Cultural Creatives by Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson
Dear All!
Yesterday, I started reading the following book:
Ray, Paul H. and Anderson, Sherry Ruth (2000). The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World. New York, NY: Three Rivers Press.
I think this book is fascinating. I assume most of us are "Cultural Creatives"!
Just read an introductory text further down, that I took from
http://www.culturalcreatives.org/.
Most warmly!
Evelin
Section 1: INTRODUCING THE CULTURAL CREATIVES
Imagine a country the size of France suddenly sprouting in the middle of the United States. It is immensely rich in culture, with new ways of life, values and worldviews. It has its own heroes and its own vision for the future. Think how curious we all would be, how interested to discover who these people are and where they have come from. In Washingon and on the Sunday morning news shows, politicians would certainly have strong opinions about what it all means, and pundits would be expressing their views with their usual certainty. Businesses would be planning strategies to market to this population, and political groups would be exploring alliances. The media, of course, would be blazing with first-person interviews and inside stories of the new arrivals, instead of the latest Beltway scandals.
Now imagine something different. There is a new country, just as big and just as rich in culture, but no one sees it. It takes shape silently and almost invisibly, as if flown in under radar in the dark of night. But it's not from somewhere else. This new country is decidedly American. And unlike the first image, it is emerging not only in the cornfields of Iowa but on the streets of the Bronx, all across the country from Seattle to St. Augustine. It is showing up wherever you'd least expect it: in your brother's living room and your sisterÕs backyard, in women's circles and demonstrations to protect the redwoods, in offices and churches and on-line communities, coffee shops and bookstores, hiking trails and corporate boardrooms.
Shaping a New Culture
This new country and its people are the subject of this book. We report thirteenyears of survey research on more than 100,000 Americans, hundreds of focus groups and about sixty in-depth interviews that reveal the emergence of an entire subculture of Americans. Their distinctive beliefs and values are shown in the self-scoring questionnaire on page xiv. The underlying themes express serious ecological and planetary perspectives, emphasis on relationships and women's point of view, commitment to spirituality and psychological development, disaffection with the large institutions of modern life, including both left and right in politics; and rejection of materialism and status display.
Since the 1960s, 26 percent of the adults in the U.S.Ñ50 million peopleÑhave made a comprehensive shift in their worldview, values, and way of life Ñ their culture, in short. These creative, optimistic millions are at the leading edge of several kinds of cultural change, deeply affecting not only their own lives but our larger society as well. We call them the Cultural Creatives because, innovation by innovation, they are shaping a new kind of American culture for the 21st century.
One useful way to see the idea of "culture" is as a large repertoire of solutions for the problems and passions that people see as important in each time period. So these are the people who are creating many of the surprising new cultural solutions required for the time ahead. In the chapters that follow, we tell their stories and the story of how they are changing our civilization in fundamental ways.
A long anticipated moment
When we say that a quarter of Americans have taken on a whole new worldview, we are pointing to a major development in our civilization. Changing a worldview literally means changing what you think is real. Some closely related changes contribute to and follow from changes in worldview: changes in values, your fundamental life priorities; changes in life style, the way you spend your time and money; and changes in livelihood, how you make that money in the first place.
As recently as the early 1960s, less than 5 percent of the population was engaged in making these momentous changes wereÑtoo few to measure in surveys. In just over a generation, that proportion grew steadily to 26 percent. That may not sound like much in this age of nanoseconds, but on the timescale of whole civilizations where major developments are measured in centuries, it is shockingly quick. And it's not only the speed of this emergence that is stunning. The extent of it is catching even the most alert observers by surprise. Officials of the European Union, hearing of the numbers of Cultural Creatives in the U.S., launched a related survey in each of their 15 countries in September of 1997. To their amazement, the evidence suggested that there are at least as many Cultural Creatives across Europe as we reported in the United States.
Visionaries and futurists have been predicting a change of this magnitude for well over two decades. Our research suggests that this long anticipated cultural moment may have arrived. The evidence is not only in the numbers from our survey questionnaires but in the everyday lives of the people behind those numbers. The sheer size of the Cultural Creative population is already affecting the way Americans do business and politics. They are the drivers of the demand that we go beyond environmental regulation to real ecological sustainability, to change our entire way of life accordingly. They demand authenticityÑat home, in the stores, at work, and in politics. They support women's issues in many areas of life. They insist on seeing the big picture in news stories and ads. This is already influencing the marketplace and public life. Because Cultural Creatives are not yet aware of themselves as a collective body, they do not recognize how powerful their voices could be. And if the rest of us are blind to the paradoxical gifts that their awakening brings, then we may well be left wondering where all the changes are coming from.
This book aims to sharpen our collective awareness with an in-depth look into who the Cultural Creatives are and what their emergence means for them and for all of us. Whether you are a Cultural Creative or share an office, a home, or a bed with one, or whether you simply want to create new projects or do business with Cultural Creatives, youÕll discover what differences their presence will make in your life.
FAQ
Here Ray and Anderson reply to frequently asked questions:
1. Why do you call them the Cultural Creatives?
Because they are literally creating a new culture. Innovation by innovation they are shaping a new American culture for the 21st century.
2. Aren't they all just... New Age?
No the New Agers are only a tiny postage stamp on the corner of this envelope-about 5% of population compared to 26%, and half of the New Agers aren't Cultural Creatives either. Most Cultural Creatives are very mainstream and would be offended if you called them New Age. They're very grounded and practical people.
Baby Boomers?
No they're all ages: 18-70. This is not about generational differences.
Liberals?
No there are fewer liberals than conservatives, and fewer of either than people who don't see themselves as either left or right. This is about a new kind of politics.
Californians?
No they're from all parts of the country, and they're quite mainstream Americans.
Upper Middle Class?
No, they're all income levels from working class to very affluent.
Whites?
No, they're all ethnic groups as well.
Self indulgent, hot tub Yuppies?
No. The emergence of the Cultural Creatives is not about yuppies and self-indulgence, it's about the people who care, and who are taking steps to make it practical and real.
3. Why are the Cultural Creatives important: why should I (or my readers/audience) care?
The sheer size of the CC population at 50 million people is already affecting the way Americans do business and politics. They're making new kinds of businesses and nonprofits, and they're also driving the demand for:
· ecologically sustainable products and services, and concern for the whole planet.
· to insist on authenticity, personally, at work, in business & politics.
· bringing women's issues into public life.
· doing the news differently, to see the big picture, and first person stories, and good news too.
· bringing spirituality into American life.
If people don't know about the Cultural Creatives they may be left behind, wondering where all the changes are coming from. After all, any time one in four Americans are changing their minds in fundamental ways, it's worth paying attention to, because it's going to change your life too.
What the Cultural Creatives value and the kind of new solutions they're creating, give us reason for optimism about the future.
There are more Cultural Creatives than voted for Clinton in the last election. If they get it together, they can win.
Cultural Creatives are redefining what success means, away from success at work and making a lot of money, toward a more soulful life focused on personal fulfillment, social conscience, creating a better future for everyone on the planet.
A new industry is appearing: Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability, and it's $230 Billion in the U.S. this year, and $540 Billion worldwide. And the Cultural Creatives are their entire market.
4. If they're so important how come I haven't seen them before?
a) Actually you have seen them: They're the huge populations who support all the new social movements from the Sixties right up to the present day: Civil rights, peace, environment, women's, jobs and social justice, gay lib, alternative health care, new spiritualities, new psychotherapies, etc.
b) If you look at values, you'll see them. But most of the surveys you hear about study only opinions that are very transitory, while values are slow changing and very deep. Values are much deeper than the demographic categories most surveys use. And that's why most surveys don't show what we've found.
c) The Cultural Creatives have been invisible to public view:
How can 50 million people be invisible?
1) The national media don't cover the things they care about, or distort them. So, if you form all your impressions from the mass media, you'll never guess that they're there, because the media are really intolerant of world views other than their own.
2) The Cultural Creatives don't talk about what they value in public or at work. In part this is because they draw their conclusions that their values aren't shared by very many people, and they don't want to be embarrassed, put down, or harm their career prospects.
3) Most Cultural Creatives got to where they are in life almost alone. You probably didn't arrive at the values you've got now with your whole high school graduating class.
5. So what are all these creative solutions you're talking about, and why do you think that can make a difference?
How can the Cultural Creatives make a difference with all that big money sloshing around?
We're at a tipping point in history, a time when a creative minority can get the leverage to really make a difference. Part of the reason is that these activists and schoolteachers, and artists, and spiritual people, and scientists are following the normal American pattern for success. They are turning their grass roots social movements and their projects and ideas into new institutions.
Many of the most respectable institutions of today started as controversial grass roots movements. Citizen involvement turns into a huge variety of civic associations like: lobbying groups, political parties, unions, civic clubs, think tanks, institutes, foundations, charities, unions, clinics, and churches. This is what we Americans do, and we're better at it than almost any other country in the world. And that's what's happening now with the Cultural Creatives.
6. Well, what kinds of things are they doing?
In between the pure profit making business and the begging-for-money charity there's a whole rainbow spectrum of new kinds of organizations and social experiments.
Take a yoga center for example: is it a business, a spiritual place, an education center, a health and exercise place, or a way of life? The answer is Yes to all the above. We're crossing categories all the time.
We interviewed a sculptor named Vijali Hamilton who travels around the world creating something she calls the World Wheel. In each community she creates an environmental sculpture and she does community building. She asks the people to go deep into who they are and how they connect to the rest of the world, and from their answers they create a piece of theatre, and music, and a community ritual. Is this art, community building, entertainment, spirituality, ecology? Again, Yes, to all the above.
6. Why have the social and consciousness movements made such a difference?
Or, I don't see how all those movements from the Sixties could make such a difference today - that stuff is forty years old, it's history.
Or, Why do you relate the Cultural Creatives to all those movements?
The reason why this makes such a difference is that all these movements have been doing something new in history. They have been trying to change our minds about what is important and how the world works.
There's a lot more to the movements than just the people on the ramparts, or just the obvious meditators on their cushions, there's also a huge culturally circle around those active people who are reframing how we see the world every day. You have to see what a whole movement is: there's the most active people at the center, but around them like a target, there's a huge population of less involved people who give the money, read the literature, keep track of what's happening, and really believe in it. There may be a few thousand activists, and hundreds of thousands giving money, but tens of millions who are changing their minds and their lives.
We have evidence that a typical CC cares intensely about, and is often involved in, half a dozen of these new social and consciousness movements, while the rest of the country care about none, or maybe one or two. When you're involved in several movements who do reframing, it changes your whole world view. That's where the Cultural Creatives came from. And thatÕs where a lot of our new direction is coming from.
What's more, there's an enormous overlap of all the movements, and the Cultural Creatives are right at the center of all of it. They are the common constituency of all the movements.
It's exactly the opposite of what many pundits have claimed: it really isn't true that if you're dealing with your own personal growth you've dropped out of social life. Or if you're an activist, you don't have time for an inner life. In reality, the more people are involved in ecology issues the more they are involved in spirituality and personal growth on the one hand, and social justice issues on the other hand.
7. Why does all of this make such a difference?
Or, Isn't it all just politics?
So what? What difference could all this make?
What makes Cultural Creatives different than most Americans is that when you're involved in several movements you've been exposed to their reframing a lot of times, because that's what these movements do.
Reframing is a big deal. It lets us look at our old problems from a new angle of vision. And it gives a new way of explaining them, and a new way to state our moral concerns. For example:
What was Martin Luther King, Jr. saying, "The Blacks gotta get theirs?" No, he said, It's about freedom, and justice, and what the Constitution means, and who are we as a people?
What did Rachel Carson say, Keep pollution out of your back yard? No, she said that this is about the death of Nature.
What did Betty Friedan say, The women need more pay? No, she said This is about who we are as human beings.
What did the alternative health care movement say, Chiropractors gotta get insurance coverage? No, they said, This is about real health and wellness, not just medical care for catastrophic illnesses.
The Cultural Creatives are the ones who have been really paying attention, applying those reframings in their own lives.
Reframing means you start to question the unspoken assumptions of the social codes all around you. It's not okay to let big business destroy the environment. It's not okay to have nuclear power. It's not okay to let the foreign policy elite send our young people off to wars without involving the citizens. It's not okay to put down, or harm, people who are different than you are. And so on.
If you are exposed to half a dozen big reframes, two things happen: the content changes your whole world view, and you get comfortable with the process of questioning the unspoken assumptions of the old culture. That's where the Cultural Creatives came from.And that's where a lot of our new direction is coming from.
All those people who have questioned the unspoken assumptions had to rely on their own direct experience. How else could you take off the old culture's eyeglasses? This has an incredible potential potential for opening up creativity in our lives. It gives us some comfort in going into the unknown. And that is where our whole society is going anyway at this time in history.
This is a part of the personal life changes that so many Cultural Creatives have gone through. So often they said to us that they had to live more authentic lives after opening up questions they really cared about, and having to live through the experiences they've had. The Black Freedom Movement called it "walking your talk" and this need for authenticity was picked up by every social and consciousness movement since then.
This emphasis on authenticity is at the center of who the Cultural Creatives are today, and is one of the key values they've brought into American life.
