[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ian807', '
')Human societies tend to act like bacteria colonies, not intelligent entities. They react to immediate circumstances well enough, but don't seem to be able to pre-emptively act to prevent disaster.

[Expatriot]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ian807', 'B')oomers went wrong the same way humans have throughout history. They either can't think ahead, or don't care about consequences.

[ian807]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ian807', '
')Human societies tend to act like bacteria colonies, not intelligent entities. They react to immediate circumstances well enough, but don't seem to be able to pre-emptively act to prevent disaster.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ian807', '
')And thus western civilization fails.

[Pops]

OK, since we're splitting generations, let me throw this in, I'm part of The Jones Generation. No, not Tom Jones (though he probably fathered a mini boom himself) I'd never heard of it until I just now stumbled on it but it rings true. I was born in '57 and though I could dig the 'goin up the country' bit I was just too young to be a flower child, on the other hand I've never considered myself a Gen Xer, I mean crap, I survived Disco! This article is from 2000, the guy defines Jonsers as those born between '54 and '65...
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')ontell points out that the so-called ''Flower Children'' of the Sixties were not really children. They were in their teens and twenties (and true baby boomers) What he calls Generation Jones were the actual children of the time - aged 3 to 14 years in the critical year of 1968.

''While they (older youth, the baby boomers) were out changing the world, we were the ones being formed by those changes. It's one of the big untold stories of the Sixties, being a child then. There were seductive messages, very scary messages. The same week in 1968 that Woodstock happened, the Charlie Manson murders happened. To a little kid, the Sixties were like a storm and you were torn between running for shelter and running out to play in it.''

[ian807]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pops', 'O')K, since we're splitting generations, let me throw this in, I'm part of The Jones Generation.

[Plantagenet]

The boomer generation is so huge, its not unreasonable that people born 5-10 years apart have very different experiences and should be divided and sub-divided out into their own groups.

There were big differences is between early boomers and late boomers (Jones Generation?--I hadn't heard that one before). Without setting a specific dividing line, the early boomers did much better in their careers. The early boomers tended to find good jobs and were able to advance up career ladders, while the later boomers tended to find a lot of positions filled by the earlier boomers and had a harder time getting hired and promoted because a flood of boomers got in the door ahead of them.

[Plantagenet]

The problem with breaking out the late baby boomers as a separate generation Jones is that they are the numerically largest group of people in our country, ie. they are clearly the main part of the HUGE baby boom that we call the boomers.

There are early boomers and late boomers, and the Jones generation are the late boomers.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', 'T')he problem with breaking out the late baby boomers as a separate generation Jones...

[Cid_Yama]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'O')verlooked in this discussion is the generational division brought about by widespread distribution of Television in the US.

In 1955 only half of all US Households had one and they were quite expensive. In 1958, two things occurred that would change all that; the invention of the integrated circuit, and anti-trust action by the US Justice Dept against RCA, AT&T, and IBM, making their patents available for free to everyone and opening up the electronic based industries.

This quickly brought the price down, making television affordable to the masses.

The first transistorized TV was released in January of 1959, and the first all-transistor set in 1960.

By 1960 most households had at least a used set.

This should be the dividing line between the Baby Boomers and Generation Jones.

Generation Jones was the first generation raised on television and it's constant barage of commercials. No wonder they were Jonesing!

Baby Boomers were avid readers, which went into decline with the widespread distribution of television.

Baby Boomers were the Hippies, whereas Generation Jones were the Yuppies.

This I believe leads to the dubious citation of ideological division in Baby Boomers. It's not real, but rather an artifact of the late date assigned to the Baby Boomers.

Those born before 1958 lived in a different world from those born after. At this time in history, there was a clear Paradigm shift.

Even in big reading cultures, people adopted the electronic alternatives as soon as they could. In the 40 years from 1955 in The Netherlands (television took off between 1956 and 1960), recreational reading more than halved, to 9 per cent of people's spare time.

[Plantagenet]

There is no "generation Jones."

The US had a huge baby boom after WWII, with most of the baby boom occurring between 1955-64. Kids produced during the baby boom are called boomers.

The US never had a huge "Jones" boom.

If the people born from 55-64 should be called anything, it would be the Pepsi Generation because while the early Boomers were so cool and smart and hip and stopped racial discrimination and invented feminism and racial politics and sex and recreational drugs and rock and roll, the late boomers were so lame...they didn't invent anything----they were the ones who bought into all the corporate marketing advertising scams.

[Newfie]

Well, I was born in 1950 to relatively old parents who were born in the "teens."

Mom and Dad had a 7th grade education, between 'em. Dad was right smart and a reader. Mom, I remember her learning to read.

Dad worked on the water for a long time, then tried to start a Handy Man business till he fell off a roof, broke a few ribs, got pneumonia, and a ruptured disk. Mom worked as a cleaning lady.

Even so I never understood how poor we were. I knew there were times when we were on the edge, but I never felt it in my bones, at least I think not. But, I did learn to be fiscally conservative, if not politically.

I was a contentious objector, but never went to a Peace March. I heard the stories. Get stoned, get laid, get back. Not my cup of tea. Not that I didn't sip.

I reneged on being a CO when my number was about to come up for a 4-year stint (Thank you Mr. Nixon) and instead enlisted in the USCG and made E-6 before discharge. Work, three kids, night school, Professional Engineer, divorce, another wife, another kid and here I am. I think I did OK.

But..........where did the Boomers go wrong???? No where. Boomers are no different than any other generation. It is all situational. Why no Hitler in the USA??? Only because the circumstances were different because the Germans make up one of, if not the largest, group of immigrants to the US.

I think it is correct to say that the country has been drunk on cheap energy. It got us through WWII and put us on top. Once on top we thought it was because of our particular merits, not merely chance. Hubris.

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plant', 'T')here is no "generation Jones."

[Plantagenet]

Sorry, Pops.

I apologize for talkin' bout your Generation Jones.

I'm sure Generation jones will eventually be seen as just as historically and culturally important as the Boomers or any other generation, even if their accomplishments, cultural contributions and even their identity aren't immediately apparent now.

[bluekachina]

Bull. Generation Jones serves a significant purpose. The early members of that Generation, of which I am one, sorted the wheat from the chaff, taking the best of what the boomer generation had to offer and rejecting that which was not righteous.

There was a lot good, and most of us respect, and may even wish we had had the opportunity to have been a part of it all.

We are the torch bearers, the ones that keep the flame of caring and goodness, and the best of the previous generation alive, hoping that a new generation will take up the torch from us, so that the light doesn't die.

I have made up my mind you are evil, embracing the darkness, and the hate.

We are the Rebel Alliance after the fall and you are one of Darth Vader's minions.

Some of us are even the new Jedi.

[Shar_Lamagne]

OMG! You nailed it. All my life I've tried to define it. Do you think George Lucas wrote it that way to represent our generation?

[Shar_Lamagne]

I found this.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')wo lines from the movie especially resonated:
"This is how liberty dies. With thunderous applause," bemoans Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) as the galactic Senate cheers dictator-in-waiting Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) while he announces a crusade against the Jedi.

"If you're not with me, then you're my enemy," Hayden Christensen's Anakin -- soon to become villain Darth Vader -- tells former mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). The line echoes Bush's international ultimatum after the Sept. 11 attacks, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."

Lucas said he patterned his story after historical transformations from freedom to fascism, never figuring when he started his prequel trilogy in the late 1990s that current events might parallel his space fantasy."As you go through history, I didn't think it was going to get quite this close. So it's just one of those recurring things," Lucas said at a Cannes news conference. "I hope this doesn't come true in our country.

"Maybe the film will waken people to the situation," Lucas joked.

The prequel trilogy is based on a back-story outline Lucas created in the mid-1970s for the original three "Star Wars" movies, so the themes percolated out of the Vietnam War and the Nixon-Watergate era, he said. Lucas began researching how democracies can turn into dictatorships with full consent of the electorate.

"You sort of see these recurring themes where a democracy turns itself into a dictatorship, and it always seems to happen kind of in the same way, with the same kinds of issues, and threats from the outside, needing more control. A democratic body, a senate, not being able to function properly because everybody's squabbling, there's corruption."

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shar_Lamagne', 'O')MG! You nailed it. All my life I've tried to define it. Do you think George Lucas wrote it that way to represent our generation?

[Cid_Yama]

May the force be with them.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'G')eneration Jones serves a significant purpose. The early members of that Generation, of which I am one, sorted the wheat from the chaff, taking the best of what the boomer generation had to offer and rejecting that which was not righteous.

There was a lot good, and most of us respect, and may even wish we had had the opportunity to have been a part of it all.

We are the torch bearers, the ones that keep the flame of caring and goodness, and the best of the previous generation alive, hoping that a new generation will take up the torch from us, so that the light doesn't die.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shar_Lamagne', 'O')MG! You nailed it. All my life I've tried to define it. Do you think George Lucas wrote it that way to represent our generation?