As He Concludes His Second Tenure, 21st U.S. Surgeon General Issues Parting Prescription for America

Dr.  Murthy has hit upon a profound and deeply meaningful, but somewhat unappreciated aspect of our culture and "modern" life.

The citizens of the United States have been insensitive to their loss of community because, like the air we breathe, "community" is invisible until it is disturbed. The long collective history of the United States is infused with the vaunted values of freedom, liberty, individual autonomy, equality, and democracy, etc. This is the story we tell ourselves, but it is not quite true! In fact, this is the story chauvinistic historians have spun to de-emphasize and hide the dynamics of our national ideology - "Naked Commercial Capitalism." In fact, while destroying community, this world view has promoted, for example, geographic mobility (Go where the jobs are.), consumption (You should work hard to get these things.), family instability (Promoting two working parents and, previously, slavery and child labor.) and individualism (You are responsible for your family's circumstances.) All of which contributed to the loss of community, freeing up labor for corporate production.

Dr. Murthy's observations, concerns, and prescriptions were all preceded a generation  ago by [It must be read] Robert Putnam's BOWLING ALONE: THE COLLAPSE AND REVIVAL OF AMERICAN COMMUNITY (2000). Professor Putnam documents, with extensive hard data, the history and causes of the withering away of "social capital," i.e. community, collective trust and cooperation in contemporary USA. Alas the "revival" never came to be. The main reasons for that are laid out in Elizabeth Warren's (written before she became a politician with her daughter) insightful THE TWO-INCOME TRAP; WHY MIDDLE-CLASS PARENTS ARE GOING BROKE (2003). A sense of belonging, cooperation, mutual respect and assistance, trust, that is, belonging to a community is the foundation of a fulfilled life and a healthy society.

The passionate, emotional response of Americans to the withering away of social capital, civic cohesion, trust,  and community provide the fuel and momentum for the MAGA movement which will only make matters worse. Understanding this dynamic explains why compassionate, empathetic therapy and meager concrete and economic supports for those in need or suffering are beneficial and valuable, but they are only fingers in the dike holding back despair. Collective action in the political sphere to take our country back is obligatory.