STILL BOWLING ALONE

KAPLAN, NEW REPUBLIC, 9/12 /19-27
PERL, NEW REPUBLIC, /29-36.

There is something adrift. According to Robert Putnam in BOWLING ALONE, numerous indicators suggest that the sense of community has been lost. Further, a national sense of being has also withered. Putnam is not talking about now, rather years ago. What he describes in the 90’s when his book first came out is just as relevant today.

From the 30’s we fought depression. In the 40’s, it was the war against fascism. The 50’s was the march against Stalinism which even Marxist revision quietly applauded. The 60’s was the civil rights and anti-war movements. However, from the 70’s we wallowed into hedonism as the RIGHT blossomed and the LEFT Died. The 80’s was the MARCH OF THE RIGHT, Libertarians and Evangelicals trumped to victory. However, another movement started in the 70’s and has become a stable institution to date. Don’t get involved and don’t go out at night. If you bowl alone, do it on Tuesday afternoons during your day off.

For both the right and the left, we are adrift. 9/11 brought us together for a short while, but social indicators resumed toward nullity in a few months. We are stalled waiting for the next paradigm shift.

This is also true in art. Other than the comodification of art, we are also seeing the death of formalism a type of modern/post modern artist expression that is going down in flames. We are at the edge of things. We are not sure if we are dying or being born. Perhaps it is both. Call it resurrections or reincarnations.

History suggests that it repeats itself. We don’t wither, but stagger than resume into something mighty forceful and full of sound signifying something. Then comes the downward cycle followed by temporary stasis that is where we appear to be right now. In the middle of nowhere…