評論
打印
【英文原文】
Are You a Bourgeois Bohemian
We've had Happies, Yuppies, Buppies and Dinkies, Now it's time for the bobos.
酷、時尚、另類，似乎還有點反叛不羈；然而，他們是知識經濟時代的當權派，主流價值的領航人，他們在成長與探索中追求著心靈的顛峰……
It's hard to miss them: the epitome of casual 'geek chic' and organised within the warranty of their Palm Pilots, they sip labour-intensive cafelattes, chat on sleek cellphones and ponder the road to enlightenment. In the US they worry about the environment as they drive their gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles to emporiums of haute design to buy a $50 titanium spatula; they think about their tech stocks as they explore speciality shops for Tibetan artefacts in Everest-worthy hiking boots. They think nothing of laying out $5 for a wheatgrass muff, much less $500 for some alternative rejuvenation at the day-spa -but don't talk about raising their taxes.
They are 'Bourgeois Bohemians' -or 'Bobos' -and they're the new 'enlightened elite' of the information age, their lucratively busy lives a seeming synthesis of comfort and conscience, corporate success and creative rebellion. Well-educated thirty-to-fortysomethings, they have forged a new social ethos from a logic-defying fusion of 1960s counter-culture and 1980s entrepreneurial materialism.
Combining the free-spirited, artistic rebelliousness of the Bohemian beatnik or hippie with the worldly ambitions of their bourgeois corporate forefathers, the Bobo is a comfortable contortion of caring capitalism. 'It's not about making money, it's about doing something you love. Life should be an extended hobby. It's all about working for a company as cool as you are.'
It is a world inhabited by dotcom millionaires, management consultants, 'culture industry' entrepreneurs and all manner of media folk, most earning upwards of $100,000 a year -their money an incidental byproduct of their maverick mores, the kind of money they happen to earn while they are pursuing their creative vision. Often sporting such unconventional job titles as 'creative paradox', 'corporate jester' or 'learning person', Bobos work with a monk-like self-discipline because they view their jobs as intellectual, even spiritual. It is a reverse the Midas touch: everything a Bobo touches turns to spirituality, everything has to be about enlightenment. Even their jobs are a mission to improve the world.
