So, I was listening to the radio last night, and they were talking about cultural creatives. And I was like hey! That's me sort of!

Cultural creatives consist of about one third the population of BC, one quarter the population of North America, and about one third the population of Western Europe. They are people who care about the environment, care about relationships.....well, why don't you take the test, to see if you are one or not. The test will also give you a better idea of what a cultural creative actually is.

ARE YOU A CULTURAL CREATIVE?
If you agree with 10 or more of the following, you probably are - and a higher score increases the odds.
You are likely a cultural creative if you...

  • Love nature and are deeply concerned about its destruction.
  • Are strongly aware of the problems of the whole planet (global warming, destruction of rainforests, overpopulation) and want to see more action on them, such as limiting economic growth.
  • Would pay more taxes or pay for consumer goods if you knew the money would go to clean up the environment and to stop global warming.
  • Give a lot of importance to developing and maintaining your relationships.
  • Give a lot of importance to helping other people and bringing out their unique gifts.
  • Volunteer for one or more good causes.
  • Care intensely about both psychological and spiritual development.
  • See spirituality or religion as important in your life but are also concerned about the role of the Religious Right in politics.
  • Want more equality for women at work, and more women leaders in business and politics.
  • Are concerned about violence and the abuse of women and children around the world.
  • Want our politics and government spending to put more emphasis on children's education and well-being, on rebuilding our neighborhoods and communities, and on creating and ecologically sustainable future.
  • Are unhappy with both the left and the right in politics and want to find a new way that is not in the cushy middle.
  • Tend to be rather optimistic about our future and distrust the cynical and pessimistic view of that is given by the media.
  • Want to be involved in creating a new and better way of life in our country.
  • Are concerned about what the big corporations are doing in the name of making more profits: downsizing, creating environmental problems, and exploiting our poorer countries.
  • Have your finances and spending under control and are not concerned about overspending.
  • Dislike all the emphasis in modern culture on success and "making it", on getting and spending, on wealth and luxury goods.
  • Like people and places that are exotic and foreign, and like experiencing and learning about other ways of life.

    Okay. So, there are three types of people in western society. Cultural creatives, modernists and traditionalists. Pretty self explanatory. Cultural creatives are about 60% women, and 40% men. Otherwise, they span the demographic array. All over the map.

    What of it? Well, us cultural creatives are going to take over the world, for one thing. The group is growing, at the expense of the moderns and the traditionalists. It's estimated that in ten to twenty years, Western Europe will be one half cultural creative. North America will be well over one third cultural creative. In BC, the percentage of cultural creatives is somewhat higher than the rest of North America. I guess BC is known for it's laid back, easygoing sort of life, which would seem to fit the cultural creative mindset. Perhaps also, if you were a modernist, what the hell would you be doing here? Why wouldn't you be in New York or something? Greenpeace of course originated in BC. Blah. Blah also. Yes.

    Moving along. I have a tendency to get along pretty well with women. Better so than I get along with guys mostly. Of course. Because cultural creatives are 60% women. Cultural conservative women are often heard (so says the guy on the radio) to moan, "Where are all the good men?" Well of course most of them are in the other two camps.

    Cultural creatives are identified with New Agers. I cringe. Too floofy for me. In fact, cultural creatives are over 30% of the population, and New Agers less than 5%. So...no merit to that argument. Ah....what else can I say? I'm not entirely comfortable being in this group of people who are all out to save the planet. I may be culturally and socially aware of my environment. Many people aren't. If you don't think about stuff, issues on a larger scale, then you're not a cultural conservative. You're probably a modernist. A modernist, by the way, is somebody who is driven by capitalism and money, always looking for the bottom line and yeah. Materialistic maybe.

    In conclusion, these are such sweeping generalizations that I don't know if they're valid. How can you possibly classify all of humankind (western humankind) into three categories, just like that. I see a lot of modernist in me, as well as cultural creative. It's just not accurate to do this. Having said that, there still is value in taking a look at this particular view of western society. Conflicts such as protests against world trade talks, on the surface look clearly like cultural creatives rising up against modernists. Ah....the internet, since we're here, was built, by and large probably by cultural creatives. But we're seeing a subversion of it by cultural creatives, and modernists losing some degree of control, as we see dot-com companies falling left and right. Ah....these issues and many other bear looking at in terms of cultural creative...but as only one analytical tool, though perhaps a fruitful one. I've turned into my history prof. Shoot me. 1