Jackson Free Press

Creative Class guru Richard Florida has a long, compelling piece on Alternet about political culture wars in the U.S. He writes: "The last 20 years has seen the rise of the 'culture wars' -- between those who value traditional virtues, and others drawn to new lifestyles and diversity of opinion. In truth, this clash mostly played out among intellectuals of the left and right; as sociologist Alan Wolfe has shown, most Americans manage a subtle balance between the two tendencies. Still, the cleavages exist, roughly paralleling the ideologies of the two political parties. And increasingly in the 1990s, they expressed themselves geographically, as more and more Americans chose to live in places that suited their culture and lifestyle preferences. ...

"Bill Clinton was, in many ways the midwife of the new creative economy. Present at the birth of the '90s boom, he recognized it quickly for what it was and helped spur it by such projects as wiring poor and middle-class school classrooms around the country for the Internet and beating back Republican efforts to cut immigration. For this, he was beloved not only by creatives, but also by many of those in Red America whom he convinced would benefit from the new economy. But he also personally symbolized the creative-class archetype -- its libertine character, its cleverness, its global-mindedness. For this, he drew the lasting enmity of many millions of those in the 'other' America. It's often been said that Clinton was the embodiment of the '60s, and one's position for or against him revealed one's attitude towards that era. It's perhaps more precise to say that with his constant hyping of new technologies and 'bridge to the twenty-first century' rhetoric, Clinton was the embodiment of what the '60s became -- the creative class '90s, hip but pro-growth, open-minded and progressive but ambitious.

"While Clinton and the Democrats increasingly drew their support from the high-tech parts of the country, the Republicans increasingly came to represent the low-tech areas. Republican leaders like Tom DeLay and d*** Armey were beginning, during the early 1990s, to articulate the cultural and political antagonism Red America felt towards the emerging creative-class culture. But the politician who most skillfully spoke to these grievances was George W. Bush.

"Clinton's whole life is a testimony to the power of education to change class. Bush prides himself on the idea that his Yale education had no effect on how he sees things. Clinton was a famous world traveler, appreciative of foreign cultures and ideas. Bush, throughout his life, has been indifferent if not hostile to all of that. Clinton, especially in the early years of his administration, had the loose, unstructured management style of an academic department or a dot-com -- manic work hours, meetings that went on forever, lots of diffuse power centers, young people running around in casual clothing, and a constant reappraising of plans and strategies. The Bush management style embodies the pre-creative corporate era -- formal, hierarchal, with decision-making concentrated in the hands of only the most senior executives. Clinton was happy in Hollywood and vacationed in Martha's Vineyard. Bush can't wait to get back to Crawford. Clinton reveled in the company of writers, artists, scientists, and members of the intellectual elite. Bush has little tolerance for them. Clinton, in his rhetoric and policies, wanted to bring the gifts of the creative class -- high technology, a tolerant culture -- to the hinterlands. Bush aimed to bring the values and economic priorities of the hinterlands to that ultimate creative center, Washington, D.C."

This one is worth printing out and spending some time with.

Previous Comments

ID

136975

Comment

Great article - it articulates alot of what I've been trying to capture in discussions with my co-workers in silicon valley about the what living in Mississippi is like. The best I've been able to come up with is that the motto of MS often seems to be 'change is bad and strangers are scary,' while in silicon valley, the reverse is true. The one thing that I'd like to see more disucssion on is how both sides of the fence actually need each other. It's easy to make 'the creative class' sound wonderful and interesting, but silicon valley in the late 90s was 'the creative class' gone out of control with greed and short sightedness. yes, creativity is good, change can be good, but change for the sake of change is not good. There's a yin/yang balance that's very difficult to achieve. Conservatism has its uses - until it becomes stagnation, and unchecked drive for change is also scary. For instance, his example about the scientist moving to the UK to do stem cell research is a good one - but he glosses over the moral and ethical debates surrounding that and other projects going on around the globe (those people who claim to be able to clone people, for instance). There are cetainly some areas where a smidgen of conservatism can be helpful. It's not quite as simple as he makes it out to be. That being said, I find his overall premise to be right on the money - and the implications of the shifts in policy and attitude are far more far reaching than I had ever pondered in my own little brain.

Author

kate

Date

2004-01-17T12:59:28-06:00

ID

136976

Comment

I just bought the paperback edition of Rise of the Creative Class the day after Christmas, and in Jackson too! (yes, I took a friend from NE La for a little day trip here that day. More about that later). Anyway, the book has an updated list of most creative cities, whose rankings bounce all up and down the list. First, a long spiel of the bad news: As a whole, the cities of Mississippi and the states that border it LOST ground ñ sometimes MAJOR ground. Louisiana was by far the biggest loserÖ especially Baton Rouge (dropped in creative class rank from 72th to 195th..a 123 place loss!!) Monroe lost 80 places dropping from 151 to 239, while New Orleans had a 64 place drop from 83 to 147. Shreveport lost 9 places, which is much worse than it sounds since it was already dead last among US metros with populations between º and ? million. Only Lafayette made any gains at all, from 175 to 157 ñ an 18 place gain. Alabama and Tennessee didnít fare particularly well overall. Alabamaís big losers were 3 of the 4 largest cities in the state, ìleadî by Montgomery, which dropped 57 places from 120th to 177th. Mobile and Huntsville didnít fare much better. Still, the news wasnít all bad for Alabama. Tuscaloosa made a TREMENDOUS gain of 57 places from 238 to 184. Dothan did fairly well too, a 21 place gain from 193rd to 172nd. Auburn-Opelika only became a metro area in 2000, but it made a fairly respectable debut for a new metro - the 126st most creative city in the nation. As for Tennessee, Memphisís place remains unchanged ñ still holding at 132 while Nashville dropped from 42 to 66, a 24 point loss. Chattanooga lost a whopping 98 places from 139th to 237th!! Only Knoxville made any gains ñ it jumped from 89th to 80th Arkansas made some solid gains despite Little Rockís 9 place drop from 53rd to 62nd. However, three of its metros made huge gains: Fayetteville, Texarkana, and Pine Bluff. They gained 39, 46, and 24 places respectively, although only the first one jumped as far as the middle of the list (currently Fayetteville ranks 161st). Nevertheless, Arkansas still has work to do before it can shine. NOW we get to Mississippi!!! On one hand, Biloxi dropped a painful 41 places from 186 to 227 while Hattiesburg debuted on the list at 220 (like Auburn, it wasnít a metro area in 1990). On the other hand, JACKSON made a MODEST GAIN of 4 places, jumping up to Number 71, although within the º to ? million population rank it slipped to 16th place of the 63 such metro areas. So I will say that congratulations are in order for metropolitan Jackson. Their may not have been any substantial gains in creative class rankings, but it could easily have been a lot worse given how the rest of the region did. But donít rest on your laurels ñ thereís still a lot of work left to do. (repeated in another post)

Author

Philip

Date

2004-01-18T18:34:15-06:00