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The Coming of Age of Humanitarian Values If you are reading this issue of The New Times, chances are you may have already noticed the heartfelt stirrings of a great social change now taking place across the United States. On TV talk shows, during enthusiastic meetings in local cafés, at international conferences and purposeful gatherings of scholars and laypersons, and even in grocery store lines, people are fervently discussing their ideas on economic sustainability, ecological balance, tolerance and respect for diversity, spiritual awakening, and their shared desire to create a better world for our children. This passionate conversation is a prayer for a new moral and spiritual foundation for the 21st century, and the good news is that this movement is gathering momentum at a time when we need it most.
According to Ray and Anderson, Cultural Creatives include people who: • love nature and are deeply concerned about its destruction. • are strongly aware of the problems of the whole planet and want to see more action taken to solve them. • place a lot of value on helping other people and bringing out their unique gifts. • place importance on developing and maintaining relationships. • want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life in our country. • see spirituality or religion as important in their lives. • want politics and government spending to put more emphasis on such issues as children’s education and well-being, rebuilding neighborhoods and communities, and creating an ecologically sustainable future. With over 25,000 hardcover copies sold since it was first published in 2000, The Cultural Creatives is practically a bestseller for a book on American culture and civilization. When I talked recently with Paul Ray, who impressed me with his bright mind and thoughtful articulateness, he told me how pleased they were with the sales, as sociology doesn’t usually sell very well in America. "Americans," he said, "have trouble thinking about culture." According to Ray, this is because Americans generally socialize with peers from similar backgrounds. "Europeans and Asians say, ‘Of course there is an emerging subculture, with new values and a new way of life,’ because most Japanese and Europeans are used to living, working, and meeting people from different cultures. But a high percentage of Americans are not." During their initial book tour, the authors were surprised at the number of "furrowed brows" in their audience and thought that perhaps "people were angry." Then they realized that the significance and concept of an emerging subculture is such a new idea for people that "it takes awhile for it to sink in." Many people think the Cultural Creatives can be understood through simple moral or psychological explanations. They think that it is about specific personality types like extroverts, the baby boomer generation, or for people on a spiritual path like New Agers. In fact, the values of Cultural Creatives apply to people of all ages, the majority being between 25 and 69, and include different religious, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Insisting that the "Cultural Creatives" phenomenon is merely a passing psychological or spiritual fad is "exactly wrong" says Ray. The movement may be a new development, but its roots lie deep in the major social changes of the last forty years and give it a sturdy and steady foundation. The beginnings of the Cultural Creative movement can be traced to the social unrest of the 1960s and early ’70s, which include the civil rights movement, Vietnam War protests, and the budding hippie culture. Often met with contempt and scorn, the proponents of these important social changes were initially called anti-American, and their ideas anti-progress. The naysayers said, "It’s bad for our country" and hoped these "problems" would soon disappear, but the rise in social consciousness has not gone away. In the 1960s, less than five percent of the population was engaged in these kinds of social change processes. Now, one generation later, they have gained momentum and make up over 25% of the adult population in the United States, over fifty million Americans strong. These social movements spread out widely in the fabric of American life and include humanitarian causes, environmental concerns, a growing interest in human potential and consciousness, greater use of alternative medical care, and the healthy growth of the organic and whole foods industry. Perhaps one reason why this "social unrest" hasn’t just disappeared is that its very nature — to seek independence and freedom, question authority, and look for humanitarian solutions to complicated national and global issues — is a core part of the American way. It is possible that the values cherished by Cultural Creatives represent the hidden heart of our country, now becoming more and more visible in our world. Maybe the Cultural Creatives’ emergence is further evidence of a future where people and cultures will indeed be more important than profits and resource management will promote sustainable energy sources, ones that renew rather than deplete our beautiful Earth. There are a number of reasons why the Cultural Creatives’ values have been largely ignored by our mainstream society. As Ray explains, American society is made up of many different subcultures, the major three being the Moderns, who tend to focus on progress, industry and intellectualism; the Traditionals, who emphasize family values and are more conservative; and the Cultural Creatives, who emphasize caring, sustainability, non-violence, and creativity, among other values. Even within these three segments, you have subgroups. For example, there are four distinct types of Moderns, ranging from the Business Conservative to the Alienated Modern. The Cultural Creatives have "two wings," based on the differences in intensity of one’s beliefs, values, and actions. Of the three major subgroups, the Cultural Creatives have been the ones playing backstage more often than the Moderns and the Traditionals. Until fairly recently, the mainstream media and corporate marketing have focused primarily on the ideology of the Moderns’ and Traditionals’ subcultures, largely overlooking and even ridiculing what matters to Cultural Creatives. Today, however, we are beginning to witness Cultural Creatives’ values more frequently in the popular culture. Over the last decade, the growing number of best-selling books on personal growth, health care, and spirituality; the amazing array of alternative newspapers and magazines; the millions of viewers of Oprah; the budding Oxygen network and upbeat Wisdom Channel; and even the abundance of health foods available in your neighborhood Safeway are daily reminders of the power and popularity of these values. With word of mouth increasing about The Cultural Creatives and the paperback version recently released, more people are realizing they are not as alone with their "sensitive and strange" beliefs as they might have previously thought. Of course, the numbers of Cultural Creatives also has enormous potential for our market-based economy. On a positive note, you can now purchase organic foods practically anywhere in this country, and finding environmentally friendly products is as easy as a mouse click on the Internet. However, large corporations hypnotized by flashing dollar signs are quickly moving to gobble up this market share. So we need to use this information consciously. Ray and Anderson tell us we are at "a tipping point in history," a time of great change when we are moving into unknown territory. Our biggest challenge, they believe, is to "preserve life on the planet and to find a way past the overwhelming spiritual and psychological emptiness of modern life." To do this, all areas of society need to embrace a larger view and holistic perspective, taking into account the Native American idea of Seven Generations in our decision-making processes. This new worldview places planetary and consciousness concerns first, and it is the Cultural Creatives who are at the very center of this convergence and will be the movers and shakers of this great change. It’s a precarious time, and a pregnant one, in which we are merging the old and the new. As Ray and Anderson suggest, it is a time when much " wisdom is needed." To this end, Ray and Anderson are working with individuals, groups, and businesses to help promote wisdom values and put them into action. Here are some steps, based on their book, to begin building a future incorporating the wisdom values of the Cultural Creatives: Inner Departure Identify a time in your life when you began to question authority and mainstream culture. Setting Out Begin to think about a new way of life for yourself based on your values. What kind of future could you be building? Confronting the Critics Think about how you deal with uncertainty and criticism. Do you keep silent about what matters to you? Why? How can you become more courageous? Turning Your Values into a New Way of Life This is sometimes called "moral connectedness" or "thinking outside of the box." If you could live a life totally based on your values, what would you be doing, where would you be living, what type of work would you be doing? Take Action Identify an action step you could take this week to promote wisdom values in your life. If you’ve ever felt alone in your passion for the earth and environment, exploring spirituality, and/or wanting a better life for all inhabitants on this planet, take heart; you are not alone. Humanity is waking up and, as Ray and Anderson state, we are now "inviting consciousness in." There is much to celebrate, even while we do the work for the future generations. Sherry Ruth Anderson and Paul Ray will present a workshop, "Exploring the Deep Questions of a Wisdom Culture: Steps to Making the Leap to a Wisdom Culture" February 21, and a lecture, "Learning to Leap: Creating a Wisdom for Our Time" February 22, at the tenth annual Women of Wisdom Conference. For more information, call (206) 782-3363 or visit <http://www.womenofwisdom.org/>. Susan Chiat is a marketing and public relations coach and consultant in Seattle, Washington. She can be reached at <schiat@aol.com>. |
According to authors
Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson (right), one quarter of the
adult American population — fifty million people —
are part of this burgeoning new movement. In their book, The
Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World,
Ray and Anderson show how people’s values are changing to
reflect a "softer," or more humane, side of humanity.
Drawing from 13 years of research, the authors based much of
their findings on information collected from 100,000 responses
to values and lifestyle questionnaires mailed to people all over
the United States. Using a battery of seventy questions designed
to elicit what is most important in people’s lives, they
discovered that a new subculture has emerged in American life,
a group of Americans they call the Cultural Creatives. Their
theory is supported by a bevy of fine-tuned statistics and the
results from numerous focus groups and in-depth interviews.