Category: Civilization, History, and Anthropology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_JonesNO WE ARE NOT ‘BOOMERS’. I AM NOT A BOOMER. THE BOOMERS DESTROYED CIVILIZATION. WE HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH THEM. AT ALL.

Generations are not determined by dates, or head-counts, but by shared experiences – the perception of changes either within or beyond our control.

People of my generation are members of the ‘JONES GENERATION’. We missed the sixties and were formed by the seventies: The fantasy of the excessiveness of the 60’s followed by our perception of “the great fall”: Gas Lines, unemployment, post-Watergate, post-Vietnam, the Iran Hostage crisis, a cowardly president in blue jeans, doomsday movies and books, and a pervasive fear of the accelerating cold war, with technology as the only promise of redemption, and star wars as our mythological call to arms. My generation includes the tech giants that changed our world.

I’d burn the boomers at the stake and alternately throw gasoline, salt. vinegar, and lemon juice on them if I could. So please don’t call me or my generation ‘boomers’.

Because boomer doesn’t mean ‘population boom’. It means ‘destroyer of civilization.’

As Charleton Heston famously said while looking at the remains of the statue of liberty: “Damn you! Damn you all to Hell!”

—- NOTES —–

“Generation Jones is a term coined by Jonathan Pontell to describe the cohort of people born between 1954 and 1965. Pontell defined Generation Jones as referring to the second half of the post–World War II baby boom. The term also includes first-wave Generation X.”

“In his book, Pontell observes that this age group felt the bright promise and optimism shown to children in the 60s, only to have those hopes crushed by hard economic realities brought by recession, rising energy costs, high interest rates and tight employment when they came of age in the 70s. Hence the term “jonesin’” means to be yearning or even craving something and not yet finding fulfillment.”

“They didn’t buy into or were too young to understand the Baby Boomer tantrums; yet they were a tad to old to join the Gen-Xers in the mosh pits.”

“Between Woodstock and Lallapalooza….”

“We are practical idealists…”

“…craving…”

“…forged in the fires of social upheaval while too young to play a part….”

“…experiencing the fall and blaming them for it….”

The name “Generation Jones” derives from ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ competition of our populous birth years.”

“Yuppies, not hippies.”