Sample Student Response for Assignment #1
It might be hard to imagine how spending over half-a-million bucks to build a bar addition to
your 4600 square foot mega-McMansion nestled in a swanky and exclusive residential
development/country club might communicate your passionately held values about
individualism, useful pleasure, intelligent consumerism, and social responsibility, but if the bar is
an "authentic Irish pub" and the owners are Bobos, it's really not so difficult. (Andrea Truppin,
"A Bit of the Emerald Isle in a Florida Backyard," New York Times, 10/9/2003). Imagining, that
is. According to David Brooks, author of Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How
They Got There, these "bourgeois bohemians" are good at conjuring up associations between
what they buy and how they spend their time, on one hand, and who they are on the other. Who
they are not, at least in their own minds, is also important: they are not the vapid upper-class of
yesteryear who displayed their wealth simply for the purpose of demonstrating their elite status,
for they tend to be profoundly uncomfortable with the idea that they actually have much more
money that 90% of other Americans. As Brooks explains, Bobos are concerned with questions
like "how do you acquire the resources you need without becoming a slave to material things?"
(p. 40). The answer lies in the way they associate purchases like the re-assembled authentic Irish
pub to identify themselves and communicate their identity to like-minded friends and associates.
Bobos see nothing wrong in having an "authentic" pub assembled in Ireland, pulled apart and
shipped to the States, and then re-assembled in an exclusive Florida development. (Indeed, the
article's title practically flaunts this odd juxtaposition. This is because the pub acts as the perfect
Bobo sign to smooth over the contradictions. Indeed, its Irishness is a big part of its appeal: the
Ireland of the article is clearly meant to be associated with rural society, traditional folk, and
endless green fields. The fact that the owner, Harry Bosco, is not Irish only heightens this
association. After all, the "co-optation of oppressed classes," one way that Bobos practice "onedownsmanship" is harder to do if you belong to that class (p. 96). The Irish pub, linked to the
19th century, is also associated with "old things with virtues that have been made timeless by
their obsolescence" (p. 95). Not surprisingly, objects that smack of modernity and
convenience—such as the dishwasher and ice maker—"are hidden behind the bar." What is
unseen cannot be misinterpreted.
The intricate design of the pub and the close attention to detail are associated with other Bobo
values that declare their individualism and their ability to purchase wisely and caringly. In the
article, craftspeople are everywhere, creating "woodwork [that was] handcrafted with saws and
planes, but together with mortise joints and hand-stained with natural pigments." Blacksmiths,
small glass shops, and blown-glass lampshades all connote a connection to traditional cultures
and the practice of "the perfectionism of small things" (Brooks, p. 90-91) As Brooks notes, the
fact that each item within a room like a kitchen or bathroom has an individual "story" serves to
demonstrate that the owner refuses to buy into mass-produced consumerism. The fact that these
items also display an array of textures, including "leaded glass," "brightly patterned weave," and
"hand-carved mahogany bench" (two in one!), are also testaments to the Bobo's "proper
consumerism" (p. 92). The Irish pub, as the article tells us, originated as a part of small private
homes, so spending $500,000 on its modern facsimile allows a Bobo "to spend a huge sum on
things that used to be cheap" (p. 97)—only a rich person could afford to buy such a strong
association with the simple life and still get approved by the homeowners committee of the elite
residential development.
But all this expense would be inappropriate to the Bobo if it were intended merely for
frivolous display. Instead, Bosco and family use the pub to facilitate community and
neighborliness. "It's changed the way people socialize," announces the article. "We had people
in the neighborhood who never got together and now they do." This is probably because, as the
article's expert on Irish pubs notes, "When you're in a good Irish pub, you tend to experience an
absolute cultural change, a time warp." This type of escape, especially when associated with an
exotic culture, is just the type of "useful leisure" that Bobos strive for, and implies that guests
will be less stressed out because of the experience—thus making them more productive in their
work life (p. 195). It even makes the potentially "harmful" activity of drinking into a socially
useful form of leisure. Further, the article implies that Bosco gets to act as a sort of old-time
"publican," both giving him a "life-changing" role as a community-builder. As he claims,
"there's more to building an Irish pub than buying tables." By taking on this role, Bosco becomes
a "pseudo-professional, justifying the purchase of "professional" quality components (p. 89),
which become "necessities" in order to create the right atmosphere for his guests (p. 85).
This wonderfully socially responsible endeavor not only benefits the participants and owners,
it also benefits the "many cottage industries" that have sprung up to provide the perfectly
authentic bits and pieces of an recreated Irish pub. This phrase connotes just the type of
"counterculture capitalism" that Bobos hope to create within the startups, with the same aura of
craftsmanship and creativity. It's true that non-Bobos may peek in on this elaborately
reconstructed pile of cultural symbolism and see not evidence of individualism, social
responsibility, and consumerist awareness but rather the fairly ordinary attempt to spend lavishly
on one's surroundings in order to establish one's elite status. But Bobos see the world—at least
their world—differently.