How do we impress on our fellow citizens the importance of civil social discourse? Civility is the only way that what we say and what we hear will be processed in a rational manner.1 A rational manner demands a calm persona and an acceptance of others. When we allow one group to ostracize another group, we have lost our social compass, and I would argue also our moral compass, with which we find our guide for interactions with others. In the words of Marilynne Robinson, “once a significant part of the population takes it to be true that other groups or classes do not participate legitimately in the political life of the country, democracy is in trouble.”2
So how do we get the message out that our social discourse matters? One way is to remind our young people early on about their responsibilities and certainly when they are in school. From there, they pursue further studies in college or technical schools, pursue careers in the military, or pursue employment in the community. Some also start their families at this time (their most important job of their life!). All of these pursuits are vital to our communities, our state, and our country. Every year at graduation ceremonies, the young adults are told about their responsibilities as graduates. They are told that their freedom in this country to pursue their field of choice is a privilege, not a right. They are told that they are no longer passive participants in our society. They are now citizens. And the main responsibility of citizens is to get involved and care for others.
Yet, we need some sort of WD-40 to loosen the wheels of entrenched groups that are hell-bent on maintaining a status quo that harms us more than helps us and further isolates us from each other. Robert Putnam in his book Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community emphasizes the term “social capital” to refer to involvement in our community.3
Social capital can be that special WD-40 that gets us going. WD stands “for [w]ater [d]isplacement, and WD-40 Multi-Use Product is a unique, special blend of lubricants. The product’s formulation also contains anti-corrosion agents and ingredients for penetration, water displacement and soil removal.”4 Social capital has all of those properties – chemicals to get things moving, to avoid corrosion, to penetrate between the cracks and to help remove stuff that needs removal. Perhaps this analogy is a bit far-fetched, but I like it. It implies that any change to improve our communities requires action and a gentle nudge (or not so gentle nudge at times) to drive change.
Initially discussed by a school supervisor (L.J. Hanifan) in 1916, social capital refers to “those tangible substances [that] count for most in the daily lives of people: namely good will, fellowship, sympathy, and social intercourse among individuals and families.”3 Communities with social capital “may bear a social potentiality sufficient to the substantial improvement of living conditions in the whole community. The community as a whole will benefit by the cooperation of all its parts, while the individual will find in his association the advantages of the help, the sympathy, and the fellowship of his neighbors.”
A careful reading of the above quote notes the following:
- Social capital means individuals must get involved in their community.
- It is not sufficient to do things in a void. We must get involved with and for our fellow citizens.
- Involvement in our community helps the community and helps the individuals. This is a classic win-win situation where the community is a winner and the citizens are winners.
- Citizens are active participants in the community.
- The benefits to the community from individual actions are often greater than the individual actions themselves. In other words, the benefits to a community from positive interactions can be greater than the sum of its parts.
- Involvement leads to interaction and subsequent understanding of the issues affecting the lives of our fellow citizens. Our individual actions (selfish or selfless) affect others in our community. With involvement, we learn to appreciate those reactions to our actions and learn to cooperate and improve our community for the betterment of all.
Robert Putnam further notes that social capital allows citizens to resolve collective problems, greases the wheels that allow communities to advance smoothly, widens our awareness of the many ways in which our fates are linked, and improves individuals lives through psychological and biological processes.
Putnam’s book title, Bowling Alone, is a provocative one. A common source of interaction in the community in the post-WWII era was bowling. Folks were often in leagues, interacting with friends and making new friends. One such interaction noted in his book is the chance encounter that led to an individual donating a kidney to previously complete stranger. His book documents the effects of less social engagement (hence the title “bowling alone”) and the potential deterioration of our social fabric.
Professor Robert Putnam
In a recent interview, Putnam fine-tuned the concept of social capital.5 He discusses bonding social capital and bridging social capital. Bonding social capital is enhancing the bonds with like-minded folks, and bridging social capital is purposely seeking to reach out to others that might have different interests and form a social bond. Both are important but the latter requires more intentional action and in many ways is more impactful in the long run.
Too often we think that our elected officials will make the difference. We elect people to help establish policy. Policies only matter if the citizens are actively involved, working to improve their community, putting those policies into effect or working to modify them as appropriate. Let’s not forget that our elected officials don’t do the work of improving our community. We do. They are important as policy makers, but citizens make the difference. We are the social capital in that we exhibit the good will, friendship, sympathy and social interactions to move things forward.
Involvement is the key to improving our lives and the life of our community by using our social capital. By considering social capital as our WD-40, we are ready to get things moving, to avoid corrosion, to penetrate between the cracks and to help remove stuff that needs removal. Whenever we get involved, we increase the social capital and are a part of tangible improvement. WD-40 indeed has so many purposes!
- https://mychildrenschildren.com/civility-matters-2/
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/09/opinion/sunday/america-patriotism.html
- Putnam RD. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. Simon and Schuster, 541 pp. 2001. (revised edition issued 2020)
- https://www.wd40.com/myths-legends-fun-facts/
- Garcia-Navarro L. Robert Putnam Knows Why You’re Lonely. NY Times Magazine. July 21, 2024, p. 11-13.