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| Date of Review: June 2001 |
| Bobos in Paradise David Brooks I�m a Bobo, you�re a Bobo, he/she�s a Bobo, too. What�s a Bobo? A bourgeois bohemian, one of the new meritocratic elite who has managed to blend the free-spirited values of the �60s with the success culture of the �80s into a (self) satisfying lifestyle of �meaningful� self-expression and material gratification. David Brooks, a columnist for the neo-conservative Weekly Spectator, has written a Bobo of a book � it imparts accurate insights into the new elite of the �90s with laugh-out-loud, you�ve got to hear this one, humor. Examples: the old social elite copied the homes and furniture of the European aristocracy, the new merit elite copies those of the European peasantry; it�s acceptable for a Bobo couple to display a religious object in their house only if it represents a religion neither the Bobos nor their guests believe in; $100-a-bottle wine is out, $5-a-cup of coffee is in; cruises are out, mountain climbing is in. (In fact, the more you suffer on a vacation, the higher your status.) Bobos are newly spiritual but their religion, modified by the Human Potential movement of the �60s, est, Esalen, TM, etc., is summed up by a rabbi in Missoula, Montana (Bobo heaven) who isn�t an Orthodox, Conservative, Reform or Reconstructionist Jew but, as he puts it, a �flexidox� Jew. (The book was written before Joe Lieberman was nominated for Vice-President.) Brooks cites a young nurse named Sheila who describes her faith as �Sheilaism� with God defined as whatever suits her needs. Catholics call this Cafeteria Catholicism � pick only what you want. Protestants call it Protestantism. Brooks outlines seven rules of financial correctness, including: Bobs �are expected to spend huge amounts of money on things that used to be cheap, e.g. free-range chicken, $5-a-bottle water and Italian biscotti at $1.50 each. With all the humor, Brooks paints an accurate picture of the new Resume Gods whose status derives from their SAT score and their education rather than their ancestors� social standing. He compares in detail the wedding announcements in New York Times from 1959 and 1999. In 1959 the prospective bride�s and groom�s parents, grandparents and their social clubs were prominently mentioned. In 1999, it�s the happy couple�s matching stellar academic achievements (summas don�t marry magnas � the tension would be too great) and their high status employment. Religion has changed, too, as merit has replaced ancestry as the measure of status: in 1959, nearly one-half of the couples were Episcopalian; now less than twenty percent are, while forty percent are Jewish. Brooks also identifies another circumstance of some Bobos, Status Income Disequilibrium, or SID. In Brooks� world, SID sufferers are reporters, academics and on-profit-sector workers who move in a high-income, high-status world during the day but must return to a lower-income life after work. There is a certain amount of spiritual self-congratulation for these folks but a lot of envy, too. Elected officials and many government workers can become victims of SID as well. I could even name a few, but I won�t. Not only because they, like the media, work on a regular basis with wealthy and powerful people, only to return to a decidedly middle-level personal life, but also because their actions frequently make the wealthy wealthier still, and the powerful more powerful yet. It goes like this: A local elected official or planning staff person, for the goof of the community (in her/his view), approves a real estate development. The developer makes a million-dollar profit and the developer�s lobbyist makes a $100,000 fee, while the staff person and the elected official get blamed by the public for allowing �too much development.� You can see how that can generate resentment and, in a few cases, a feeling that it would only be fair for the official to get a piece of the pie. I can testify to the accuracy of Brooks� commentary because I am of an age (62, born in 1939) and have had experiences that encompass both elements of Boboism. I was Deputy to the Mayor of San Francisco for Social Programs in 1967, the Summer of Love, and the Hippies of the Haight-Ashbury were part of my beat. My wife graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1967. (She studied and made Phi Beta Kappa in Linguistics while others were rioting.) We didn�t know it at the time, but ours was a marriage made for the new meritocracy: 700+ SATs and LSATs, plus high-status education: Yale, Wellesley, and Berkeley. By 1979, I was counsel to a Fortune 500 company, Houdaille Industries, headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, that became Kohlberg, Kravis and Roberts� (KKR) first big leveraged buyout (LBO), kicking off the bonfire of the �80s, culminating in Michael Milken, junk bonds, the S&L debacle and the hyper-acceleration of American business that led, in turn, to the high-flying, high-tech �90s. Bobos have captured it all. You may see yourself in Bobos in Paradise; you will certainly see a large slice of our present culture. David Brooks has written the prototypical Bobo book, serving up stinging social insight with sharp humor. (Brooks himself is a Bobo, writing from the inside.) He provides the reader with substantive information together with quotable one-liners. Truly a Bobo�s Delight! Review by Jack Latona |
| Jack Latona established the Center for Creating the Future, Inc., in 2001 as a think tank to further explore concepts about the future he had developed for a university course on The Millennium. In addition to their theoretical interest, these concepts have significant practical applications for businesses and other organizations. As a result, The Center�s web site now has two sections, one to continue theoretical discussion of the future, the other to provide information on how The Center can assist organizations to begin to create their futures now. Please CLICK HERE to go to the Center�s new web site at www.creatingthefuture.org. |