The average human’s lifetime spans ~6 distinct historical eras today, each 12-15y long. So it’s like living through a 6-part movie series.
Historically the average was 1 because lifespans were shorter and history was much slower.
Era boundaries tend to be a rough global consensus within a 2-3 year band so you’ll likely be born in the middle of one and die in the middle of one too.
So 5 full eras and 2 bookend half-eras. Which means cold open part 1, leave before learning how part 7 ends.
I think recent eras are:
1964-1979: long 60s
1980-1993: long 80s
1994-2007: long 90s
2008-2021: long Weirding
2022-2033: long 20s
Enough time has passed that long 80s, long 90s feel like “history” to me now. Don’t remember long 60s since I was only 5 when it ended.
Increasingly I think absolute history created by landmark events is what we end up confusing for Strauss-Howe “generations.” The long 60s are much better defined than “boomers” even though it coincides with their coming-of-age years.
Correct. I was thinking of 2-year microgenerations for a while driven by social media platform cohorts. But I think that’s a shallow higher harmonic of a derivative thing (generations). The 12-15y time constant probably comes from time to adulthood
One reason I’m pondering this is I finally have a “full” sense of the long 80s and long 90s. Both feel narratively complete somehow. Like they’ve settled down in critical ways. There’s still loose ends but they won’t change the endings. You could make complete movies about them.