Posted on 02/03/2004 3:58:01 PM PST by vannrox
Good article in the current issue of The Washington Monthly, titled Creative Class War, it takes a look at the whole "red state" verses "blue state" political split from a point of view that is almost universally ignored, but which I think strikes right at the root of it. The author, Richard Florida, begins by talking about a visit to Peter Jackson's new film complex, where he filmed his Lord of the Rings trilogy:
When I visited, I met dozens of Americans from places like Berkeley and MIT working alongside talented filmmakers from Europe and Asia, the Americans asserting that they were ready to relinquish their citizenship. Many had begun the process of establishing residency in New Zealand.
Think about this. In the industry most symbolic of America's international economic and cultural might, film, the greatest single project in recent cinematic history was internationally funded and crafted by the best filmmakers from around the world, but not in Hollywood...
Florida goes on to write about two looming problems on America's horizon that are not the destruction of decades long friendships and alliances and the good will of the rest of the industrial world brought about by president AWOL, and not the trillions of dollars of future debt brought about by president smirking fratboy jackass, but the flight of creative talent from America to other more hospitable lands, and worse, the near complete halt of talent coming into America, in search not simply of the freedom to create, but of a place where creativity is valued.
Roger Pederson is one of the leading researchers in the field of stem cells. But in 2001, he left his position at the University of California, San Francisco, to take up residency at the Centre for Stem Cell Biology Medicine at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. His departure illustrates how the creative economy is being reshaped--by our competitors growing savvy and by our own cluelessness. Pederson bolted because the British government aggressively recruited him, but also because the Bush administration put heavy restrictions on stem-cell research. "I have a soft spot in my heart for America," he recently told Wired magazine. "But the U.K. is much better for this research.... more working capital." And, he continued, "they haven't made such a political football out of stem cells."
Stem cells are vital to the body because of their ability to develop any kind of tissue. Scientists play a similar role in the economy; their discoveries (silicon circuitry, gene splicing) are the source of most big new industries (personal computers, biotechnology).
Unfortunately, Roger Pederson's departure may be among the first of many. "Over the last few years, as the conservative movement in the U.S. has become more entrenched, many people I know are looking for better lives in Canada, Europe, and Australia," a noted entymologist at the University of Illinois emailed me recently. "From bloggers and programmers to members of the National Academy I have spoken with, all find the Zeitgeist alien and even threatening. My friend says it is like trying to research and do business in the 21st century in a culture that wants to live in the 19th, empires, bibles and all. There is an E.U. fellowship through the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Amsterdam that everyone and their mother is trying to get."
The contempt for art and artists among the reactionaries and fundamentalists that are now the aggregate bedrock of the feral republican party is well known. What is not perhaps as well understood, is that not all art is dance, and paint on canvas and bronze statuary, and not all artists work in media that is purely expressive. There is a subtle but profound likeness in the practice of both art and science. In science and technology, as well as purely artistic expressionism, the creative mind restlessly explores, investigates, and outrages entrenched dogmas, and for generations America was a place where the creative mind was not only welcome, but enshrined as part of our folklore. In it's war on elites, intellectual and artistic, the American right is systematically fouling the environment that sustains and nurtures the practices of art and science. There are consequences.
For several years now, my colleagues and I have been measuring the underlying factors common to those American cities and regions with the highest level of creative economic growth. The chief factors we've found are: large numbers of talented individuals, a high degree of technological innovation, and a tolerance of diverse lifestyles. Recently my colleague Irene Tinagli of Carnegie Mellon and I have applied the same analysis to northern Europe, and the findings are startling. The playing field is much more level than you might think. Sweden tops the United States on this measure, with Finland, the Netherlands, and Denmark close behind. The United Kingdom and Belgium are also doing well. And most of these countries, especially Ireland, are becoming more creatively competitive at a faster rate than the United States.
It's a global economy, as they're fond of saying. But what happens when it's not just jobs, but talent, that starts going abroad?
Thanks to the GOP takeover of Washington, and the harsh realities of the Big Sort [migrations of the creative class to the more tolerant blue states, while cultural conservatives migrate to the red states], economically lagging parts of the country now wield ultimate political power, while the creative centers--source of most of America's economic growth--have virtually none. Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer speak for Silicon Valley and Hollywood. New York's Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton, also Democrats, represent New York's finance and publishing industries. Washington State, home to Starbucks and Microsoft, has two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell. Boston's Route 128 and Washington's high-tech Maryland suburbs are also represented by Democratic senators. It's hard to understate how little influence these senators have with the Bush White House and in the GOP-controlled Congress.
You don't have to be a Democrat to recognize that the political polarization of America and GOP dominance of Washington are not necessarily good news for America's economic future.
To which the American right would say, "so what?" For the same reason poor white racists will reliably vote into power politicians, who they know will keep them poor and their children illiterate, so long as they share their racist views, the American right will cheerfully accept a banana republic America, that lowers their standard of living year after year after year, so long as their government keeps the faces of anyone with a shred of creativity and intellectual curiosity shoved firmly in the dirt.
As long as the elites are held down, or driven out, they're happy. The elites, the intellectuals, the scientists, the artists, and anyone who loves life, and existence.
After reading your post - for the second time - I got this verse from a U2 song stuck in my head. The song is So Cruel. The verse and how it's applicable - especially after considering our president's "compassionate conservative" agenda/approach:
...I gave you everything you ever wanted It wasn't what you wanted...
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