We were once a society of joiners. Civic clubs. Leagues. Associations. But now we face a loneliness epidemic and a lack of common ground.
A Sunday event hopes to inspire you to start joining up.
Harvard University social scientist Robert Putnam drew a lot of attention and praise in 2000 with his book, Bowling Alone. Putnam talked about how more people were bowling but fewer were joining bowling leagues, a phenomenon that many of the nation’s clubs and groups were seeing.
Putnam said joining things helps us build social capital, the ability to know people in the community by their first name. He sounded an urgent call for change.
Join or Die, a documentary released last year, hopes to revive his message. South Bend attorney Scott Palmer, a JoinUp! South Bend organizer, notes that unfortunately we’re even more isolated today, and less trusting of government, as we silo in social media echo chambers.
"The work is still relevant now because the work highlighted downward trends that we knew we should reverse but those trends are still continuing," Palmer said. "Our decrease in our connectedness, the loss of social capital over time, writing a book that says this is happening, it shouldn't happen anymore, is one thing, but then actually making those changes is another. That's been a very big boat to turn around and we haven't."
On Sunday at 1:30 p.m. at the St. Joe County Public Library downtown South Bend, they’ll host a free screening of Join or Die. Afterwards, some two dozen community groups will set up tables in an open house-style club fair running until 5 p.m.
