<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">So David, do you think that Erin O’Toole will cash in on dissing the “creative class” (Trudeau’s “middle class”)?<div class="">Allan</div><div class=""><br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Aug 27, 2021, at 2:35 PM, David Walsh via craic <<a href="mailto:craic@lists.integralshift.ca" class="">craic@lists.integralshift.ca</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div class="WordSection1" style="page: WordSection1; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 14pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">Al – thanks for the heads-up. It is an interesting read. Here are a few quotes from the article.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/09/blame-the-bobos-creative-class/619492/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class="">https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/09/blame-the-bobos-creative-class/619492/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share</a><span style="font-size: 16.5pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 16.5pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">“In 2020, Joe Biden won just 500 or so counties—but together they account for 71 percent of American economic activity, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/11/09/biden-voting-counties-equal-70-of-americas-economy-what-does-this-mean-for-the-nations-political-economic-divide/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">according to the Brookings Institution</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">. Donald Trump won more than 2,500 counties that together generate only 29 percent of that activity. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2019/09/10/america-has-two-economies-and-theyre-diverging-fast/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">An analysis by Brookings and <em class=""><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">The Wall Street Journal</span></em></span></a></span><i class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class=""> </span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">found that just 13 years ago, Democratic and Republican areas were at near parity on prosperity and income measures. Now they are divergent and getting more so. If Republicans and Democrats talk as though they are living in different realities, it’s because they are.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">In </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="https://www.rips-irsp.com/articles/10.5334/irsp.285/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">study</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class=""> after </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="https://hbr.org/2017/05/research-how-you-feel-about-individualism-is-influenced-by-your-social-class" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">study</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">, members of our class display more individualistic values, and a more autonomous sense of self, than other classes. Members of the creative class see their career as the defining feature of their identity, and place a high value on intelligence. Usage of the word <i class="">smart</i> increased fourfold in <i class="">The New York Times</i> from 1980 to 2000, according to Michael Sandel’s recent book, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="https://bookshop.org/a/12476/9780374289980" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><i class=""><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">The Tyranny of Merit</span></i></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">—and by 2018 usage had nearly doubled again.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">According to the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture, 65 percent of Americans </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="https://s3.amazonaws.com/iasc-prod/uploads/pdf/sapch.pdf#page=30" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">believe</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class=""> that “the most educated and successful people in America are more interested in serving themselves than in serving the common good.<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">The modern meritocracy is a resentment-generating machine. But even leaving that aside, as a sorting device, it is batshit crazy. The ability to perform academic tasks during adolescence is nice to have, but organizing your society around it is absurd. That ability is not as important as the ability to work in teams; to sacrifice for the common good; to be honest, kind, and trustworthy; to be creative and self-motivated. A sensible society would reward such traits by conferring status on them. A sensible society would not celebrate the skills of a corporate consultant while slighting the skills of a home nurse.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;" class=""><a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/12/meritocracy/418074/" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class=""><span style="font-family: 'Courier New';" class="">Read: The false promise of meritocracy</span></a><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div><p class="articleparagraphroot2qm08" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 22.5pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">Some 60 years after its birth, the meritocracy seems more and more morally vacuous. Does the ability to take tests when you’re young make you a better person than others? Does a society built on that ability become more just and caring?<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><p class="articleparagraphroot2qm08" style="margin-right: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 22.5pt; box-sizing: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; widows: 2; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; word-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: Garamond, serif;" class="">This situation produces a world in which the populist right can afford to be intellectually bankrupt. Right-leaning parties don’t need to have a policy agenda. They just need to stoke and harvest the resentment toward the creative class. Blind to our own power, we have created enormous inequalities—financial inequalities and more painful inequalities of respect. The task before us is to dismantle the system that raised us.”<o:p class=""></o:p></span></p><div class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif;" class="">David<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><br class=""><br class=""><o:p class=""></o:p></span></div></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook', serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></span></div><div class=""><div style="border-style: solid none none; border-top-color: rgb(225, 225, 225); border-top-width: 1pt; padding: 3pt 0cm 0cm;" class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><b class=""><span lang="EN-US" class="">From:</span></b><span lang="EN-US" class=""><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>craic <<a href="mailto:craic-bounces@lists.integralshift.ca" class="">craic-bounces@lists.integralshift.ca</a>><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><b class="">On Behalf Of<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></b>Allan Baker via craic<br class=""><b class="">Sent:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>August 24, 2021 3:30 PM<br class=""><b class="">To:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Assisting virtual Craic <<a href="mailto:craic@lists.integralshift.ca" class="">craic@lists.integralshift.ca</a>><br class=""><b class="">Cc:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Allan Baker <<a href="mailto:allan.baker7878@gmail.com" class="">allan.baker7878@gmail.com</a>><br class=""><b class="">Subject:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>[Craic] David Brooks in The Atlantic<o:p class=""></o:p></span></div></div></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">Friends;<o:p class=""></o:p></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">There’s an article worth reading in The Atlantic magazine this month.<o:p class=""></o:p></div></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">David Brooks writes about “the Creative Class”, and Richard Florida will be angry when he reads this article. Brooks, for his part, admits his mistakes in the article. A good read.<o:p class=""></o:p></div></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">Catch it on-line at: The creative class was supposed to foster progressive values and economic growth. Instead we got resentment, alienation, and endless political dysfunction. <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/09/blame-the-bobos-creative-class/619492/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share" style="color: purple; text-decoration: underline;" class="">https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/09/blame-the-bobos-creative-class/619492/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share</a><o:p class=""></o:p></div></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class=""><o:p class=""> </o:p></div></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">Stay hopeful;<o:p class=""></o:p></div></div><div class=""><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;" class="">Allan<o:p class=""></o:p></div></div></div><span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; 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