More on Social Capital

[Jon’s Radio] Re: Robert Putnam’s data on social capital show that social connectedness in America was on the rise through most of the last century, until its precipitous decline beginning in the late 1960s. Why the decline? He blames television, urban redevelopment, single-parent households, two-career families, and other factors.

A corollary to the sharp decline of social capital in our generation, by the way, is a sharp rise in the number of lawyers per capita. Fifty years ago, Americans thought that most people were trustworthy. Today most think the reverse. Lawyering flourishes, says Putnam, because it is the “production and sale of synthetic trust.”

Interesting. For years I have interacted online with people I have never met face-to-face, and may never meet. Yet I trust them.

I think people who are at their own core trustworthy in thought and attitude tend to be less fearful or focused on protecting themselves from “the other guy.” Perhaps it is just niavete, and perhaps it is just a decision to try and live without secrets or ulterior motives. Honesty and forthrightness has an energy to it. Mayhaps such honesty will attract frauds, but in my experience the frauds are attracted to those with an underlying greed, working hard to appear generous or helpful, and who like to think they are “taking” and not “being taken.” (I am reminded of the Nigerian fraud). And in such environments, trust disintegrates and you need lots of lawyers to cut off the last pounds of flesh from the dying bodies.