07-26-2019, 01:49 AM
It has varied from 80 to 100 years. In Roman times a saeculum was a century, as shown in its French derivative siècle, the Italian secolo, and the Spanish siglo. Maybe it took longer for people in antiquity and medieval times to reach full cultural and economic maturity due to rigid, inherited social roles, malnutrition, and lower levels of formal education. It is clear that in the last two centuries people have grown up faster and taken on adult roles earlier as economic actors. The difference between people becoming adults at 20 instead of at 25 or so is between four generations in 80 years instead of 100.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.