Bobos in paradise
by David Brooks · first published 2000
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10HN commenters
2008–2023first – last mentioned
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"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 t
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…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…
on “The richer a society or peer group, the less important visible spending becomes.” ↗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.
on “Don’t Mistake Ambition for Entitlement” ↗…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
on “How yuppies hacked the original hacker ethos (2015)” ↗…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.
…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.
on “What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?” ↗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'.
on “The Premium Mediocre Life of Maya Millenial” ↗Reminds me of "Bobos in Paradise" by David Brooks (2000). Brooks is now "just another uncool Boomer" but he made this same observation over 20 years ago.
on “A society without a counterculture?” ↗Amen on David Brooks -- I feel like I am losing my mind when he pops up with his morality expertise in the media. I regularly re-read this 2004 line-by-line analysis of his 2000 book Bobos in Paradise[0]; his writing is littered with incorrect generalizations that makes me question everything he has to say on principle. [0] http://www.phillymag.com/articles/david-brooks-booboos-in-pa...
on “The Best Books I Read in 2015” ↗Bobos in Paradise by David Brooks is "what happened when the upper middle class became class X". You could argue whether it's worthy or not, but it's what we've got.
on “The Real War 1939-1945 (1989)” ↗…too well in the world of muddy explanations. The problem of this causal explanation perhaps lies with the source material Scott Alexander cited without adequate critical analysis, namely David Brooks’ _BoBos in Paradise_. “If Books Could Kill”, co-hosted by Michael Hobbes and Peter Shamshiri, analyzes and humorously takes down book-length transgressions against critical thinking. A recent episode adroitly and conclusively…
on “Causal Explanations Considered Harmful” ↗I came here to post this and a more recent article, his review of (the first sixth of) David Brooks’ Bobos in Paradise: https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/book-review-first-sixt... Towards the end his directly links to "Whither Tartaria", suggesting that Brooks' thesis (the old monied aristocracy was replace as the…
on “Why Is Everything So Ugly?” ↗…How else is scholarship supposed to function? Would Graeber have been more effective as an op ed columnist, churning out saccharine blather which confirms everyone's priors? eg The World is Flat and Bobos in Paradise?
on “Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber (2018)” ↗