What phrase am I looking for?
I’m trying to think of a phrase that exemplifies a series of events and changing attitudes that all come together at the same time and generate the confidence and energy that allows a bigger and consolidated change to occur.
I’m trying to show that in the 1960s the global cultural changes, teamed with changing social attitudes, a series of positive political events and increased support provided the impetus for a minority group to undertake a major political movement and to bring about social change.
I think there is a phrase that will sum this up but I can’t think of it.
Any ideas?
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23 Answers
Thanks @ragingloli and @thorninmud. Tipping point would work. I was thinking around the concept of a snowball.
The winds of change blew into the perfect storm that made for the tipping point.
Is the phrase, the butterfly effect?
A confluence (or perhaps historic or unprecedented confluence, convergence, junction, merging) of events that launches (triggers, unleashes, causes) a seismic shift…
Grassroots movement (does not connote the change you are envisioning though).
How about meme? Or ascending social dynamic? Or, grassroots revolution
@Pachyderm_In_The_Room beat me to it. Confluence is a good one.
‘Coalescence’ also could be used to emphasize the coming together of seemingly disparate events.
If you’re referring to the moment/period itself, and not the events, you could use ‘watershed.’
@bookish Yes, watershed is a good one
A few years ago, I read a really fascinating book by Malcolm Gladwell titled “The Tipping Point and it was a fascinating read which you might also enjoy.
There’s a bit more about it at the link below.
www.gladwell.com/tippingpoint/
Not exactly what you are looking for but related, is the concept from the philosophy of science of a paradigm shift, referring to a whole new way of looking at things. The theory of evolution was one such paradigm shift and I think that civil rights was also a paradigm shift.
I’ll just toss one additional phrase into the mix in case it is more onomatopoetic in your use than than the rest. Such a confluence of forces is often called a “sea change.”
Sea-change, groundswell of opinion, hunger for diversity.
“There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune”?
Concrescence, in Alfred North Whitehead’s sense of the word. I’m having a hard time finding a link to explain this term, but this wiki is a good overview of the philosophy the concept comes from. The article’s discussion of concrescence is lacking, though; I’ll try to come back later after a more thorough search for a good explanation, or maybe I can find my old notes…
Thank you, thank you everyone. There are some really good ideas here I can draw on. I like confluence, coalescence, concrescence, tipping point, watershed, zeitgeist amongst others. Thank you so much! I’m writing a paper and had to get something off last night and I knew what I wanted to say but these ideas give me more to draw on.
You are all brilliant! Thank you.
@Bellatrix, thanks for asking us to help. Hope your paper went well.
Well it’s going but I had to put in an abstract and I knew what I wanted to say but I couldn’t find the write word. Thanks @Pachyderm_In_The_Room.
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