Bobo Bites Back
“Bobos In Paradise” was written by David Brooks some two decades ago to advance the notion that a new group of social animal, the so-called bourgeois-bohemians (“Bobos”) -- those who arose from the affluent educated class blending with the counterculture values of the 1960s -- would power the entrepreneurial energies of an ever-ascendant America. A paradise, indeed, as the culture would represent the ultimate meritocracy such that “Anybody with the right degree, job, and cultural competencies can join.”
Well, how did that work out for ya’? In a recent article from The Atlantic (click: How The Bobos Broke America) the bloom is off the rose as Brooks now maintains, “The bobos have coalesced into an insular, intermarrying brahmin elite that dominates culture, media, education, and tech.” So there, as he reflects on that earlier sunny quote to helpfully admit, “That turned out to be one of the most naive sentences I have ever written.”
The analysis of America’s soul is far more enlightening viewed through the broader lens of cultural dynamics rather than through that of traditional party politics. Our last finger on that pulse was our MM 7/12/21 Four Americas session in which we discussed America in terms of four distinct co-existing countries: Freedom America (a Founding Fathers rugged individualism); Smart America (the educated cosmopolitan class with global ambitions); Real America (the small-town folks with their guns and religion); and Just America (focused on injustices e.g. critical race theory). Party politics becomes reduced to the story of jockeying bedfellows among those four.
Now enter the Bobos into this dog’s breakfast of American politics. At the most basic level their entry explains how and why, for instance, the Democratic party, formerly the vehicle for the working class, was commandeered by this brahmin elite (hint: think in terms of inbred culture).
It explains the rise of “trump” (not as a name but as a brand) as we reflect back on our MM 9/21/20 Politics Of Humiliation session including the Thomas Friedman assertion, “It has been obvious ever since Trump first ran for president that many of his core supporters actually hate the people who hate Trump, more than they care about Trump or any particular action he takes, no matter how awful.” Think Bobos. That one sentiment encapsulates so much of the Brooks article (although the Friedman quote does not itself appear).
Nevertheless Brooks does a fine job distilling the dynamics giving rise to the abundant cultural, political, and economic powers of the Bobos over the last couple of decades. We can discuss and judge for ourselves whether this Brahmin is poised to lead and enlighten America or to eventually to break her.