Is Creativity Inherently Liberal?

Pilgrim Soul ^ | March 2023 | Shawn Gold

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A few months ago, someone left an Amazon review for a Creative Thinking Journal, I created. The review stated that the journal might have been worthwhile if the guided exercises weren’t “specifically about liberal thoughts.”

Huh! I thought. I had no intention of writing a book about creativity for leftists. Many of the creative activities introduced in the guided journal are open-ended and rely on free association, allowing users to add anything they choose without being told what to say or think.

The question nagged at me: Is it even possible to create a book on creativity that isn’t inherently liberal? Isn’t divergent thinking, non-linear thought, reimagining the world, creating new ideas and applications for things — inherently liberal? That doesn’t seem plausible, does it?

Merriam-Webster’s official (and well-liked) online dictionary defines a liberal as “one who is open-minded or not stringent in the maintenance of traditional, or established practices.” Meanwhile, a conservative is defined as “tending or inclined to preserve previously held ideas, conditions, or institutions.”

Those we’d most readily classify as high-achieving “creatives” in modern times — inventors, thinkers, musicians, painters, actors, and writers — are more than often to the left of center when it comes to politics. Take a look at any major political rally’s pop culture “special guests,” and this will become immediately clear. No offense Scott Baio.

However, it’s not just modern variations of such “creatives” that lean left. Just to mention a few, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, and Marie Curie — a decent five-person collection in terms of humanity — were also deeply interested in trend-bucking worldviews and lifestyles, expressed in their politics and interests. Many progressive thinkers throughout history were at risk of isolation, jail, and even death for defying the norm.

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No. Next question?

[ChinaGotTheGoodsOnClinton]

Do you have a link to JP and JH talking about moral foundations theory?

What makes JH different is that he found these trends throughout existing cultures and found they roughly correspond to differences in male and female outlook.