French born historian, Jacques Barzun (From Dawn to Decadence, 2000) argues that the first requisite to cultural change would be gatherings of impassioned, creative and fertile minds.
Cultural movement is not the result of a single genius followed by a crowd. Rather, cultural movement results from the clustering of a large group of highly creative and gifted people.
The generative community is indispensable to cultural movement. The community may exist beneath the radar, at first. But little by little word gets out and they begin to come, from nearby and far away. One brings a brilliant idea- another an original application. They compare notes, challenging each other, escalating the energetic heat of creativity. Slowly the movement becomes community and the community erupts into the public spaces. As Barzun says, “It takes hundreds of the gifted to make half a dozen of the great.”
The Four Secrets of The Revolutionary Generation
Historian Joseph Ellis argues (Founding Brothers, 2001) that the catalytic agent shaping the new American republic was not constitutional, legal or institutional but the personal relationships between George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Benjamin Franklin. The dynamic interactions between these men of contrasting temperaments and differing opinions gave shape to the cultural movement called America in the critical decade of the 1790’s.
Ellis also pushes forward four provoking reasons for the success of their leadership.
1] Their leadership was a “collective enterprise that succeeded because of the diversity of personalities and ideologies in the mix.”
2] They all knew one another personally. “Though the American republic would become a nation of laws, during the initial phase it also had to be a nation of men.” They were rivals and friends.
3] They dealt with the significant issue of their day: slavery and the creation of a new nation.
4] All the members of the revolutionary generation knew the significance of their moment in history even while they were living out the history on which their reputations would rest. They spoke, wrote and acted not only with and to their contemporaries, but to us as well.
History can be instructive. We’ll accomplish greater good for our world on our quest after Christ if we journey together.