Bobos for Jesus

There's a new elite, ruling class in the culture, but they may not be around for long. Jesus was not unfamiliar with the nattering nabobs of his own day, and you could always count on him to have a few choice words to say to those who thought they had it made. In Luke's version of the Beatitudes, Jesus is at his penetrating best.

This is a test.

Have you ever been inside a Restoration Hardware - one of those yupscale stores where you can buy a set of six Optimista Pessimista Glasses, Sabatier stainless steel steak knives or a Metropole Makeup Mirror?

At breakfast this morning, did your coffee cost more than your newspaper?

Do you buy only those cosmetics that swear that no animals were killed or tested to help make you beautiful?

Do you consider yourself a paradigm-shifting, change-embracing Knowledge Worker? One who lives by the click and dies by the click? One for whom work is both a source of income and a search for meaning?

If you can answer "Yes" to any of these questions, congratulations. You're a Bobo. Not a "Bozo" ... a Bobo. You've earned a spot in the ruling class of contemporary American culture.

The term comes from David Brooks' new book, Bobos in Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There. It means that you have BOurgeois values combined with BOhemian attitudes. You are blending the...