I talked a lot of smack up there about Strauss & Howe but I'm glad I read it. They make the point that every Western generation that follows yours is full of fuck you anti-establishment punks (static establishment cultures such as the Ottoman Empire or Confucian China excepted) and their "generational theory" makes an attempt at explaining the shape and color of their anti-establishment punkitude. They make some broad, sweeping and non-falsifiable claims but they also point out that if you rebel against your parents you're going to end up assuming your grandparents' values. The Chinese Zodiac is about as empirically defensible, with a length of 12 years. I guess the basis of that is the orbital period of Jupiter (who knew?) while Strauss and Howe pin the "saeculum" at 80 years because "that's the average lifetime of a person." NVM that "the average lifetime of a person"... well...