This month we are focussing on the theme of social alienation. James Bradshaw provides a very thorough analysis of the principal works of American sociologist Robert Putnam, who is perhaps most famous for his 2000 work Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. In Bowling Alone Putnam convincingly showed that a huge shift towards social disengagement had taken place in the USA. The term which he used (but didn’t coin) for social engagement and solidarity was “social capital” (closely related to the more traditional term “common good”). Putnam shows that a society with widely shared common goals is one that therefore has a high degree of social capital and is correspondingly much more successful across a wide range of personal, social and economic indicators. The bad news is however that social capital in the USA and in Europe is distinctly on the decline, as epitomised by Putnam through the shift towards “bowling alone” where previously men in particular would have gone bowling with friends. This same “bowling alone” phenomenon is repeated in all kinds of disaffiliation from social, cultural, political and religious groups.
This decline of solidarity (and its mutation into individualism) has a drastic effect on family life of course, as seen in the rise of divorce, child neglect and more recently even the especially sad phenomenon of formal disavowal of parents by their children.
Putnam sees a strong link between increasing social disengagement and the growth of the “nones” in the USA (the “nones” being those who describe their religious affiliation as “none”). It is easy to suspect that at the heart of the collapse of social capital is the withdrawal from participation in “organised religion”. Other sociologists have studied the particular importance to social cohesion of a faith in God. This makes sense: it is the draw of God alone which stops us succumbing to the dead-weight of our egoism.
This is something like a conclusion being reached by the well known New York Times columnist Ezra Klein. Michael Kirke in his In Passing column shows how Klein, a non-Christian and espousing the liberal line, has recently written for the need to rediscover the “valued element of tradition”, calling liberals to have, in a wonderful phrase, “a healthier relationship to time”. His thinking draws him, though a Jew, in the direction of Christianity.
The thinking of Klein and Putnam has a special relevance here in Ireland where we have been in the process of severing, disowning even, our links to our Christian tradition. Eventually we too will begin to see here that we Irish need a healthier relationship to time, and in particular to the Catholic ethos of an earlier period. And incidentally we need also to acknowledge some of the unsung heroes – in the strict sense of the term – who made such a huge impact abroad in missionary work. Fr Conor Donnelly reviews this month a biography of one such forgotten great: Mother Kevin Kearney.
The same theme can be seen in Margaret Hickey’s review of Sally Rooney’s latest book, Beautiful World Where Are You? Rooney’s genius perhaps is her ability to capture the deracinated world of her generation (and gender in particular as Hickey points out), and how it impacts most especially in their search for love. Hickey contrasts this wonderfully with the same search as described in the completely rooted world of Jane Austen. Where for Austen the search for love (and for family) took place within the clearest of moorings: strong social and religious conventions, for Rooney “formlessness” dominates and anxiety and restlessness (for young women in particular) is the consequence. The unmooring took place of course, in the sexual revolution of the 1960s when the rule book regarding sexual norms was thrown away. Other rule books were to follow, governing other areas of social interaction and culture, with generally unhappy results.
It is quite striking to see thinkers grappling with different aspects, and in very different ways with the same social malaise – the loss of solidarity, which of course is the same thing as the cooling of love. Love – genuine love within the moorings of self-giving – alone can save us.
Finally by the time you are reading this a group of us will hopefully have successfully completed a fundraising climb of “The Four Peaks” (that is the highest mountains in each of the four provinces) to raise funds for the expansion of the Komarock Home for homeless girls from Nairobi (see the ad on the back page). While I am conscious that there are many worthy causes calling for your support I would like to invite you to give the Komarock Home some consideration. Many thanks!