07-26-2019, 02:28 PM
(07-26-2019, 02:10 PM)sbarrera Wrote:(07-26-2019, 01:49 AM)pbrower2a Wrote: 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.
Interesting. I'm used to hearing that people today take *longer* to grow up.
It depends upon whether one refers to intellectual sophistication (which depends upon what people do with their time), behavior (associated with cognitive development often defined with a measure such as IQ), vocational adulthood (probably slower now, as there are few teenagers upon whom their worn-out parents depended upon for making ends meet as was the case in the early-industrial era), cultural adulthood (kids in the last seventy years or so have typically distinguished themselves with a very different affiliation to mass culture by their mid-teens, political adulthood (there are eighteen-year-olds voting, and voting ages have been as high as thirty in the past), and economic adulthood (not being deeply in hock to lenders for education that allows one to hold a career). Mature enough for such vices as alcohol and cancerweed? The legal age for using either has gone up,,, and I see nothing unsophisticated about choosing not to drink, smoke, or gamble.
It is ambiguous. In the middle ages children were cannon fodder and orphans of tender age were responsible for making their economic contributions as serfs just like their deceased parents. In no way were they sophisticated in view of the complete lack of formal education for non-elites.
It is obvious that few people define themselves vocationally until they have reached their peak college degree if they get one. So one worked in the fast food business while going through college and has eventually become an engineer; one certainly quits speaking of oneself as a fast-food worker unless trying to get someone to accept such a job as a way to develop credibility as a worker.
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.