More bowling alone in America

The bowling alone guy has struck again.

I'm referring, naturally, to Robert Putnam, the Harvard political scientist whose Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community became an instant classic when it was published in 2000.

That wonderful, provocative title underscores his message that Americans are retreating from civic engagement, which is supposed to be at the core of what makes America such a lively and vibrant society.

Now Putnam has added to his thesis with a more provocative argument about multiculturalism. It may be something for us Canadians to take note of as well.

Putnam has discovered that people who live in racially and ethnically mixed communities are less happy and trusting and more isolated. And here's the really surprising point: those who live in these neighborhoods not only distrust people who look and act differently. They are even suspicious and wary of people who look like themselves.

Talk about bowling alone.

Putnam's classic takes it cues from the great French observer, Alexis de Tocqueville, whose Democracy in America appeared in two volumes in the mid-1800s.

De Tocqueville marvelled at the vigour of the democracy springing up on American soil. This democratic impulse was based on more than just occasional elections but on the willingness of its citizens to embrace "voluntary associations."

Rotary clubs and Shriners in funny hats driving go-karts may be the butt of jokes for modern day urban sophisticates. But their clubbiness is the glue that makes people stick — and care — for each other.

Groups like these aren't top-down organizations founded by the state. They're local and have a life of their own like so many grass-roots political clubs, volunteer fire departments and charities, with potluck suppers thrown in for good, hearty measure.

Turning turtle

It is no wonder, as social theorists like Hannah Arendt have pointed out, that totalitarian states try to stamp out voluntary associations wherever they can. They are trying to make their citizens totally reliant on the state and encouraging them to be suspicious of each other.

It is no wonder, too, that Bowling Alone caused such a flurry in 2000. By updating de Tocqueville, Putnam was making the point that Americans were withdrawing from the very thing that nourished their democracy.

Modern-day Americans did not join clubs as much as they used to, or take the same kind of interest in local affairs. Nor did they play together as they had in the past. Even Little League had become an intense, ultra-competitive sport, run like a corporate business. Parents wanted their children to be stars — pint-sized elite athletes. Community spirit became replaced by the solitary ego.

As for bowling, it had always been the quintessential group activity, with league shirts and group camaraderie. (Even Richard Nixon liked it, though he may well have bowled alone in the last, forlorn days of his presidency.)

Hence, Putnam's sad title — Bowling Alone — was the perfect, poignant symbol for the fate of an inward-looking America.

Attending the odd book club get-together isn't the answer to this unravelling of the collective thread. Humans are social beings. Too much isolation and they become apprehensive and glum. Many books have been written about this painful theme: America, and other industrialized societies, are essentially lonely places, full of anxiety and anomie where alcohol and drugs are used to help soothe the pain, though not successfully.

Putnam's new thesis picks up this theme of isolation and advances it. What he is saying is that people who live in multicultural communities are alienated not only from "the other" but also from those who they were once comfortable with.

They don't join local organizations to solve problems. In fact, there are only two activities they do more of today than before: they go on more protest marches (that's their politics) and they watch more TV (that's their entertainment).

Basically, they hunker down. In Putnam's multicultural America, people are becoming "turtles," he says, living under their shell, wary of each other and themselves.

Hail the hordes

Before you scream prejudice (or racist) let me tell you two things. First, Putnam's most recent work, which is published in an academic journal, is based on thorough research and detailed interviews with 30,000 Americans in large and small communities. So it's not just an exercise in political theory or polemics.

Second, Putnam is no conservative. In fact, he calls himself a "progressive," which is the term that liberals in America now use to describe themselves. It avoids the nasty L-word, which has been turned into a sneering obscenity on right-wing talk shows. Putnam wants his fellow progressives to wake up to a problem they would rather duck.

Another thing about Putnam is that, in spite of his findings, he is remarkably hopeful. He takes the long view, being a real scholar after all.

America (and Canada) is going through a time of intense immigration that is transforming the look and nature of the country. The last time this happened on this scale in the U.S. was from 1890 to 1920.

Back then, waves of Italians, Jews, Irish, Germans and others arrived in American harbours as your proverbial huddled masses. They often spoke no English. They wore odd clothing, ate strange foods and lived in tenements.

Those who were already living in these cities often felt threatened. They didn't think the new immigrants would assimilate. Riots and fights broke out. Just see Martin Scorsese's movie, The Gangs of New York.

Now similar waves of immigrants, both legal and illegal, are flooding into the U.S. and Canada. Putnam is less scared than some commentators, such as Pat Buchanan whose new book is called State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America. Putnam thinks with time and the right measures these people can assimilate as did the so-called hordes of yesterday.

What is needed overall, he argues, is that these new immigrants become part of a new, encompassing "we." And that's a tough challenge. I will come back to this in a future column.