This may be the year that the demographic identified by sociologists Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson as Cultural Creatives make their mark globally. If you haven’t read the book, go ahead and get it now. This demographic is global — and at the time of the book’s writing, it was estimated that 20 million people fall into its characteristics.
Cultural Creatives Are Changing the World Through Connection
These people are dedicated to and passionate about:
- peace and social justice
- economic fairness and equality (but few of them are either socialists or communists) — instead they are seeking new models
- spirituality (as opposed to organized religion or dogma)
- eco-sustainability and a “green” economy — you will definitely find them among all the ecology movements
- part of one or more of the major social movements of our times
- governance that gives all people a voice — and power WITH vs power OVER
- interdependence and interconnectedness
They have (and probably still are) part of one of the great cultural movements of the times: Consciousness, Human Rights, Green Living and Integrative Medicine and Wellness, Peace and Social Justice, and some that have no names at all. They are just folks doing good things — because they want to and because they don’t know any other way they want to live 🙂
Cultural Creatives love to tell — and listen to — stories, because that is where connections with the heart begin. it’s said that you can’t hate anyone once you know their whole story; perhaps that’s true. But a Cultural Creative will want to start there — not end there.
You can see it in the Arab Spring. In the Occupy Movement. Far from being “hippies” — although certainly there will be many hippies in the group — they are from virtually every economic, religious, racial, geographic, sexual orientation, and cultural sector you can name. You can’t claim that they are Democrats any more than you can claim that they Independents; they come from all backgrounds.
And they are headed towards a visionary destiny that they are willing to co-create. While for a long time they believed that they were alone, finally they are discovering that they belong to an emerging culture they had only once dreamed. And now it’s here. In 2012. Woven among the very fabric of every culture in the world is a glowing jewel of renewal and serious purpose.
They have been quietly “doing the work” to repair themselves in the wounded places. They have been quietly connecting with as many others of like mind and heart as they could find. And now — seemingly suddenly — they discover how vast and robust their silent movement has become.
For them, in so many ways, it is never about one person upon whom we can place our hopes — and projections. It was always about what we can do together. And this year — 2012 — is the year we shall all find out where that power will take us.
You can count on it being exciting, sometimes breathtaking, sometimes heartbreaking — but it will never be boring.
The Cultural Creatives are taking over the world — and maybe you’ll be joining them 🙂
P.S. These are the people I coach. If you’re one of them and want to learn how I can help you, please contact me. In fact, coaching is one of the best things that came out of the Cultural Creative movement — it’s a very Culturally Creative thing to do!
P