Can joining a bowling team save democracy from MAGA? From itself? That’s the thesis put forward by pollical scientist and author Robert D. Putnam in his magnum opus Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community. You see, America was built on clubs (look it up!) and once upon a time, we all were in clubs. We also all wore hats, but I’m not sure those times overlap.
The theory is that clubs made us happier, more open, and more inclusive people. Did they? Really? Is club affiliation all that separates disgruntled Americans? Are you telling me that if I joined a MAGA bowling team, I’d suddenly see how enlightened, selfless, and quite un-assholery they were? Gosh, that’s a pretty strong thesis.
It’s full of shit … but I’ll hear you out.
Putnam and now power couple filmmakers Pete Davis and Rebecca Davis see the direct correlation between lack of club membership and the decline of democracy. OK, how does that happen? Well, you see, we used to all belong to clubs and that made us know our neighbors and appreciate different viewpoints and get along and shit. During this era of American history, we were all “joiners.” Now, we are all loners. Now that club affiliation has essentially disappeared, people are meaner in their bubbles.
And if you don’t believe us, just check out 1970s Italy.
Italy, really?
Yes, Italy. In the 1970s. Team Davis did research on this crap and found that social capital makes democracy work … and social capital only happens when voices are heard within their communities, which happens best when people belong, see? OK. Well, this is an exploration of political science as a pure science, which, well, it isn’t. Just like economics and psychology aren’t pure sciences … or are they? This isn’t the hill I want to fight the battle from.
What I see is that America has had plenty of internal conflict from the outset whether or not we were all proud members of the Boy Scouts, PTA or Wendy’s Chicken Club. I mean, America’s rampant
racism, which is at the heart and soul of its current need for an intervention, doesn’t magically go away once you make joining the Kiwanis Club mandatory. MAGA’s desire to alienate and enforce their pyramid scheme of demographic importance is going to exist whether or not they have an opposition … and if they didn’t have an opposition, they’d invent one. Hence, color me skeptical.
Also, one very relevant question comes up at this moment: did we have more or less club membership when we were a country of slavery? No one is going to convince me, ever, that somehow we were better off as a people when some of us owned slaves. I mean, the film’s thesis avers the United States was born as a clubbing country and the affiliations made in clubs also made the United States come to life. But … it came to life as a slaving country. Regarding the tradition of slavery: Do we chalk the desire to own your fellow human beings as a lack of club membership or a participation in club membership? How does that fit into the thesis?
Documentaries should be well-researched, and Join or Die is, so certainly I cannot fault it on that count. I can, however, fault it on the counts of – failure to distinguish correlation from causation, a failure to identify any real solutions here, and a true lack of peer review. This is an interesting film and a decent conversation piece at parties, but not to be taken seriously for more than a few minutes.
Here’s a thesis now climbing the charts
About how clubbing is among the lost arts
We’d be nicer, you see
Joining society
Nice thought, but clubs? Nay, we need more hearts
Not Rated, 99 Minutes
Director: Pete Davis, Rebecca Davis
Writer: Pete Davis, Rebecca Davis
Genre: That’s my thesis, and I’m sticking to it!
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Centrists
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Extremists
