I recently purchased a book by American author [i]RD Putnam[/i], "[u]Bowling Alone[/u]". It's about the [i]decline of civic engagement[/i] in America, and I think this decline can also be observed in industrialized countries in Europe.
This is from a summary of the book: [sep] "When [i]Alexis de Tocqueville[/i] visited the United States in the 1830s, it was the Americans' propensity for civic association that most impressed him as the key to their unprecedented ability to make democracy work. 'Americans of all ages, all stations in life, and all types of disposition," he observed, "are forever forming associations.'
"By almost every measure, Americans' direct engagement in politics and government has fallen steadily and sharply over the last generation, despite the fact that average levels of education --the best individual-level predictor of political participation-- have risen sharply throughout this period. Consider the well-known decline in turnout in national elections over the last three decades. From a relative high point in the early 1960s, voter turnout had by 2000 declined by nearly a quarter; tens of millions of Americans had forsaken their parents' habitual readiness to engage in the simplest act of citizenship.
"Membership in traditional women's groups has declined more or less steadily since the 1960s. For example, membership in the national Federation of Women's Clubs is down by more than half (59 percent) since 1964, while membership in the League of Women Voters (LWV) is off 42 percent since 1969. Similar reductions are apparent in the numbers of volunteers for mainline civic organizations, such as the Boy Scouts (off by 26 percent since 1970) and the Red Cross (off by 61 percent since 1970). At all educational (and hence social) levels of American society, and counting all sorts of group memberships, the average number of associational memberships has fallen by about a fourth over the last quarter century.
"In 1975 the average American entertained friends at home 15 times per year; the equivalent figure (2000) is now barely half that. Virtually all leisure activities that involve doing something with someone else, from playing volleyball to playing chamber music, are declining.
From the material marshaled by Robert Putnam we can see that the simple act of joining and being regularly involved in organized groups has a very significant impact on society. Interaction enables people to build communities, to commit themselves to each other, and to knit the social fabric. [sep]
Apparently the [i]Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes Lodge No. 26[/i] is close to extinction.
Are you a member of organized groups, or are you bowling alone?
@Quizzical I think people choose to "bowl alone" simply because they can now. In older times we relied on one another -- the community -- for support, but now we don't need to, so we don't. And in the process I think we have lost that sense of community, both of relying on other and helping others when needed. And then we're shocked and suprised when kids video (and laugh at) another kid dying of a drug overdose that the older kids fed him, as happened near me recently.
In honesty, Bowling alone, however that is going change both politically and socially. Americans these days are brainwashed to consume, consume, Ad Nauseum, compounded by the general population with their ear to a cell phone.
Try and pull them away from a cell phone and the get agitated. One last thing, the "Dumbing Down of America" isn't someones attempt at clever puns it's a real thing.
Walk into many public schools these days and see how much serious teaching goes on.
@Peaches Some think computers will make the world a better place, but it's not true. Technology will never make the world a better place, only kind hearted people like you will!
I have close friends I stopped inviting out or over to my house because they do not stop texting long enough to have any meaningful conversation with. I don't want to just view them, so it is pointless and aggravating. And it is not something personal it is this way no matter where they are or whom they are with then they will communicate with whomever they're not with via text messages . . 😐️
I have a huge social circle. But I think that we as people are connecting in a different way. And social online media outlets are a part of that ordeal. We aren't as disconnected as many would like to believe. Because we are constantly connecting with others even all around the world. 🙂
@IstillmissEP Oh — you did read the book! It's about America, of course, but I think the tendencies he describes can be observed in other Western countries as well. Western Europe follows the same patterns.
And isolation leads to loneliness. There's an old book, probably from the 1940s, called "The Lonely Crowd". I did not read it, but the title is deeply irritating.
@mathsman Please include François-Marie Arouet, better known as [i]Voltaire[/i], in your list. Great thinkers indeed. Even young people should read those.
