Quote Originally Posted by BCram View Post
How many years forms a generation?

about thirty years

A generation is the period of time, usually considered to be*about thirty years, that it takes for children to grow up and become adults and have children of their own.
It's not and the use of the term 'once in a generation' was actually quite clever by Sturgeon because it's not a period of time. It's defined as the total population alive at any point in time. It's a number of people, not a period of time. Look at your description above of a generation - it says 'usually considered' but not 'defined'. So it's subjective right off the bat.

Think about it (sorry that's twice tonight I've said that to you, I'm really not being smarmy). If a generation was a period of thirty years when would that thirty years start? If person A argued that it started five years ago when their child was born and will end twenty five years from now when their thirty and person B argued it was actually 7 years ago when theirs was born and will end in twenty three years you can see that there can be no start point for this measure and therefore no end point - it would be a moving target without form or definition. Would those children be from different generations? Probably not for most people.

So, extrapolate that to the statement that the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 was a 'once in a generation' referendum. If we assume that a generation is thirty years then at that point in time (18th September 2014) there were multiple generations in effect, many millions in fact, but let's single out three of them. One started twenty eight years before the referendum, one started twenty three years before it and at the other extreme one started the day after it. Now is February 2023, seven years on from that date. One of those generations has expired, it's gone, it's spent. Another will expire soon and will also be gone but the other hadn't even started in 2014 so can it even count?

Now, ask yourself not only how long a generation is but when the generation in question started. Can something that has no start point and therefore no possible end point actually be considered an entity?

One final thing to consider - the 'next generation'. Is that only those born today? Because thirty years from now those born yesterday were the last generation and those born tomorrow are the next next generation.

Apologies for the above but it does irk a bit when this subject comes up.