bobos

1047 Words3 Pages

It was the New York Times columnist David Brooks who coined the term “bobo” a combination of “bourgeois” and “bohemian” in his 2000 book, Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class And How They Got There. According to Brooks, bobos were born out of a crossbreeding between a 1960’s social liberalism and the me-focused have-it-alls of the 1980’s. Mixing the traits of two seemingly opposed breeds, the bobos represented a new social figure that began to emerge in the 90’s. Bourgeois Bohemains enjoy the lifestyle liberalism of their hippie ancestors, but are adamant about the finance-focus of their Wall Street-minded parentage. They want “to be free,” but not at the cost of being poor, or even middle class. “The essence of bobo life,” Brooks says, “is people who consider themselves sort of artistic or writers or intellectuals but find themselves in the world of making money, in the world of commerce.” These bobos as he called them, were the product of the information age. “The people who thrive in this period are the ones who can turn ideas and emotions into products. These 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.” By David Brooks’ definition, Bobos are highly educated and highly self-aware. Many have advanced degrees and possess the skills most coveted by today’s organizations. They work in professional occupations and are, for the most part self-motivated and autonomous in their jobs. Bobos came into being as the result of several decades of struggles between the bohemian (hippies) and the bourgeois (old money types). Or more precisely, the values of those two groups. The sixties generation put the final nail in the old regime’s... ... middle of paper ... ...d not crass. The emerging code of finnancial correctness aloows bobos to spend money without looking like one of the vulgar yuppies they despise. It’s a set og rules to help them convert their wealth into spiritually and intellectually uplifting experiences.”pg.85 According to Brooks, bobos are royalty in our present economy. Brooks claims that bobos will prevail because, “The meritocratic bobo class is rich with the sprit of self-criticism. It is flexible and amorphous enough to co-opt that which it does not already command.” In other words, unlike previous elite classes, whose methods were to exclude others, the bobo class welcomes anyone with the talent to join it, regardless of their background. Brooks attributes the changes of elite behavior to the creation of a “creative” class involved in advertising and marketing, computer programming, and new businesses.

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Class In America By Gregory Mantsios

    1572 Words  | 4 Pages

    Social and economic class is something we as Americans like to push into the back of our minds. Sometimes recognizing our class either socially or economically can almost be crippling. When individuals recognize class, limitations and judgment confront us. Instead, we should know it is important to recognize our class, but not let it define and limit us. In the essay, “Class in America”, Gregory Mantsios, founder and director of the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education at the School of Professional Studies, brings to light the fact that Americans don’t talk about class and class mobility. He describes the classes in extremes, mainly focusing on the very sharp divide between the extremely wealthy and extremely poor. In contrast, George

    Read More

  • The Impact of the Hippie on American Society

    2364 Words  | 5 Pages

    American society and culture experienced an awakening during the 1960s as a result of the diverse civil rights, economic, and political issues it was faced with. At the center of this revolution was the American hippie, the most peculiar and highly influential figure of the time period. Hippies were vital to the American counterculture, fueling a movement to expand awareness and stretch accepted values. The hippies’ solutions to the problems of institutionalized American society were to either participate in mass protests with their alternative lifestyles and radical beliefs or drop out of society completely. The government and the older generations could not understand their way of life.

    Read More

  • Wal-Mart and Class Inequalities

    2364 Words  | 5 Pages

    Perrucci, Robert and Earl Wysong. 1999. The New Class Society. Lantham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

    Read More

  • Limiting Factors to Upward Social Mobility in America

    2100 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the land of the “American Dream,” it is the common belief that there is a direct relationship between hard work and success. In this ideal prototype, those who put in long hours are bound for success and movement up the social ladder. Theoretically, one could be born into the “bottom of the food chain,” and with some hard work, rise into the realm of the social elite. As a testament to this global view of the United States, immigrants from all over the world have made the journey to the “land of opportunity” in hopes of better education, jobs, government, communities and lives for themselves and the generations following them. All of this is based on a system of social stratification – a guide to how successful one has been at achieving the American Dream. This evaluation of social class is based on many components, some of which are presented to people at birth, and not gained through hard work or money. The class system at play in the United States has become extremely complex – no longer adhering to the basic class values of our forefathers. Those trying to move up in the class system of America are often caught emulating the behaviors of the rich and famous, but this does not necessarily make them higher class. Many people think that there is a checklist to fill on their way up in the class system, but there is more to being upper class than just talking the talk or having the right credentials.

    Read More

  • The Counter Culture of the 1960's

    1117 Words  | 3 Pages

    The 1950‘s was a time noted for its high expectations and widespread conformity. The children growing up in the 1950’s were from the baby boomer generation. By the 1960’s some of these children began to migrate away from the ways of their upbringings. These children called themselves the Hippies. Even though the Hippie kids had grown up in the richest economy America had ever seen, they sought an alternative lifestyle to the one their parents led.  This trend spread and eventually progressed into a nationwide movement, popularly known as the Hippie Movement. The Movement created its own entirely new sub culture that enthralled the nation. The Hippie Movement of the 1960’s transformed people’s perspectives on cultural matters, moral values, and created a new unique genre of fine arts.

    Read More

  • An Analysis Of Blue-Collar Brilliance By Mike Rose

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    We, as a society, feel the need to draw imaginary lines to separate ourselves whether it’s the line between color of our skin, our religion differences, our political beliefs, or the status of our class. As much as I wish there wasn’t a defining line between high class and the educated vs. low class and uneducated, there is. In Mike Rose’s narrative essay “Blue-Collar Brilliance,” he describes his mother’s lack of education and her hard labor work which is the quote on quote the blue collar working class.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Low Class In America By Gregory Mantsios

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gregory Mantsios advocates more on the struggle to proceed from one class to another in his essay-“Class in America”. Mantsios states that, “Class standing has a significant impact on our chances for survival....

    Read More

  • Dally Dally In The Outsiders

    1293 Words  | 3 Pages

    For example, Dally is one of the poor greasers from the east side of the city, and Bob is a very rich Soc from the west side of the city. Dally, being a greaser from the east side of the city, has very little material wealth. Ponyboy states about all the greasers, “We’re poorer than the Socs and the middle class” (3). What little money Dally has he earns riding in local rodeos. He does not even own a car, but borrows Buck Merill’s when he needs one. In fact, Dally does not even have a permanent home. Ponyboy states that Dally “lived anywhere he could” (105). Therefore, Dally is an underprivileged greaser with little money and few possessions. On the contrary, Bob Sheldon is one of the extremely rich Socs from the west side of the city. Bob has no reason to work because everything he wants is handed to him by his affluent parents. Ponyboy describes the Socs, Bob’s click, as “the jet set, the West-side rich kids” (2). The Socs all seem to drive around in expensive sports cars and wear costly madras clothing, and Bob is no exception. Randy states that Bob’s parents “‘spoiled him rotten’” (116). Unlike Dally, Bob has everything he wants. Money and material things are not a concern. Clearly, financial circumstances set these two

    Read More

  • The Connection between A Bug’s Life and The Chosen People

    2008 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the essay The Chosen People, Stewart Ewen, discusses his perspective of middle class America. Specifically, he explores the idea that the middle class is suffering from an identity crisis. According to Ewen’s theory, “the notion of personal distinction [in America] is leading to an identity crisis” of the non-upper class. (185) The source of this identity crisis is mass consumerism. As a result of the Industrial Revolution and mass production, products became cheaper and therefore more available to the non-elite classes. “Mass production was investing individuals with tools of identity, marks of personhood.” (Ewen 187) Through advertising, junk mail and style industries, the middle class is always striving for “a stylistic affinity to wealth,” finding “delight in the unreal,” and obsessed with “cheap luxury items.” (Ewen 185-6) In other words, instead of defining themselves based on who they are on the inside, the people of middle class America define themselves in terms of external image and material possessions.

    Read More

  • Social Mobility in The Great Gatsby

    595 Words  | 2 Pages

    The highest social class cannot be reached by outsiders. This is a class that you must belong to or marry in to, you cannot work your way up to it. Works Cited Bourdieu, Pierre. A. Distinction- A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1984).

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of Babbitt By Sinclair Lewis

    1674 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis, George F. Babbitt appears to be a conventional middle-class citizen whose life is an example of the destructive and misguided self-love that characterized the United States in the 1920`s. A superficial businessman, Babbitt`s “identity”, or lack thereof, is found in his acquiescent contempt for individuality, as he readily adapts the norms imposed upon him by mainstream society. Consequently, he utilizes his possessions and wealth to convince everyone, including himself, that he is socially and professionally successful – qualities for which any businessman supposedly ought to strive. Yet, in interacting with the upper class, he finds himself envying their actual success, and wonders if he can ever be fully satisfied

    Read More

  • Adam Smith's Estrangement Of Labour

    568 Words  | 2 Pages

    One view on the American socioeconomic status is based on Adam Smith’s ideology. In Part IV of Smith’s Theory of Moral Sentiments he explains how the lower class overvalues the perceived luxuries of the upper class and how extensively this view affects their lifestyle. This concept is represented in the line, “When we visit the palaces of the great, we cannot help conceiving the satisfaction we should enjoy if we ourselves were the masters, and were possessed of so much artful and ingeniously contrived accommodation. A similar account is given why the appearance of inconveniency should render any object disagreeable both to the owner and to the spectator”. Smith emphasizes how the mindset of the lower class is mistaken because it is not the

    Read More

  • Robert Merton's Theory Of Anomie

    716 Words  | 2 Pages

    These are people who follow the paths laid out for them in order to reach the ultimate goal of success. Innovators have the same goals as a conformist, but are unable or unwilling to achieve these goals in a similar manner. As described earlier, young children often go about making money in an innovative way because they feel they are not making enough money by conforming and working a (most likely) minimum wage job. In his book “Social Theory and Social Structure” he states “first, incentives for success are provided by the established values of the culture and second, the avenues available for moving toward this goal are largely limited by the class structure to those of deviant behavior.” (199).

    Read More

  • Baboons

    1135 Words  | 3 Pages

    Baboons belong to the Old World monkey family, Cercopithecidae. They are found in Africa, south of the Sahara as well as in the Saudi Arabia desert (Class Notes 6/12/01). There are five subspecies of baboons including the hamadryas, the Guinea, the yellow, the chacma, and the olive baboons.

    Read More

  • Poverty and Personal Choice

    1389 Words  | 3 Pages

    Diana Kendall. “Framing Class, Vicarious Living and Conspicuous Consumption”. Colombo, “Rereading America”. Bedfords/St.Martin. Boston, New York, 2010. 330-348

    Read More

More about bobos

Open Document