24:48
let’s talk about the functioning of a
free society because that’s what I go
back to the founders were unanimous in
saying this Constitution will not work
with just any kind of population the
population must possess certain virtues
and this virtue virtue chef this is not
just one or two founders who said this
they all did and they also focused on
four that were crucial all of them agree
there were others that they had in the
list but these four were central the
- integrity of marriage
- industriousness
- religiosity and up
- plain american
honestyand they said you know without
those you cannot have a self-governing
population the trends that i described
in Fishtown
are in effect saying that the virtues
required to be a self-governing
community are slipping toward a tipping
point beyond return and at that point we
will have a permanent lower class that
is different in kind from a lower class
that the united states has had before in
that it is both sizeable and it is no
longer participating in american
institutions so you will have you will
have an upper class that will still be
living a fine life and the middle class
will be doing fairly well but something
very fundamental to the common the
universality of being an American let
the embrace that it that it intended to
have of all people that’ll be gone and
that is going to be a huge loss it’s
also going to
induce the creation of an extensive
welfare state far beyond the one we have
now from coming apart a few statistics
Charles I’ll just run through a few of
those you present voted in the
presidential election down 22 percent
from 1960 to 1996 attended a public
meeting on town or school affairs down
35 percent from 1973 to 1994 served as
26:47
an officer of some club or organization
26:50
you talk about the Elks and rotary and
26:53
so forth local organization 42 percent
26:56
from 73 to 94 percentage of parents with
26:59
children under age 18 who were members
27:01
of the PTA down 61% from 1960 to 1997
27:08
and these statistics tell us what well
27:12
these come by the way from Bowling Alone
27:15
the excellent book written by Robert
27:18
Putnam about a decade ago they are
27:21
represent across the American population
27:23
those reductions the native question
27:26
that arises well were these evenly split
27:28
across right they were not so that these
27:32
reductions are concentrated in Fishtown
27:34
in the working-class community and it’s
27:36
and what difference does that make
27:38
well the social capital because that’s
27:42
the social scientists phrase for it is
27:45
another word for what has been the glue
27:48
of American community which has been the
27:51
spirit and the vitality of American
27:52
community and that goes away and it’s
27:56
all linked up with the other trends that
27:58
we’ve discussed in previous segments
28:00
religiosity who accounts for these
28:03
wonderful kinds of social capital Robert
28:06
Putnam says about half of all social
28:08
capital comes directly from the
28:10
religious population and even more comes
28:12
from it because religious people are
28:14
more likely to be engaged in secular
28:16
forms of social capital than
28:18
non-religious people so you’re looking
28:20
at a real mess focused on Fishtown not
28:24
in belmont coming apart quote the big
28:27
question is whether the remaining levels
28:29
of social trust in Fishtown are enough
28:31
to sustain anything approaching the
28:34
traditional expectations of a
28:36
American neighborliness and local
28:37
problem solving it is hard for me