1. Make It New

They all lost.

In elections worldwide, culminating with undisputed reality-show champion Donald Trump’s victory in America’s Presidential Reality Show®, the old guard was defeated. From Brexit to Trump, to populist movements sweeping across Europe, the worldwide hunger to “Make It New” scored resounding victories.

But these victories were not just reflections of the populace’s disdain for a neo-feudal class of entrenched political nobility – the economic elite, the 1 Percent who reap Gilded Age bounties of financial rewards – that rules with impunity and lives above the law.

Indeed, whether or not their populist heroes fulfill the promises that led to their victories, more so, throwing out the old political guard and bringing in the new is a far greater, more powerful, intensifying trend: The outright rejection of establishment, institutional systems.

‘Familiar’ does not cut it

Sweeping the gamut from political ideologies and financial systems at the top, down to the lowest depths of pop culture, across the media spectrum and throughout entrenched institutions, it’s clear: The substance, style and sound of what was once established, familiar and mainstream are dead and dying.

For example, it was more than just a nearly billion-dollar traditional ad campaign backing Hillary Clinton and the Democratic Party that was defeated in the Race for the White House. Despite the wholehearted backing of Hollywood’s biggest wigs, the oozing support from pop stars Beyoncé, Bruce Springsteen, Jay Z and the cast of rappers, et al.… despite the massive attention mainstream media bestowed upon them… and despite the richest billionaires and nearly entire Silicon Valley tech-algorithm elite behind the Clinton candidacy… they all lost to populist disgust for what they represent and who they supported.

A generation of failed leadership, and a worldwide suppression of the worker class’ ability to rise above economic mediocrity, have vacuumed out trust and respect for political, financial and pop-cultural systems that fail to inspire or motivate positive change. As the Trends Research Institute has repeatedly underscored: “…the economic, cultural, physical and moral health of much of the civilized world is in rapid decline. And there are no pillars of moral strength in leadership ranks.” (Trends Journal, July 2016.)

TREND FORECAST:  Populist movements are one – but only one – byproduct of this trend. The foundation has been set for revolution. It’ll come not only in the reformist, protest sense, but in the creation of new art, technology, social awareness and cultural movements that embrace the need for “new.”

Those that understand the depth and scope of this trend, and fulfill the needs of a society in search of deeper meaning and fuller representation, will reap the rewards.