The Creativity Economy is why Trumpism won’t win.
Technology created the Creativity Economy. Creativity is now the gating factor to economic growth. America has more creativity than any other country, thus more growth.
This means more than having talent. Lots of places have talent. But the Creativity Economy has needs that go beyond having talent. Talent must be taught, and it must be free to learn. It must be mentored. Most importantly it must be empowered. Anything, or anyone, who says “no” to a creative person is harming the economy.
Creativity has many dimensions. The Creativity Economy draws from all of them. Whether your talent lies in organizing, in selling, in technology or explaining it, in music or art, the Creativity Economy needs you. Many business leaders don’t have degrees in business. Part of nurturing the Creativity Economy is giving people the freedom to change their path.
That means freedom, by which I mean ordered liberty. It means democracy, the right of the people to change their minds. It means capitalism, controlled by law focused by democracy on the common good. The society that maximizes choice wins the economic race. Right now, that’s America. We have retained our economic leadership into the 21st century because of the Creativity Economy. Without it, we’re nothing.
Fascists and ideologues of all types are great at saying “no.” No, you can’t say that. No, you can’t do that. No, you can’t even think that. They create enemies, either individuals or whole groups, then scapegoat them, knock them down, and reward only those who follow the herd. This is the very antithesis of creativity. You only learn when you change your mind.
I have spent my career covering the rise of the Creativity Economy. Infrastructure, which dominated the first part of the 20th century and gave us companies like AT&T and GE, no longer matters as much. Manufacturing, which dominated the middle of the century and gave us companies like General Motors and IBM, no longer matters as much. Resources, which dominated the back end of the 20th century and gave us companies like Exxon and Halliburton, no longer matters as much.
What matters today is creativity, talent harnessed to its full economic potential. That’s what software does. That’s what networks make possible. That’s why the Cloud Czars – Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook (uh, Meta) – dominate the globe. There are trillions more dollars behind the Czars, serving them, using them, or seeking to supply them. These companies will dominate only until some other technology rises to replace them, probably biological.
Nothing is certain in a Creativity Economy. Talent is everywhere. Regardless of your sex, your race, who you love or your physical ability, you could be Stephen Hawking. The key to our economic future lies in expanding the opportunities of creativity, finding talent, nurturing it, empowering it.
Fascism of all types is a top-down system that only rewards obedience. That’s its strength because this draws followers who either lack talent or question it. That’s its weakness because it rejects creativity and the forces needed to harness it.
That’s why Trumpism won’t win. The forces of the Creativity Economy, not just the Cloud Czars but our other creative industries, won’t stand by and let themselves be destroyed. Besides, human existence on this planet now depends on the Creativity Economy expanding, exponentially, so that climate change can be slowed, stopped, and reversed.
The forces of fascism are the forces of death.
We’re not going to die. We’re going to live. If you continue to question that, I don’t want to hear from you anymore.
