker’s proprietary development of worldliness and wonder. Their collective path will certainly be no easy one, as temptation and predation and dissembling and resource scarcity will lurk around every bend, but they are likely to possess talents formed by their cultural apprenticeship…important owl-like ones…such as a skill for hunting (truth), and a nascent ability to both see and fly in the dark.

“It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.”

—Bill Clinton, grand jury testimony, Monica Lewinsky affair (1998)

“I just want you to know that, when we are talking about war, we are really talking about peace.”

—George W. Bush, HUD speech (2002)