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CREATIVITY AT RISK [DRAFT 12/19/05]

Remember Rachel Carson's book, "The Silent Spring"?  Written in 1962, it called attention to the use of DDT and other toxic materials in farming. "The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us, the less taste we shall have for destruction," she wrote earlier, in 1954. It's forty years plus after the publication of "The Silent Spring" and we're still learning about how our actions negatively impact our environment. Ms. Carson was an early advocate for a holistic perspective on the consequences of our actions on a complex system of inter-related natural conditions and living organisms - including one another. She was a pioneer of ecology before that word entered common usage. She taught us that although you can't always see the immediate impact of an action or abuse of nature we must always pay attention and act as stewards of our planet, not plunderers. She concludes that we should act with care, kindness, humanity and wisdom when we pursue profit, success and other fleeting markers of modern life. When was the first time you heard the word "ecology"? The term oekologie was coined in 1866 by the German biologist Ernst Haeckel; the word is derived from the Greek oikos ("household") and logos ("study") – therefore, "ecology" means the "study of the household of nature". For me, it was in a science class at college in 1970. I remember the feeling of gaining a new, larger-scale perspective when considering the concept of life on the planet as a complex web of relationships with other life and the physical environment. You can't see the ecology or, more accurately, you can't see the web of relationships, but once attuned to them, you know they're there and can visualize them.. The notion that all of earth is a household is still one that many civic and business leaders refute as they carry on as if their actions in one room don't affect the people living across the hall, downstairs or next door.

Think of creativity in America as a similar complex web of inter-dependent elements. Think of a creative ecology. America's creative ecology is a complex web of relationships that are all rooted in the abilities of our citizens to recognize, express and be rewarded for their creative outputs. This flow of creative thought, expression, invention, expressive lifestyle, protest and imaginative social change plays out in several arenas at the same time. It plays out in the marketplace and corridors of commerce. It plays out in the corridors of government. It plays out in arts and cultural spaces large and small, formal and informal, in organizations located in large marble-coated buildings and the neighborhoods across America in storefronts and loft spaces. This creative output is also expressed in lifestyle choices, fashion, living arrangements, diet, travel and political participation.

What are the elements that make up our creative ecology? It starts with our people - as all creativity resides in and is expressed by people. People's creativity output might be likened to the sunlight that powers the Earth's eco-system and that is the basis for all other energy exchange and resource production. But people live in specific places under specific political and economic conditions. If those conditions help individuals develop and express their creative talents to the fullest, then you could say the creative ecology is in sync and, as people produce more creative output, the social environment is further enriched, facilitating yet more creative output. If political and economic conditions conspire to crush intellectual and creative abilities, then that environment is acting as a retardant and placing roadblocks to creative output. In this sort of environment there will be a low level of creative energy output and, therefore, low yields of the benefits of creativity. I believe all people are creative and will find ways to express themselves, ask questions and re-create their environments despite the harshest restrictions .

I've made the case that America's future is inextricably linked to her ability to maximize her creative assets. Although dozens of business, civic and research organizations have stated this point in loud and clear terms, the call for a creative America has not gained serious political traction.

Quite the opposite. America's creative ecology is under treat from a trio of parallel trends:

(1) a growing civic intolerance and the growth of a politics of hate and division, (2) a brain drain and brain waste that threatens to relegate America to an intellectual backwater, and (3) a growing disparity of wealth and education opportunities in America producing a cultural divide that  limits who can be a creative professional. Think of these conditions as toxic inflow threatening to poison and deplete our nation's creative ecology. People are the sole source of creativity - but a person's ability to express talent and give form to creative abilities is a function of economic and social realities. I'd like to lay out three broad threats to American creativity - three sets of conditions that individually are repressing or even forestalling creative outputs, and which, together pose a severe challenge to our collective ability to maximize creativity going forward.

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