Robert Putnam's Lecture - 6:00 - 45:20. --- NOTE: This wonderful Feb. 16, 1995 talk was delivered BEFORE Dr. Putnam had finished writing "Bowling Alone."
Every time I see a video where they talk about the same problems we have today, it really makes me think “Why the hell has nothing gotten better?”. Dr. Putnam even DESCRIBES the potential issues with the internet in expanding social circles while reducing actual interation, and yet we essentially just went down that path full force. We knew about the potential for a climate crisis in the 1970’s. We knew about the upcoming economic issues and housing markets in the 1980’s and 90’s. And now I find out that folks had studied and identified the potential for social collapse back in 1995 and nobody did a damn thing. We even had a president who started their political career in Civic Engagement and nothing changed!
We've become very proficient in gaining knowledge but not in applying action. Curious if you feel you've done anything meaningful to solve the problems you listed?
@@taop503I’ve gone to school for years to learn about the topics, worked with multiple lobbying groups related to the climate crisis, and spent my last year completely changing my personal routine to better fit a climate-smart future. Of course, none of these things matter; what matters and will eventually work is a drastic re-structuring of the global economic system. I learn that if we started working thirty years ago, we’d be able to slowly resolve the problem. I recognize now that even if we drastically re-structure the entire system of commerce, we’ll still face serious climate issues in the future and their social side effects. My frustration is immense; the frustration of future generations forced to live in worse conditions will be violent.
Sorry the other replies are so dismissive; I personally believe that this trend of society ignoring warnings is mostly due to political/social apathy. Idk why apathy is always rising but I’m sure there is a plethora of contributing factors. For one, the public education system of the United States and many other capitalistic societies focus on the importance of individualism. It’s also important to recognize that you, the other viewers, and I are thinking about things in a larger scale but many people don’t have that ability for any number of reasons. I hope you have a great day and I hope that you find resources in your area to connect you with your local community. Good luck out there 👍❤️
It's because it's about forces that cannot be simply willed out of existence. If the issue is technology, then we're going to technologize ourselves to death, as a society. No policy can overpower that force because that force is working along so many axes. Technology solves real and immediate problems at a low cost. Everything else creates real and immediate problems with high costs. Go down to the bowling alley and try to make friends with 10 people and commit yourself to meeting them once a week for 10 years.
Disconnections: 28 years without TV. 10 without radio or newspapers. My phone makes and receives calls, nothing else. I have had a 6 day staycation and in this time I have chatted with my Mom by phone and gone to the grocers once. Several of these days I did not even step outside. Its ok.
Mutual aid and benefit societies also were a big part of community as well. Insurance used to require you were a participating member of WOW, or JOAM, or an active mason. Thats been replaced by a requirement that you are employed and a wage earner.
@@Peter_Kropotkin free market. free market free market. The more government and insurance co are involved the less competition exists, and you end up with inflationary practices, corruption and lack of choice. The old benefit societies, worked. it was the act of moving to an employment requirement and allowing insurance to control pricing through large nondiverse hospital systems that wrecked our healthcare system. Private doctors cant make it in todays system. The hospitals are pushing them out of existence except for the wealthy. or in your example "comrade" the political elite. Communism isn't the answer.
We have a choice between the New Liberal World Order (Great Reset), where US oligarchs monopolize the world and continue to destroy the planet, and one where we collectively rise up and take our lives back from corporate/oligarchic rule. #DumpTheDuopoly #DemExit #RepExit #ThirdParty #BallotInitiative #Organize #Mobilize #DirectAction #MutualAid #GeneralStrike #Multipolarity #NoWarButClassWar #DownWithTheRulingClass #Solidarity
@@Peter_Kropotkin Yeah, comrade! Form cartels - "trade unions" - that create state enforced barriers to entry for various trades, increasing wealth disparity.
@@polinalerman4464 That is exactly the rabbit hole of study I've fallen into that has led me to this lecture. Are there any resources you can recommend on the topic?
Interesting to see the exact reason why America died. At least the collapse of infrastructure and starvation of all citizens is imminent so this problem will solve itself when we are forced back into the stone age.
Well, when he says we are less engaged civilly and politically that may have been true during the comfortable 90s... today it feels like everything is overly politicized . Every American has an opinion on guns, abortion, gay marriage, homelessness and especially the effects of decisions made during the pandemic. In fact, I think these issues distract us alot from other important issues.
Mindlessly watching the news and yelling at each other the quotes we heard in said news channels is not civil or political engagement. Instead, it means to go out and do something about it with other people. Discuss, debate, implement changes locally, etc.
This resonates so insanely hard with the human condition of the modern day. The fact that this man in 1995 essentially predicted social media and the alt right ismind blowing
Summary: Things that destroy social capital: 1. Decline of organized religion. 2. Rise of isolating technology (television, internet). 3. Entrance of women into the workforce and subsequent collapse of the family. *Putnam did not mention mass immigration for obvious political reasons. It was cut back from the Progressive Era until 1965 because it was viewed as socially destabilizing. Maybe the Amish, the Orthodox Jews and conservative Muslims are onto something. Unlike the secular, egalitarian and hyper-connected majority, they are not erasing their DNA for all of eternity, but multiplying.
Religion bit it self in the foot in the 60s when conservatives were somehow pro war while teaching the virtues of life at the same time. The hypocrisy made people sour on modern religion. Conservatives will cheer the breakdown of unions and workers rights and the full power of the private sector but also scratch their head that doing that will force most families to be supported to two entire incomes. At the end of the day, the conservative muslims can brag and bark about their traditional values but they are still being exploited by western countries sooooo lol
@@SynthCool Religion has been dying since the Scientific Revolution: Nietzsche and Spengler wrote at length about it in 19th Century Europe. Humans have instead placed their faith in technology (Green Energy! Covid vax) that is much less effective than the marketing hype, to the point that they believe that surgery and hormones can solve their sexual identity crises. War generally has broad, bi-partisan support in DC, with the recent Ukraine debacle being a Democratic fixation. Plenty of true American conservatives have been isolationists (Lindbergh, Pat Buchanan), but the get lumped together with Republican free-market libertarians who think lower taxes and less regulation will solve everything. Democrats abandoned the white working class which was the heart of the labor movement for anti-white identity politics, so, together with Libertarian Republicans, they've put a double-squeeze on poor and working whites who used to vote reliably blue. Obviously there's a need for a pro-labor, anti-war, pro-white political party which believes in a limited but effective welfare state for citizens and the dismantling of corporate power over politics. Neither the DNC nor the GOP have the interests of most Americans at heart.
2 questions I would like to put in your head: 1: did the GWOT increase social capital? 2: who would benefit from the social capital deficit? (Your political opponent is nog the right answer)
44:30 Bridging the racial "gap" is impossible. We are different and we need different spaces. Some distinct groups shouldn't be enabled and should be allowed to wither and disappear.
Exactly. Why would we be the same.? Black bears, polar bears, panda bears, brown bears, koala bears etc all evolved over hundreds of millions of years to be different exactly because mother nature wants diverse groups living separately adapted to different environments. Some are strong and aggressive and some are cuddly and timid. Pretending they are the same is absurd. Why would humans be any different?
@@mugsandjunk7516 they are basically the same species. Look at the anatomy. There has been disagreement and the only reason they were categorised as different is because they were categorised based on teeth and bones before dna was discovered. They are now considered a cousin of the polar bear. Their closest relations after the polar bear are raccoons. Dna has settled this. Scientists have used DNA to find out that the giant panda is more closely related to the other bears than to the raccoons. Giant pandas are in the family Ursidae with the seven other bear species. Raccoons are in the family Procyonidae along with ring-tails and coatis.
you give everyone the same tools, you reward the ones who best use those tools, you tax them so that the ones who are not good at using those tools dont have to suffer too much. You encourage the creation of more good tool users, and you discourage the creation of bad tool users. We have to create man made natural selection and improve prosperity without torturing/forcing or dooming people, we are currently in a state of dysgenics, eugenics/selection is the only way to prevent humanity from destroying itself physically and mentally.
Quit searching for a non-existent and impossible "community" Glendon was wrong to tout that idea though she didn't understand she was pushing fascism in her nice but naive way.
@@TheDibbet nope! i'm following the idea to its intellectual origins and then explaining why you might not like that. Trying to replace "the state" with "community" isn't merely fascist, it's also marxist. This is one of the common points between National socialism and Soviet socialism (which is why they called it Socialism)...
@@QuizmasterLaw Well you don't have to replace it, right? A mix should be good. It's working in the Europe anyway without Communism or Fascism breaking out. I'm guessing you are American? They always tend to get riled up if the state gets involved. It's understandable from the country's history point of view.
