Generation Jokers are back

With Britain appearing to hand over power to a younger generation those that claim to be "Generation Jones" are reemerging. You know them, right? They were born somewhere between the mid 50's to the mid 60's and are too cool to be labeled either a boomer of GenXster.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg are neither Boomers nor GenXers. Instead, they belong to a distinct generation in between, one long under the radar and only now making its full impact felt. I coined the term "Generation Jones" for this long lost generation, which includes not only Cameron, Clegg, and many of Britain’s most influential new movers and shakers, but also over two thirds of the current Presidents and Prime Ministers of EU and NATO member countries. The exact birth years vary slightly between countries; in the UK, GenJonesers were born from 1955 to 1967, and are now 42 to 55 years old.

We Jonesers have long been lumped with Boomers simply because we arrived during the same long post-World War II spike in births. But generations arise from shared formative experiences, not head counts, and the two groups evolved with dramatic differences.

Please make the stupid stop

Here come the Jonesers again. Just like the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and innocent Catholic girls, they just don't exist.

Older boomers, offspring of WWII gneration, enjoyed a robust economy and the idealilsm of the Kennedy era. Younger boomers or Jonesers, lived through difficult econmic times and saw the idealism of older boomers become disillusionment. So the Joneses have a unique balance between idealism and cynicism, Pontell argues. They are practical idealists.

Generation Jones (AKA: Young Boomers in denial)

This entire invention of Gen Jones is as stooopid as 'Intelligent Design'. I have a feeling it's going to lead to a lot of Internet pie throwing contests over the years. I'll be sure to place myself in the middle of it.

Generation Jones (aka Baby Boomers in denial)

Even her opening paragraphs contradict.

I'm not much for labels or titles. Give me one that makes me feel shoved into a metaphorical box and I immediately begin to plan my escape. But
lately, I've been thinking about Generation Jones, which is the fairly new label for people born between 1955 and 1965. Jonesers are smooshed between Baby Boomers and Generation X'ers.

I'm starting the think we should just let the boomers have them all.

They've been quiet over the last month. Too quiet.

..but here's another 1/2 assed attempt at justifying a possible existence of a "Generation Jones".

What characterizes the Obama generation? To its boosters, like Jonathan Pontell, author of the "Generation Jones" construct, they(people born in the mid-1950s to the mid-'60s) are "practical idealists," tempered by growing up in a world in which many of their parents were more interested in self-fulfillment than they were in their children. That meant that, as latch-key kids stuck in front of the TV or left to their own devices, they had to master their own destiny at an early age the best they could.

"Where the Boomers naively tried to change the system and the Xers in a sense walked away from the system, my generation used the system to get what we wanted," Pontell told a reporter. "It's like the Boomers never realized they were playing the game, the Xers folded their cards, and my generation was wise to the game but said deal the cards anyway."

So funny. Throughout the history of the United States every generation amounts to approximately 20 or so years. But not the Jonesers. They're so special they deserve their very own 10 years.

Generation Jones exists..

...along with the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and baby boomers with good intentions.

I have argued that Obama is part of Generation X, but there are others that say he is part of a newly identified generation, "Generation Jones". In a recent article in USA Today has popularized the concept of a Generation Jones, born between 1954 and 1965. The idea is that there is a generation between The Boomers (born 1943-1960) and Generation X (born 1961-1981) that has traits of both but does not really feel it belongs to either. Although the concept is gaining in popularity as many people born during the Jones timeframe feel it resonates with them, I wonder if the concept really has much value.

More Gen X in the White House shit

I'm starting to like posting these because it drives the imaginary Generation Jones dickheads crazy.

Oh, I know, nothing is quite so neat and tidy—an entire generation doesn't have precise boundaries and certainly doesn't experience exactly the same thing at the same time. But several landmark events signal a change.

One, of course, is President-elect Obama. His swearing in later this month will mark the end of 16 years of Boomer presidents. While some might quibble over the official dividing line between the generations, I would argue that Obama is not a Boomer. Generation X is stepping to the fore.