Market Research Discovers the Three Subcultures

A recent article in American Demographics-"The Emerging Culture," by Paul H. Ray-suggests that the "three subcultures" Objectivists have been discussing for several years have now shown up on the radar of market researchers, in this case Ray's San Francisco firm "American LIVES."

How Americans Divide

In Ray's terms, Americans with a pre-Enlightenment outlook are Heartlanders; they "believe in a nostalgic image of small towns and strong churches." Americans with an Enlightenment outlook, Ray calls Modernists, just as Objectivists do; they "place a high value on personal success, consumerism, materialism, and technological rationality." Americans holding a post-Enlightenment vision Ray dubs Cultural Creatives; they are "altruistic and often less concerned with success or making a lot of money."

Studies by Ray's firm suggest that Heartlanders (whom he also calls "Traditionalists") number 30 percent of the population, about 55 million adults. Modernists, he claims, account for about 47 percent of Americans, or 88 million adults. Cultural Creatives (whose philosophy he calls not post-modernism but trans-modernism) currently have only about a quarter of the population, or 44 million adults. But Ray, who clearly favors the post-modernists, believes (surely correctly) that their numbers are growing, and this gives rise to the focus and title of his essay: "The Emerging Culture."

Origins of the Subcultures

In addition to having spotted the three subcultures, Ray proves remarkably perceptive (for a non-philosopher) in locating the philososophical-cultural origins of Modernists and the Cultural Creatives. Thus, he says "modernism emerged 450 years ago [that is, circa 1550] as the governing world view of the urban merchant classes and other creators of the modern economy."

Regarding the Cultural Creatives: he does not trace their beliefs back to German philosophy, but he comes close, tracing them back to the manifestations of that philosophy in America.

Trans-Modernism began with esoteric spiritual movements such as 19th century American Transcendentalism.... It caught fire in the 1960s, as millions of young people joined 'movements' for human potential, civil rights, peace, jobs, social justice, ecology, and equal rights for women. Conservative commentators often believe that each of the social movements listed above exists in isolation and is important only to a few. But from women's issues to environmentalism, the emblematic values of the 1960s are being embraced by more and more Americans.

Looking at Subdivisions

Ray has gone beyond Objectivists in an interesting way by discovering internal divisions within the three subcultures.

Traditionalists. Ray asserts that traditionalists divide into "Double Conservatives" and "Lower-Status Heartlanders." The former (8 percent of Americans; 15 million adults) form the core of the religious Right. Ray calls them "double" conservatives because they tend to embrace both the religious values of traditionalism and (as they move up socially) the capitalist economics of modernists. The larger subdivision of traditionalists (22 percent of Americans; or 41 million adults) Ray calls "Lower-Status Heartlanders." Often elderly, often poor, these people are both religious and anti-business, even to the point becoming environmentalist in their yearning for a lost, simpler world.

Though Modernists are the largest sub-culture, Ray sees them as split four ways, and the largest subgroup (15 percent of Americans; 29 million adults) are Alienated Modernists. Though not poor, they feel the market system is not working for them, either because they have gone from better-paying to worse-paying jobs or because their job prospects do not match their expectations.

Close behind are the Striving Centers (14 percent of Americans, or 26 million adults). Many are minorities and may exhibit elements of religious and cultural conservativism. But they want, above all, to move up in the world. Conventional Modernists (12 percent of Americans, or 23 million adults) are belief-Modernists, heartily disliking both Traditionalist and Trans-Modern values and beliefs, although they are also characterized by being well-to-do, with 61 percent in the top income quartile.

Last among the Modernists are the Economic Conservatives (6 percent of Americans, or 11 million adults), whom Ray describes as upper-middle to upper-class free-market conservatives. Though often interested in personal growth, he says, they "strongly believe the world should not change."

Finally, Trans-Modernists are divided in two. In general, they embrace ecological sustainability; globalism; women's issues; altruism, self-actualization, and spirituality; social conscience and optimism. But Core Cultural Creatives (11 percent of Americans, or 24 million adults)

combine a serious concern with their inner lives with a strong penchant for social activism. They tend to be leading-edge thinkers who are in the upper-middle class, with 46 percent in the top one-fourth of the U.S. household income distribution.

On the other hand, Greens (13 percent of Americans, or 24 million adults) have values "centered on the environment and social concerns from a more secular view, or from the view that nature itself is sacred. They show just an average interest in spirituality, psychology, and person-centered values., and they tend to have a conventional religious outlook."