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Do you "give a lot of importance to helping other people and bringing out their unique gifts?" Do you "dislike all the emphasis in modern culture on success and 'making it,' on getting and spending, on wealth and luxury goods?" Do you "want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life for our country?" If you answered yes to all three of these questions--and at least seven more of the remaining 15 in Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson's questionnaire--then you are probably a Cultural Creative.
Cultural Creative is a term coined by Ray and Anderson to describe people whose values embrace a curiosity and concern for the world, its ecosystem, and its peoples; an awareness of and activism for peace and social justice; and an openness to self-actualization through spirituality, psychotherapy, and holistic practices. Cultural Creatives do not just take the money and run; they don't want to defund the National Endowment for the Arts; and they do want women to get a fairer shake--not only in the United States, but around the globe.
On the basis of Ray and Anderson's research, about 50 million Americans are Cultural Creatives, a group that includes people of all races, ages, and classes. This subculture could have enormous social and political clout, the authors argue, if only it had any consciousness of itself as a cohesive unit, a society of fellow travelers. The husband and wife team wrote the book "to hold up a mirror" to the members of this vast but diffuse group, to show them they are not alone and that they can reshape society to make it more authentic, compassionate, and engaged. It is an idealistic call for a new agenda for a new millennium. --I. Crane
From Publishers Weekly
In an attempt to reconceptualize shifting American demographics that's similar to David Brook's Bobos in Paradise (Forecasts, Mar. 13), Ray and Anderson posit that hidden within America are 50 million people, 26% of the population, who are what they call "cultural creatives." Based on 12 years of survey research, 100 focus groups and dozens of interviews, their study presents a complex portrait of these citizens. According to the authors, cultural creatives share a series of attitudes and concerns: "they like to get a synoptic view [and] see all the parts spread out side by side and trace the interconnections"; they have strong concerns about the well-being of families; they have a well-developed social consciousness and a "guarded optimism for the future"; they are disenchanted with "owning more stuff... materialism... status display and the glaring social inequities of race" and are critical of almost every big institution of modern society, including corporations and government. This cultural groupAdrawn from all classes, races, education and income levels and social backgroundsAhas emerged only during the past 50 years and, according to the authors, forms a coherent subculture, only "missing a self-awareness as a whole people." Ray and Anderson argue that cultural creatives hold the potential for radically reshaping the values and material realities, the "deep structure," of American life, and so they aim to make this group cognizant of their shared values, to bring about substantive changes. More successful than Brooks in grappling with issues of gender, ethnicity, race and class, Ray and Anderson offer unusual insights that, while broad and sweeping, shed new light on American culture and politics. (Sept.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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