Robert Putnam is an important sociologist. He was born in 1941, which makes him a bit too old to be a Baby Boomer, whereas I, born in 1946, am on the leading edge.
This past weekend he had a powerful piece in The New York Times, whose title I have borrowed here.
You may well want to read his piece online, in which case here is the link.
He focuses on Port Clinton, OH, where he grew up and attended school, and describes the differences from what people there experience now from what he and his peers had available to them.
As is true of much of the upper MidWest, it is no longer possible to have a middle class life style from manufacturing, and communities falter as the manufacturing leaves. He describes that by talking about individuals, helping us understand through their experience.
Then there is this final paragraph, which can be understood even without detailed reading of the entire piece:
The crumbling of the American dream is a purple problem, obscured by solely red or solely blue lenses. Its economic and cultural roots are entangled, a mixture of government, private sector, community and personal failings. But the deepest root is our radically shriveled sense of “we.” Everyone in my parents’ generation thought of J as one of “our kids,” but surprisingly few adults in Port Clinton today are even aware of R’s existence, and even fewer would likely think of her as “our kid.” Until we treat the millions of R’s across America as our own kids, we will pay a major economic price, and talk of the American dream will increasingly seem cynical historical fiction.Please keep reading.