Thank you for your great comments. I completely agree that there isn't any single thing that defines a generation but a whole swath of overlapping factors, conditions, and events. I'd be happy to do away with the whole idea of generations because they are empty labels, as are all labels pretty much. What I tried to do here in this article is offer some kind of thinking process to replace the current knee-jerk labeling.

My primary point is that when considering people, we have to look at what affected them. I focused on major world events as a starting point. As I mention, every individual has a different set of influences and their own free will responses to those influences. The kids in my neighborhood when I was a kid had the same basic set of influences but responded very differently and we know live very different lives.

I like the cyclical generations theory. An 80-years cycle, or spiral, of cultural development makes sense.