> In 1995, in the initial academic essay that became the book, Putnam described the social-capital-destroying effects of the rise of television [...] Jon Haidt

> In 1995, in the initial academic essay that became the book, Putnam described the social-capital-destroying effects of the rise of television [...] Jon Haidt really gives too much credit to television. It's an easy thing to reach for when mobile phones and social media are are the present day forces we content with. But there's a deeper story. I'm reminded by Thatcher's 1987 quote: > You know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. Maybe it wasn't true then, but people believed them and in their belief they made it true. In a world where men, women, and families exist, there isn't room for community. It was dismantled by disbelief. In the same way we don't have the ability to reach the moon anymore, I wonder if we don't have the ability to reconstitute communities, like lost and ancient knowledge, eventually they will fade from living memory.