Posted on 10/31/2020 11:42:22 AM PDT by OceanGazer
Good points. We Jonesers really were the sex, drugs and rock&roll generation. That’s usually said of the “real” Boomers (born from the early 1940’s to early-1950’s. But it was just a small, albeit disproportionately visible and vocal segment, of the Boomers who were actually living that lifestyle. It was more that the Boomers introduced this radical new lifestyle in their music and with their opinion leaders. But very few Boomers actually did drugs, engaged in free love, had long hair (as guys), etc.
It was when Jonesers came of age, arrived in high school, that these these lifestyle choices became mainstream. Suddenly, starting in 1972, guys in high school (ie. Jonesers) started growing their hair long (the contrast between 1971 vs. 1972 high school senior guy yearbook photos was dramamtic. I think I read it went from something like 6% of guys with long hair in 1971, to over 40% long hair of guys in 1972). Generational change: the first Jonesers were born in 1954, which made them high school seniors in 1972.
But it was much more than guy’s hair length. Jonesers smoked pot at much higher rates. Very few Boomers smoked pot in the 1960’s, despite all the media hype. It was Jonesers in the 1970’s that were the big pot smokers. By then, it was mainstream , and you were unusual if you were in your teens then and not smoking dope.
And sex? Jonesers were much, much more sexually promiscuous than Boomers. It was post-The Pill, and pre-herpes/AIDS. Sexual experimentation was in the air, and Jonesers were doin’ it like rabbits.
And the “formative President” of our young adulthood, as it were, was Ronald Reagan.
Us “Jonesers” came of age with Reagan. We were politicially new and inexperienced when Reagan came to power.
We had our political views formed, watching how the media and deep state at the time panicked when they saw Reagan actually start to shrink government.
Thats when we realized the “machine” doesn’t like candidates who actually get things done and defang and downsize big government.
We also realized then that media lies big time.
Well I was born in ‘68 but it’s close enough to the Jonesers generation :)
And you’re right.
How the heck did we end up conservative?
I guess we had good parents and in the end I think they were a stronger influence as we got older than the sex, drugs and rock n roll.
Plus bouncing around from partner to partner gets stale fast.
Who could afford coke back then? I couldn’t :)
And Rock N Roll is pretty harmless..the hair bands were about partying..they weren’t meant to learn life lessons from :)
But my brother was born in 58...and I remember the long hair, he did tons of drugs, listened to Floyd and Deep Purplse...and he ended up being a conservative lawyer :)
Go figure
“And as far as Trump: he has his good and bad points, but to claim he is an “uncorrupted businessman” is to ignore the Mount Everest of evidence that obviously says otherwise.”
Bull crap.
A lot of us who came of voting age in 70s and 80s saw our older siblings become cuckoo hippies, mess up their lives, and cause enormous grief to our parents. We wanted nothing of that and Reagan was a bright beacon of hope of restoring sense, responsibility and tradition to the world the hippies messed up. We were thankful when some hippies turned around and went right, and sad or angry when others never really grew up. We went the opposite direction in voting, lifestyle, even clothing.
I don’t necessarily agree with his term grievance, it sounds like whiny millennials, we aren’t that. I think our generation is focused and determined to do what needs to be done.
Yes— we were also the first generation to grow up experiencing the devastation caused by easy divorce and the widespread availability and social acceptance of illicit drug use. All these bad consequences made us realize that “sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll” were entertainment, not a political philosophy or a way of life.
Yeah...we Jonesers definitely have fine-tuned BS Detectors...
It depend on where you fall within the age spectrum of GenJones. The oldest Jonesrs would have been 18 in 1972 and could have voted in the Nixon-McGovern race. Others voted first in the 1976 Carter-Ford contest. But yes, I do think that Reagan was the formative President for most Jonesers.
And AIDS was such a bad consequence as well. Up until herpes, sexual diseases were easily cured, but then these incurable viruses arrived and it all changed...
Six months to slow the spread...Every morning I sign in to work (no mask) to have my temperature taken, and I am asked if I have any symptoms...people show up just to hear my response of the day!
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