The Cultural Creatives : How 50 Million People Are Changing the World

Rating:
Summary: I'm convinced
Review: I found this book very encouraging. In the corporate-owned mass media, there's a persistent theme that the sixties were a temporary aberration: for a few years, people wore tie-dyed T-shirts, smoked pot, held nude encounter groups, marched for peace, and joined exotic religions; but it was all just a fad, and now everything is back to normal again. The authors point out that, on the contrary, while the big issues of the sixties aren't getting the media attention they used to, in fact they have had a profound effect on society: comparison of survey results from the 1950's and the 1990's shows that there's been an immense shift in public opinion about such subjects as racial equality, women's rights, alternative medicine, and ecology. Also, all the old hippies and radicals haven't died off or dropped out of politics; they're still working for the same "causes," but most of them have transferred their activism to more local, specific arenas.

The authors make an important point that I think mainstream politics often misses: The people they label "cultural creatives" belong to a wide variety of political parties, organizations, and religions, and are passionate about issues rather than politics; so a political strategy that attempts to draw this diverse but active group into supporting a single party or platform (e.g., "If you believe in X, then you should vote for these Democratic candidates") won't succeed.

The book is several years old, and the political/social landscape in the U.S. has changed since 2000. But (based on my own experience) I feel that the authors' conclusions about who the Cultural Creatives are and how they got that way are valid. On the other hand, I think they missed a few things:

(1) They discuss the role of institutes such as Esalen in the human consciousness movement, but don't mention other media: magazines such as Utne Reader, radio programs like New Dimensions, many PBS radio and TV stations, alternative newspapers, etc. In areas of the country where someone who holds non-mainstream opinions can often feel isolated, these media played (and continue to play) a major role.

(2) The Internet has been a major factor in global connectivity for at least 20 years, but the authors give it only about a page of rather vague discussion. While using the Internet for direct political action is a relatively new phenomenon (MoveOn.org, one of the most visible groups, was founded in 1998 in response to the Clinton impeachment), issues-oriented web sites and mailing lists, ranging across the political spectrum, have been around for much longer. I also think the authors underestimated the general effects of the Internet on human relationships: as an acquaintance of mine in Europe once put it, if you have 'Net buddies in another country, you're far less likely to drop a bomb on it.

I think the book is persuasively argued and the authors draw reasonable conclusions from the (very extensive) statistical data. I found some of the lengthy discussions about Traditionals and Moderns rather tedious, but in general this is an exciting and important book that deserves to be widely read.

Rating:
Summary: Thought no one was like you? Think again...
Review: I have had the privelage of meeting Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson, they are great people. But that doesn't begin to describe the book they wrote. 50 million people, an amount of people equal to the population of France, are emerging from our cyber-culture to be more aware of wordly problems, and more concious of personal and spiritual development. When reading this book, even if you don't agree with it all, or you don't fall into the "Cultural Creatives" category, you will realize the world is changing. To not be impacted by this book would be a surprise.

Rating:
Summary: A New Paradigm for a New Era
Review: I'm grateful a friend loaned this book to me. The authors' research identifies a core population that is committed to a series of interrelated movements-- ecology, human rights, glbt rights, access to health care, etc. This group, comprising 50 million, illuminates the deficiencies of the left/right political dichotomy and offers a paradigm to transcend that model.

Rating:
Summary: A New Paradigm for a New Era
Review: I'm grateful a friend loaned this book to me. The authors' research identifies a core population that is committed to a series of interrelated movements-- ecology, human rights, glbt rights, access to health care, etc. This group, comprising 50 million, illuminates the deficiencies of the left/right political dichotomy and offers a paradigm to transcend that model.

Rating:
Summary: What do 50 Million People Have in Common?
Review: If you've ever felt odd, out of place, unusual or aware of seeing things differently from most, it might be because you are a 'Cultural Creative.' This book is exciting because of the life it brings to the study of values in a thus far overlooked but growing cultural segment in America. This previously quiet but powerful group wields greater and greater influence in all aspects of life.

Dr. Paul Ray surveyed over 100,000 Americans in the nine years before his 1996 report 'The Integral Culture Survey: A Study of the Emergence of Transformational Values in America' where he identified three distinct subcultures of values - Traditionals, Moderns and Cultural Creatives. He reveals, that this is a 'very unusual time in history - for change in the dominant cultural pattern happens only once or twice a millennium.' This is both wonderful and scary news.

Paul's wife, partner and coauthor, Dr. Sherry Anderson stands in her own right with the wonderful 'Feminine Face of God: The Unfolding of the Sacred in Women' where she forewarned that the 'awesome planetary crisis in which we are now living is literally flinging us towards ... the next developmental step: to be in good relationship with all life...' Together they have injected vitality into the reams of data with up-close and personal interviews. They have partnered to create a wonderful, readable and intimate view into contemporary thinking and the dynamics between differing worldviews. A peep into the book reveals:

"Direct personal experience is also important to Cultural Creatives in the projects they create and give their time and money to support. They expect to follow through on their values with personal action. Many are convinced that if they are not engaged, their convictions are "just talk." They express more idealism and altruism, and less cynicism, than Americans. Sixty-five percent say "having your work make a contribution to society" is very or extremely important. Fifty-four percent say "wanting to be involved in creating a better society" is very or extremely important. And their actions line up with these values ..."

This significant work is progressive, insightful, optimistic and absorbing. It contributes to the worlds of values, culture and social transformation and it is good news to Cultural Creatives because it is validating and affirming. With far-reaching implications this is a book to curl up with and continue discussing and pondering long after the last page is turned.

Rating:
Summary: Suddenly I'm Home
Review: Its amazing how refreshing it was to find out that there are other people in this world as disenchanted with the cultural options presented to us in America, and throughout the world. Disenchanted with both the Democratic, money hungry, pursuit of more, ultra scientific moderns and the Republican, bible thumping, return to the good old ways traditionalists Cultural Creatives are quietly creating a new cultural movement. Anderson and Ray took it upon themselves to study them, and the gigantic influences they are having in politics, society, and the future as we know it. I have been journeying down my own road of self discovery, and while reading this book I kepy internally screaming: "This is ME!!!" I don't know how to define myself by any one thing, but more as a mixture of ideas, thoughts, and principles that work for me...

Some of MY favorite quotes:

"Cultural Creatives like to get a synoptic view - they want to see all the parts spread out side by side and trace the interconnections. Whenever they read a book, get information on-line, or watch TV, they want the big picture, and they are powerfully attuned to the importance of whole systems. They are good at synthesizing from very disparate, fragmented pieces of information. That's why they are the people most concerned about the condition of our global ecology and the well-being of the people of the planet." - P 11. Mom has always called me her "wide thinker", with a need to know a little bit about everything, and desire to link it all together.


On becoming a Cultural Creative: "Leaving the old story behind doesn't necessarily mean that you leave anything; sometimes someone leaves you. Nor does it necessarily mean that anyone actually goes anywhere, because after all is said and done, what is left - or lost - is not a relationship or a place or even a context. What is left is a conciousness that once felt secure, had categories to fit things into, and knew who it was. And what replaces this sureness is not knowing. And openness. And something unspeakably, and sometimes unbearably new. Once this process is under way, openness and not-knowing become your constant companions. At times the journey feels akward or perilous: you're asking questions that everyone wishes would go away; you don't know how to put into words what you're searching for; you're wondering just how big an idiot you really are for leaving what felt sure and safe and comfortable. And at times, the freshness and exhilaration of setting out for new territory are pure pleasure. But whether its joy or trial, the departure from the old worldview and values is fundamentally an inner departure. You do not necessarily leave your home or your work or your family physically. The change is above all a change in conciousness: who do you leave behind and who do you become as you make your way toward a new kind of life?"..."With its mix of personal and cultural, private and public consequences, becoming a Cultural Creative is a multileveled, complex, and frequently bewildering experience. - P 44


"The invitation of something not yet explored can call forth our most creative, inquisitive, desirous nature. Scientists, artists, mathematicians, and explorers of every sort know the delicious pleasure of lifting the veils that cover what they love. We know this experience as the fragrances of mystical and romantic poetry, where the lover longs to know the beloved completely, but those delights await all who pursue a mystery they long to understand."..."The curiousity to explore, or to follow a vision, is juicy and fertile. It is fed by love - longing to know more about what you love and not even thinking of parting from it until you've uncovered every secret. To be in this state is a melting, luxurious affair of the heart. Its is also the Between, the aspect of the Between that is the entryway to all human endevour that is vibrant and original."..."To fathom this, we have to give up our usual view that splits birth and death. No longer at ease in an old way of life, but not yet established in a new one we are in the midst of a paradox. If we let it stretch us wide, we can grasp the mystery of our time: birth is the death of the past we have known; death is the birth of the future we have yet to enter. And the Between, with all its danger and all its promise, is where we stand now." - PP 242-243

Rating:
Summary: If you want life to continue on this planet.....
Review: Just what is a Cultural Creative? Authors Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson conducted a study for the EPA (1998) to ascertain citizen views about the environment. What they discovered was 50 million CC individuals who are changing the world one step at a time. The authors supply a test the reader can use to determine whether they are a `Traditional' (25 percent of the population); a `Modern' (50 percent); or a CC (25 percent).

Using their three "types" to explore cultural values, including attitudes towards the environment, the authors have uncovered a lot of good and bad news. Not surprisingly perhaps, all three groups think the environment is very important (good) while disagreeing about many other cultural issues including the best way to deal with the environmental mess that is killing life on this planet (bad). The authors suggest that while most folks are aware of the attitudes and opinions of the `Modern' and `Traditional' types because they can be found arguing in newspapers, on tv and in person, the opinions and activities of the Cultural Creative types are more elusive.

Ray and Anderson have assembled a huge amount of information and synthesized it into a fairly coherent package. They leave virtually no sociological source untapped as they report on everything from AIDS to Zen. Their book is nicely complemented with survey results and graphs (simple and easy to understand) and plenty of references for further reading. While I don't agree with each and everything these authors say (only 95 percent), I do believe thinking people (especially Moderns..which I used to be) need to read this provocative book.

I underlined so many passages and pasted sticky markers on so many pages I don't know where to begin to describe the content, except to say this is not a doom and gloom book that will make you want to swallow rat poison. This book offers examples of a better way to live. It offers HOPE for our planet. To put the CC message in a nutshell..if we want life to continue on this planet we must act and act now.

You may not agree with all you read, but you will probably find the authors arguments compelling and may discover you are already a Cultural Creative or on the way to becoming one through the process of self-actualization (yes, they include Maslow, Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Wicca and Catholic nuns).

Rating:
Summary: If you want life to continue on this planet.....
Review: Just what is a Cultural Creative? Authors Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson conducted a study for the EPA (1998) to ascertain citizen views about the environment. What they discovered was 50 million CC individuals who are changing the world one step at a time. The authors supply a test the reader can use to determine whether they are a 'Traditional' (25 percent of the population); a 'Modern' (50 percent); or a CC (25 percent).

Using their three "types" to explore cultural values, including attitudes towards the environment, the authors have uncovered a lot of good and bad news. Not surprisingly perhaps, all three groups think the environment is very important (good) while disagreeing about many other cultural issues including the best way to deal with the environmental mess that is killing life on this planet (bad). The authors suggest that while most folks are aware of the attitudes and opinions of the 'Modern' and 'Traditional' types because they can be found arguing in newspapers, on tv and in person, the opinions and activities of the Cultural Creative types are more elusive.

Ray and Anderson have assembled a huge amount of information and synthesized it into a fairly coherent package. They leave virtually no sociological source untapped as they report on everything from AIDS to Zen. Their book is nicely complemented with survey results and graphs (simple and easy to understand) and plenty of references for further reading. While I don't agree with each and everything these authors say (only 95 percent), I do believe thinking people (especially Moderns..which I used to be) need to read this provocative book.

I underlined so many passages and pasted sticky markers on so many pages I don't know where to begin to describe the content, except to say this is not a doom and gloom book that will make you want to swallow rat poison. This book offers examples of a better way to live. It offers HOPE for our planet. To put the CC message in a nutshell..if we want life to continue on this planet we must act and act now.

You may not agree with all you read, but you will probably find the authors arguments compelling and may discover you are already a Cultural Creative or on the way to becoming one through the process of self-actualization (yes, they include Maslow, Jung, Joseph Campbell, and Wicca and Catholic nuns).

Rating:
Summary: a few grains of salt but very helpful
Review: Like many of the reviewers (probably those that identify themselves as cultural creatives) I found this a surprisingly helpful, hopeful and compelling book that gave me quite a jolt as it seemed to put my entire life in a cultural context when my experience was of being outside and crying in the wilderness. It's a startling feeling. I did want to send the book to other people and in fact have ordered five of them to give to friends.
Like a couple of the other reviewers, I did see that it was clear that the authors wanted a specific result from the process of writing the book, that they saw themselves as cultural creatives and thought that was a good thing and wanted other people to be so too. However, I don't know that that is a bad thing and that it invalidates their statistical research. I do know that multi-variate statistical methods such as the cluster analyses used in this book are legitimate, and often under-used methods of understanding the world, and they can add a great deal to our understanding of complex patterns. What I believe is that the authors found a pattern they were happy to find and in this non-academic book they wanted to explore some rather vast social implications.

Rating:
Summary: Insightful!
Review: Professors Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson contend that some 50 million people, one-quarter of the population, in the United States belong to the same group - the "Cultural Creatives" - and share similar progressive, 1960s-rooted values, including environmentalism, social justice and women's equality. However, they say, these folks (two-thirds of them are women) are unaware of each other as members of the same cohort. They suggest that this group is prioritizing the search for meaning and authenticity over the quest for success. We at getAbstract wonder if the professors are oversimplifying a smidgen when they use their interviews and research to divide the U.S. population into three sets - "Cultural Creatives," "Moderns" and "Traditionals". Could this be a bit sweeping, given the country's increasingly diverse population? Still, understanding sociological patterns helps you understand behavior and buying patterns, so as a businessperson you might find that any insight into how people are thinking is relevant - including this one.