Name: Bobos in paradise
ISBN: 9780684853772

Bobos in paradise

"It used to be pretty easy to distinguish between the bourgeois world of capitalism and the bohemian counterculture. The bourgeois worked for corporations, wore gray, and went to church. The bohemians were artists and intellectuals. Bohemians championed the values of the liberated 1960s; the bourgeois were the enterprising yuppies of the 1980s.". "But now the bohemian and the bourgeois are all mixed up, as David Brooks explains in this description of upscale culture in America. It is hard to tell an espresso-sipping professor from a cappuccino-gulping banker. Laugh and sob as you read about the information age economy's new dominant class. Marvel at their attitudes toward morality, sex, work, and lifestyle, and at how the members of this new elite have combined the values of the counter-cultural sixties with those of the achieving eighties. These are the people who set the tone for society today, for you. They are bourgeois bohemians: Bobos." "Their hybrid culture is the atmosphere we breathe. Their status codes govern social life, and their moral codes govern ethics and influence our politics. Bobos in Paradise is a witty and serious look at the cultural consequences of the information age and a penetrating description of how we live now."--BOOK JACKET.

What Hacker News says

bhewesSep 2017

Fascinating this is a POV I have not seen before and it reads rather positively. This should be a book in the vain of 'Bobos in Paradise'.

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AnimatsJul 2016

What he's missed is that hippies and yuppies were the same people. Same self-indulgence combined with bogus philosophy to justify it. From granola to granite countertops in a generation.

Suggested reading: Bobos in Paradise.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobos_in_Paradise

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aridiculousSep 2011

If this piece reveals anything about the larger educational picture, perhaps it's that the pendulum is swinging back to more austere forms of upbringing.

It is peculiar, however, that the austerity would be growing out from Positive Psychology, which traditionally was more laid back and unrestricted. This mash-up of seemingly opposite worldviews makes sense if you consider the trend of the last 20 or 30 years to reconcile differences in cultural. I invite you to read David Brook's Bobos in Paradise for an incredibly lucid account of the convergence of Bohemia and Bourgeois values in the last few decades.

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mattmaroonOct 2008

The boomers have had a tremendous effect on society. If you don't believe me, go visit a Whole Foods or read Bobos in Paradise.

They said things would be different and they are. Marijuana may not be legal yet (in most states) but a lot has changed.

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mattmaroonAug 2008

It's being replaced by different spending patterns. It's a cycle, and I don't expect it to go away permanently by any means. But it's now sort of frowned upon by educated elites, whereas spending the same amount of money on an imported marble shower is en vogue.

Read Bobos In Paradise for a detail as to why.

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mattmaroonJun 2008

I find that richer people still flash their wealth, just in a different way. For instance, I know a lot of very wealthy people who wear Patek Phillipe watches that cost in the 6 figure range. This would not appear to be showing off to an average American, who couldn't spot or guess the price of an uber-expensive watch, but in wealthy circles everyone notices.

I do agree that there's a shift in spending patterns among the wealthy (and Bobos in Paradise is a good book and explains it well) but I don't think that it's due to a desire to be less conspicuous, nor does it have that effect within their social circles. (They're sure to show off their $20,000 slate shower stall.) I think people are just shifting toward buying stuff they like rather than stuff they think other people will be impressed by.

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