In an address on youth well-being, political scientist Robert Putnam, whose prescient 2000 book Bowling Alone predicted a quarter-century-long decline in American community, laid out a sweeping historical diagnosis worthy of his unofficial title: “the modern prophet of American loneliness.” Speaking at a recent Dartmouth-United Nations Development Programme symposium, the Harvard Kennedy School professor linked decades of social disintegration directly to the rise of populist authoritarian figures like Donald Trump—as well as to Gen Z’s struggles with anxiety and poor mental health.
Putnam asserted that the long-term decline in social connection and civic engagement—symbolized in his book by the fact that the number of people participating in bowling leagues has fallen off a cliff—is the core issue facing America. (Bowling leagues are down by “roughly 95% over the last now half century,” Putnam told symposium attendees.) This decline means Americans have become “disengaged from social connections,” which comes with profound consequences. Joining just one group can cut one’s chances of dying over the next year “in half,” Putnam argued, while the effects of prolonged isolation can impact the very stability of democracy itself.
