The Cultural Creatives - How 50 Million People are Changing the World

by Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson

Since the 1960s, 26 percent of adults in the United States– 50 million people – have made a comprehensive shift in their worldview, values, and way of life – 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.

My experience reading the book was as follows: First, I was overjoyed to read about people whose values were so closely aligned to my own. Then, I was flabbergasted to find out how many of those people are out there. It’s like discovering you have 49,999,999 kindred spirits. Finally, it made me feel really hopeful about our future and the part I can play in helping it unfold.

More details from the Cultural Creative website:

“Does the religious right have a hammerlock on values in America? Is the new American dream really about getting and spending, and being the first zillionaire on the block? At the turn of the millennium, fifty million ordinary Americans emphatically disagree. They are the Cultural Creatives - the leading edge creators of a new culture in America.

In this landmark book, sociologist Paul Ray and psychologist Sherry Ruth Anderson draw upon 13 years of survey research studies on over 100,000 Americans, plus over 100 focus groups and dozens of depth interviews. They tell who the Cultural Creatives are, and the fascinating story of their emergence over the last generation.

The Cultural Creatives care deeply about ecology and saving the planet, about relationships, peace, social justice, and about self actualization, spirituality and self-expression. Surprisingly, they are both inner-directed and socially concerned; they're activists, volunteers and contributors to good causes more than other Americans. However, because they've been so invisible in American life, Cultural Creatives themselves are astonished to find out how many share both their values and their way of life. Once they realize their numbers, their impact on American life promises to be enormous, shaping a new agenda for the twenty-first century.

Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson tell how people departed from Modern or Traditional cultures to weave new ways of life. Three Americas are struggling to define what the country should be: Traditionals (25% and declining), Moderns (50%) and Cultural Creatives (25% and growing). The authors show how each one emerged historically, and how the Cultural Creatives in particular grew out of the social movements of the Sixties right up to Seattle's WTO demonstrations, and from the consciousness movements in spirituality, psychology and alternative health. They conclude that all the different kinds of movements are converging now, with the Cultural Creatives at the core.

What makes the appearance of the Cultural Creatives especially timely today is that our civilization is in the midst of an epochal change, caught between globalization, accelerating technologies and a deteriorating planetary ecology. A creative minority can have enormous leverage to carry us into a new renaissance instead of a disastrous fall. The book ends with a number of maps for the remarkable journey that our civilization is embarked upon: initiations, evolutionary models, scenarios, and the elements of a new mythos for our time. The Cultural Creatives offers a more hopeful future, and prepares us all for a transition to a new, saner and wiser culture.”

Are you a Cultural Creative? Fill out the on-line questionnaire and find out!

On February 6, 2004 I attended a talk at Town Hall in Seattle by Paul Ray entitled “The New Political Compass” where he discussed the political implications of his work on the Cultural Creatives.

A brief article – very worth reading - about  "The New Political Compass" written by Paul Ray in Yes! Magazine.

Paul Ray said the single most important thing we can do to impact our political arena is to stop being consumers and start being citizens. He advocated entering into conversation with other “citizens” as a powerful way to start. A great resource for making conversation happen is www.conversationcafe.org.  They offer support for open, hosted conversations in cafes and other public places and offer “a simple process that helps to shift small talk to BIG talk, and to make sense of our world.” I’m eager to try it.