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Cultural
Creatives:
Shared
Traits
According
to Paul H. Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson, a
till-recently hidden, yet
quite coherent sudculture comprised of about 50 million Americans [publ.
2001], with comparable, recognized populations in other countries.
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The "Cultural Creatives"
[CCs], mentioned frequently on Ahhh-TheLight.com, comprise a
population of U.S. citizens with recognized parallel constituents in other countries as
well, a
group identified by the two authors cited above. The authors' demographics
suggest they numbered about 50 million adults in the USA in 2000. If
anything, especially given a host of events [e.g.,
the 9-11 event; the acute indifference and lack of support to those whose lives
were devastated by Hurricane Katrina; the sudden acceleration of the melting of
the polar caps] and the increasing of knowledge and world-wide
acknowledgement and pro-action taken [such as, re:
the greenhouse effect, genuine strides forward to move away from the
multi-destructive reality of a petroleum-driven economy, technologies and
society; conflict transformation as a virtual social movement],
this number has probably grown substantially since then. The Cultural
Creatives compare very closely to EHEers and EHE-empaths as a whole. This
is an exact match in their description of the "core" Cultural
Creatives which then made up about half this population as a whole. Ray
and Anderson delineate the values that define Cultural Creatives as follows:
-
Personal
Authenticity [speaking,
living a life exemplary of the core values of who and what one
believes -- talking the talk, walking the walk with heart and
fearless integrity. One's outer and communal life is a clear
reflection of one's equally important inner life. One's life
and words reflect a luminous self honesty and simultaneous concern
for the greater whole]
-
Engaged
Action and Whole-Process Learning ["where they can
be part of creating something from the beginning, middle, end,
and through to the new beginning"]
-
Idealism
and Activism [living the talk, being personally engaged
in causes and in work that makes a contribution to society and to
the world]
-
Globalism
and Ecology [very attuned to a whole-systems, big-picture
approach; "they want to see all the parts spread out side by
side and trace the interconnections"; they are "very or
extremely concerned about 'problems of the global
environment...'"]
-
The
Importance of Women [What politicians often refer to as
"women's issues" are a key to understanding Cultural
Creatives. They see women's ways of knowing as valid:
feeling empathy and sympathy for others, taking the viewpoint of the
one who speaks, seeing personal experiences and first-person stories
as important ways of learning, and embracing an ethic of caring.
They are distressed about violence and abuse" and not to mention
social
activism -- advocacy for the equal rights of all people,
unconditionally.]
-
Green
["Commitment to a sustainable
future."]
-
Rejection
of: "'owning more stuff,' materialism, greed,
me-firstism, status display, glaring social inequalities of race and
class, society's failure to care adequately for elders, women, and
children, and the hedonism and cynicism that pass for realism
in modern society"; "the intolerance and narrowness of
social conservatives and the Religious Right"; "almost
every big institution in modern society"; "narrow analyses
and are sick of fragmentary and superficial glosses in the media
that doesn't depict what they see, or
explain what they know from their own direct experience.*"
-
Altruism,
Self-Actualization, Spirituality [Although all Cultural
Creatives "have a well-developed social conscience and a sturdy
but guarded optimism about the future," only about half of them
are committed to the cultivation of a spiritual life.]
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Ray and Anderson differentiate between two basic interest groups among the
CCs. Both groups have the above list of characteristics in common, except
for the last one [re: spirituality and
self-actualization]. There is a "Core"
group of slightly less than half their number that as a whole is probably better
off financially, since they tend to be better equipped educationally. This
population is comprised of "a huge proportion," say the authors,
"of published writers, artists, musicians, psychotherapists,
environmentalists, feminists, alternative health care providers, and other
professionals." The second subgroup, which the authors term "Green," statistically pans out as more secular and/or to have more
traditional religious values. Their numbers indicate "an average
interest in other kinds of spirituality and in psychology and person-centered
values." Although they clearly align themselves with the
ideologies of the Core group, especially those of environmental concern, they
are not nearly as "intense" or accomplished as activists who tend to
be more populated by the Core CCs.
As you can see from the list of what CCs have in common as a whole, they are all
noted among the aftereffects of EHEers. Something unique to the Core group
-- and of particular interest here -- is their strong commitment to spirituality
and self actualization that is mirrored in / balanced by strong social activism
and a passionate interest in ecological sustainability. It would be
interesting to learn how many of either group have been influenced by
spiritually transformative experiences, whether as experiencers or as EHE
empaths.
*Emphasis on 'direct experience': needless to say, that's a major factor on this
experience- focused website.
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