The Sun-Herald

The Tribal Mind: The diary of all the Joneses

To learn what makes Australians sick, go to Who We Are.
by David Dale
Picture this column slapping its forehead and saying "D'oh". Last week we were talkin' 'bout how generations generate generalisations (Baby Boomers are selfish, GenXers are flighty,The iGen are celebrity-obsessed, etc), and blow me down if we didn't manage to leave out a whole age group. And not just any old age group, but the most important age group of all, at least in its own mind, because it contains every current political leader in the English speaking world.

We failed to mention Generation Jones (or, as we should call it in this country, Generation Rudbull). Numerous readers were quick to fill our generation gap (go here to read the column and the comments).

Background: You're familiar with the concept of "keeping up with the Joneses" - what we're all supposedly trying to do in this competitive consumerist culture. You may be less familiar with a piece of American jargon in which the noun is turned into a verb that means craving: "I'm jonesing for a drink" or "She's jonesing to see the new Star Trek movie".

From these usages comes a label for people born between 1955 and 1964 - a group which used to be lumped in with the Baby Boomers until they started their own independence movement.

Since music is essential in defining the spirit of a generation, it's important to note that while the Boomers had their first sexual experiences to the sound of The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix, the Joneses did it to Abba, Wings and Elton John. That alone is enough to establish their mindset as different from their older siblings.

The inventer of the term, American social analyst Jonathan Pontell, writes: "Generations arise from shared formative experiences, not head counts, and the two groups evolved with dramatic differences ... While the Boomers were out changing the world, Jonesers were still school kids -- wide-eyed, not tie-dyed. That intense love-peace-change-the-world zeitgeist stirred our impressionable hearts. We yearned to express our own voice ... Obama has The Jones. So do many of today's Western leaders. More than a quarter of all adults in many NATO and EU countries are Jonesers.

"Our size, age and influence across the board make us an irresistible force. Our non-ideological pragmatism allows us to resolve intra-Boomer skirmishes and to bridge that volatile Boomer-GenXer divide. We can lead. For Boomers, the legacy of the 1960s is ideology, but for Jonesers it is idealism." (Go here to read more of Pontell.)

Clearly, this is the master race, bestriding other generations like a colossus. We should be delighted that all the important decisions in this country - and all the arguments against those decisions -- are made by such demi-gods.

Last week this column analysed how the different generations watch television, finding that Gen X seemed obsessed with competitive dieting and cooking (The Biggest Loser and Masterchef) while Boomers were sentimental homebodies (A Lion Called Christian, Find My Family and Better Homes and Gardens).

These revelations caused some readers to lament that every group except The Pioneers (born before 1946 and fans of the Treasurer's budget speech) were lovers of "superficial drivel" and "prole-feed". Now that we've heard about the Joneses, we know they would not be so easily satisfied.

We asked our boffins to slice even more finely into the OzTAM audience data for April-May and examine the tastes of viewers aged between 45 and 54. This was the result ...

What Generation Rudbull watches: Underbelly; The Biggest Loser; Thank God You're Here; The Logie Awards; Seven News; NCIS; Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation; Australia's Got Talent.

The Joneses are much less interested than the boomers in Better Homes and Gardens, Find My Family, and Midsomer Murders. They are much less interested than Gen X in So You Think You Can Dance Australia and Bondi Rescue.

Over to you for interpretation. Go to comments to tell us if Generation Rudbull deserves the crown.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.