10-03-2016, 06:52 PM
Warren Dew Wrote:Thanks for the clarification. With regard to the problem, if I understand your argument correctly, the issue is that Strauss & Howe's limited statements on generational propagation would imply that the temporal "pulses" represented by generations would broaden and become less distinct over the course of time without some mechanism to reinforce the boundaries between generations. Is that accurate? If so, I agree that's an unresolved issue in Generations
Yep.
Quote:To me, a narrow duration of the imprinting phase of life seems implausible: people get married at widely differing ages; people have their first children at widely differing ages; people shift from education to work over a broad band of ages. Why would generational imprinting happen in a narrow band of ages, in contrast to all of those?
The concept I am using comes from political science and deals with the acquisition of a political paradigm (worldview) that guides how one sees the political and socioeconomic issues. An assumption is history is largely made by politically active people (minimally those that vote). People generally start to think about voting as they reach the age of suffrage. Unlike the things you mentioned, developing a political opinion is pretty effortless, and should happen pretty quickly after one first starts voting. So you would expect political paradigms to form over a fairly short time. A lot of research shows that political ideas, once formed, are quite resistant to the later additional information. In fact, contrary information often strengthens the prior belief. So one formed, these paradigms would be durable and held long after they may no longer be applicable.
Quote:Temporally narrow social moments seem more plausible. Certainly the crisis wars don't tend to last more than a few years.
The problem with narrow social moments that I see is the phase of life. People do not, as a rule, go through life roles in lockstep. You are a perfect example. You have children around the age of my grandchildren. I started in my field 35 years ago, and am nearing retirement. You began in your current field much more recently. In many ways you are a phase of life behind me and so would be a late wave Gen Xer* with the narrow social moment. But with the narrow political-paradigm imprinting period we would be in the same generation, late-wave Boomers.
*If we have a crisis war in the next few years that sets us in our generations, the role I will play is an elder one—making me a Boomer, while you will play a mature adult role and so become a GenXer.