“Cultural Creatives, it could be said, are the silent revolution. Imagine how much more transformative their effect on society will be when they evolve into networking, voicing their values and forming representative movements.” – O K Waters

The Shift to the New Reality is real, and it has been gathering steam since the 1960s.

In the book, “The Cultural Creatives,” Paul Ray and Sherry Anderson detail a comprehensive study of more than 100,000 adults in the United States. They found that, since the 1960s, a huge 26 percent of these adults have made a comprehensive shift in their culture – their worldview, values and way of life. A 1997 survey conducted in fifteen European countries shows that the figures are highly similar in Europe. The following is a summary of the typical values of this new culture.

Cultural Creatives love nature, respect the Earth and are deeply concerned about the environment. They like to develop close relationships with each other, and to help and encourage other people to develop their abilities. They care about personal and spiritual development, and want more equality for women and all cultural groups.

Cultural Creatives would like to develop a new way of life. They are cynical of media-fed information, and want to find a new political philosophy that works in today’s reality. They are not materialistically driven, and typically have their finances and spending under control. They like traveling to other countries to get to know new cultures and they want to develop a sense of community where they live. Authenticity is important to Cultural Creatives; that their actions are consistent with their words and inner beliefs.

In the early 1960s, there were too few Cultural Creatives to measure in surveys. At that time, American culture was split evenly between two cultural groups – the Moderns and the Traditionals. Moderns reflect an ethic which actually goes back as far as the Renaissance, when European Protestantism freed the population to pursue a self-empowered work ethic rather than continue to give their power, freedom and sense of initiative away to authority figures. Continue reading →