Posted on 09/16/2003 5:46:43 AM PDT by Apolitical
These days marketers are excited about a new emerging American lifestyle group which is setting marketing mavens' greedy hearts aflutter. The marketing industry is conducting all the research it can on the spending habits of an affluent class of consumers who have variously been nicknamed "bobos" (bourgeois bohemians), "creators," and LOHAS (Lifestyles Of Health & Sustainability) enthusiasts.
Basically, all these high fallutin' labels are the marketers' way of acknowledging that a new breed of liberal is emerging in America -- rich, accomplished and ostentatiously "social responsible." In other words, think of everyone's favorite leftist-chic candidate for California Governor, Arianna Huffington (known to some as the fifth Gabor sister). Or how about Babs Streisand, Peter Jennings and Martin Sheen? Or maybe even that eccentric MBA down the street who made a fortune in the tech runup of the nineties. After all, doesn't he wear birkenstocks to PTA meetings and natter on endlessly about the evils of irresponsible neighbors who offer his kids Cocoa Puffs for breakfast when the kids attend sleepovers at the neighbors' homes? And how about the way he loudly denounces the decadence of life in the West (as contrasted to the "spirituality" of the East) and yet spends seven thousand dollars on a new Italian ultra-light ten-speed racing bike? Not to mention that Mr. Rich & Sensitive is planning a fundraiser for America's most charismatic political visionary, Howard Dean.
What we're talking about here is lifestyles of the rich and hypocritical. And taking a look at this ever-growing social stratum of progressive achievers tells us a lot about what liberalism is all about these days -- supplying a socio-political world view which allows affluent, privileged achievers to salve their consciences and feel morally superior to everyone else. In the meantime, with their consciences clear, they continue to conspicuously consume, employ domestic help at low wages, and generally spend money just as decadently as the "greedy" ruling class they so often publicly condemn (though the rich & hypocritical spend their money on more socially-responsible consumer goods -- for example on $7,000 ultra-light ten-speed racing bikes).
As a few keen observers have noted, the essence of this lifestyle is being wealthy and living the good life while pretending you're not. One espouses (maybe even fakes), in one's politics and social discourse, a sophisticated progressivism that allows one to feel morally superior to the great unwashed. Meanwhile, it's business as usual in dealing with the practicalities of real-world living (exhibiting as much greed, immorality and snobbishness in your private behavior as the worst of capitalism's 'robber barons'). To form a clearer, real-life picture of these high-achieving hypocrites, just think of Bill and Hillary Clinton...
(Excerpt) Read more at iconoclast.ca ...
Yeah, well, I don't WANT to think of Hillary - especially if it involve her in those tight biking shrts while she ridea a 7,000 dollar italian racing 10 speed...
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