A Musing on Generations.

It seems that there is a pattern amongst each generation to defy the conventions of the one before it. As one grows up they go through a natural cycle of defiance, and this cycle is echoed in society as a whole. However this thought is marred by the use of a faulted operator. What exactly is a generation? We could arbitrarily assign them to be every 20 years, but that leaves some people born only weeks, days or minutes apart in opposite generations. I would propose we define them by certain key events. There is a critical period in each person’s life between the ages of ten and twenty where they develop at an alarming rate. The psychological differences between a fourteen year old and a sixteen year old are immense. Think of key events in the collective consciousness, events that change the lives of the entire country. Someone who entered post 9-11 America at the age of 10 may well grow up to be a blind fervor patriot. Yet someone from the same economic and cultural backgrounds who entered post 9-11 America at the age of 16 may grow up to be a blind fervor anarchist. Significant events like this can change society immensely, and can create a real dividing line which makes those whose ages differ by as little as 3 years clearly part of a different generation.

This brings me to the Vulcans. I don’t know the whole story of it, but it’s my understanding that Vulcans only mate every seven years. This means that in Vulcan society generations are sharp and clearly defined. It also means that if one Vulcan is 21, they will never meet a 20 year old Vulcan, or a 25 year old Vulcan. This also means that every generation will have a clear identity. They can work together as a generation, in a system much more clearly defined then the lowly terran socio-biological systems. Think about their school systems, their voting age, their marketing. You aren’t marketing to the precious demographic; you’re marketing to the demographic that exists. There would be clear seven year pattern of rise and fall of demand in certain items. Once every seven years diapers and the infinite errata that go into child rising become obscenely valuable. 15 years later depressing Goth music soars as Vulcan children everywhere dress in black, light candles, smoke clove, and complain that nobody understands them. 21 years after that the Vulcan liquor market soars. Birthday is probably a national holiday. It’s the day that everyone from generation X was born. It would also open up a vast new venue for studying Vulcan psychological change over time. Three generations ago Vulcans at this age liked this more then that, the gradual change in consumer desire, common knowledge, etc. It would also make it exceedingly hard to lie about your age. Unless you can look a full seven years older or younger, you’re not going to fool anyone.

Then again, the Vulcans aren’t real, and this is just another idle musing. I enjoy my idle musings, they keep me sane. Well not sane, but at the proper level of insane.