>Delivered-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2000 16:11:26 -0400 (EDT) >From: Robert Weissman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Subject: [corp-focus] Bobo Paradise and its Discontents >Sender: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >X-Mailman-Version: 1.1 >Precedence: bulk >List-Id: Sharp-edged commentary on corporate power ><corp-focus.lists.essential.org> >X-BeenThere: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Status: > >Boby Paradise and its Discontents >By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > >Real changes are taking place in the U.S. ruling class, and conservative >David Brooks is one of the first to grapple with the transformation in his >new book, Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There >(New York: Simon and Schuster). > >It is by now cliche to note that the jeans and no-tie look of new money >Silicon Valley represents a visible shift from the more formal attire of >old money manufacturing and finance circles. > >But in his provocative and humorous book, Brooks suggest something more >far-reaching is afoot. The information age elite, he says, "are highly >educated folk who have one foot in the bohemian world of creativity and >another foot in the bourgeois realm of ambition and worldly success. The >members of the new information age elite are bourgeois bohemians. Or, to >take the first two letters of each word, they are Bobos." They mingle >"1960s rebellion with 1980s achievement," making it "impossible to tell an >espresso-sipping artist from a cappuccino-gulping banker." > >Brooks categorizes his method as "comic sociology," and he pokes fun as he >describes the ethic of the Bobos (among whom he counts himself). > >The old elite announced marriages on the pages of the New York Times, >listing "pedigree and connections" -- the groom's social clubs, the >bride's debutante history, the couple's illustrious ancestry. Today's >elite uses the same forum, but with a new focus on resume and achievement. >"An amazing number of them seem to have first met while recovering from >marathons or searching for the remnants of Pleistocene man while on >archeological digs in Eritrea." > >Returning to his upper crust hometown of Wayne, Pennsylvania, Brooks >reports the takeover of the Preppy Establishment with "a new culture >[that] has swept into town and overlaid itself onto the Paisley Shop, the >Neighborhood League Shop, and the other traditional Main Line >establishments." Noting the proliferation of gourmet coffee shops, he >writes, "there probably still aren't a lot of artists and intellectuals in >Wayne, but suddenly there are a lot of people who want to drink coffee >like one." > >A new set of values pervades the new elite, Brooks writes. In the Code of >Financial Correctness, Rule 1 is "Only vulgarians spend lavish amounts of >money on luxuries. Cultivated people restrict their lavish spending to >necessities." In practice, that means "you can spend as much as you want >on anything that can be classified as a tool, such as a $65,000 Range >Rover with plenty of storage space, but it would be vulgar to spend money >on things that cannot be seen as tools, such as a $60,000 vintage >Corvette." > >And, he argues, countercultural values have infused the business world -- >the one sphere of life in the United States where people still talk about >fomenting "revolution" and are taken seriously. > >Although he sometimes overstates and exaggerates, and though some of his >jibes cut deep, Brooks is mostly an enthusiast for the Bobo ascendency. >Bobos believe in tolerance, moderation, community, meritocracy, >decentralization, what Brooks calls the bonds of intimate authority >(family and community control, not power to centralized bureaucracies). >They stand against confrontation and extremism. They have made homes less >formal and more comfortable, and communities tighter knit. Brooks offers >some cautionary notes -- about disengagement from politics, an undemanding >spiritual life, a loss of the blue blood notion of service -- but he is by >and large optimistic about the Bobo-led future. > >The primary limit in Brooks' enjoyable book is what he does not discuss. >The Bobos represent a reconciling of different cultural strands, brought >together by the growing power of a new class fragment or fragments. > >But this reconciliation does not eradicate real class conflict. The >majority of the U.S. population that remains working class (estimated at >62 percent of the population in another interesting new book, Michael >Zweig's The Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret (Ithaca: >ILR Press)) are missing from Brooks' story. > >It is not really fair to criticize Brooks for this -- after all, he is >self-consciously describing changes in the ruling class. > >But it is fair to note that there is a dangerous tendency toward >universalization among Bobos -- a sense that "We are the World" -- even >though most people in the United States (let alone the world) in fact do >not share their expanding wealth and may have markedly different view on >important issues, including concepts of "deservedness," fairness, >government regulation and equitable distribution of wealth. > >For this majority of the population, more confrontation, not less, could >be just what is in order. > > >Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Corporate Crime >Reporter. Robert Weissman is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based >Multinational Monitor. They are co-authors of Corporate Predators: The >Hunt for MegaProfits and the Attack on Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common >Courage Press, 1999). > >(c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Focus on the Corporation is a weekly column written by Russell Mokhiber >and Robert Weissman. Please feel free to forward the column to friends or >repost the column on other lists. If you would like to post the column on >a web site or publish it in print format, we ask that you first contact us >([EMAIL PROTECTED] or [EMAIL PROTECTED]). > >Focus on the Corporation is distributed to individuals on the listserve >[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to corp-focus, send an e-mail >message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text: subscribe > >Focus on the Corporation columns are posted at ><http://www.corporatepredators.org>. > >Postings on corp-focus are limited to the columns. If you would like to >comment on the columns, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] or >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >
