Bowling Alone isn’t really about bowling alone. As sociologist Robert Putnam allows on page 113, a better designation might be Bowling in Small Groups; admittedly, this wouldn‘t be the catch phrase for modern alienation his title became when it first topped a 1995 article. His key observation is that bowling leagues are losing their members. So are most other volunteer organizations that once made up the warp and woof of American life. In his five-year journey from essay to book, Putnam has extended his thesis to suggest that in our workplaces, among friends, even in families, people are ever less social.The result is the loss of a vital commodity Putnam calls “social capital” — a WD-40 of the spirit, essential to keep society going. He concludes (italics his), “Let us spur a new, pluralistic, socially responsible ’great awakening‘ so that by 2010, Americans will be more deeply engaged than we are today in one or another spiritual community of meaning, while at the same time becoming more tolerant of the faiths and practices of other Americans.”
Source: You Got Me, Babe | L.A. Weekly