JOIN OR DIE Documentary Movie Trailer HD - Plot synopsis: In this feature documentary, follow the half-century story of America's civic unraveling through the journey of legendary social scientist Robert Putnam, whose groundbreaking "Bowling Alone" research into America's decades-long decline in community connections could hold the answers to our democracy's present crisis.
Flanked by influential fans and scholars — from Hillary Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to Eddie Glaude Jr., Raj Chetty, and Priya Parker — as well as inspiring groups building community in neighborhoods across the country, join Bob as he explores three urgent civic questions: What makes democracy work? Why is American democracy in crisis? And, most importantly… What can we do about it?
Flanked by influential fans and scholars — from Hillary Clinton, Pete Buttigieg, and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy to Eddie Glaude Jr., Raj Chetty, and Priya Parker — as well as inspiring groups building community in neighborhoods across the country, join Bob as he explores three urgent civic questions: What makes democracy work? Why is American democracy in crisis? And, most importantly… What can we do about it?
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 This is Bob. Bob's a big fan of clubs.
00:06 I belong to everything.
00:08 That's my high school bowling team. I'm the tall one in the middle.
00:11 And this is a film about why you should join one.
00:14 And how Bob discovered that the fate of America depends on it.
00:19 It's Harvard professor and award-winning writer Robert Putnam.
00:23 You've been described as the poet laureate of civil society.
00:26 Robert D. Putnam, for deepening our understanding of community in America.
00:31 He made people pay attention to a concept that most people had never paid attention to.
00:35 Social capital. Social capital. Social capital.
00:39 Social networks have value.
00:42 I'd like to call on professor Robert Putnam who gave us the concept of social capital.
00:46 The number of people who know one another's first name,
00:48 the number of people who take part in community organizations,
00:51 the level of trust and reciprocity in the community.
00:53 The places that have better government are the places that have a long history of social networks and social capital.
01:00 Your chances of dying over the next year are cut in half by joining one group.
01:06 Bowling Alone. Where'd you get the title?
01:09 I happened to run into a friend who owned a bowling alley.
01:12 And he said, "Gosh, Bob, you don't know it, but you've stumbled onto the major economic problems facing my industry."
01:18 Because although more Americans are bowling than ever before, bowling is up in America.
01:23 Bowling in leagues, bowling in teams, is off by about 60%.
01:28 Everything that reflects connections with other people are going down.
01:31 How many times last year did you go to church? Down.
01:33 How many times did you go to a dinner party? Down.
01:36 How many times last year did you go to a club meeting?
01:39 In barely a couple of decades, half all the civic infrastructure in America had simply vanished.
01:44 It's equivalent to saying half all the roads in America just disappeared.
01:48 Everyone has a feeling something's happening, but then he's got charts to actually show what's actually happening.
01:54 Whatever's happening to people's sense of mutual obligation to their understanding about the common good,
01:58 to their willingness to trust their neighbor, is no longer going on because people are bowling alone.
02:03 The book Bowling Alone, which you're familiar with by Robert Putnam.
02:06 The activity may still be going on, but there's no social capital being built.
02:09 That decreases the trust we have in one another.
02:11 How lonely Americans are, how divided.
02:13 You know, he may have been on to something.
02:16 We have to see loneliness as a threat to our health security and to our overall national security.
02:21 We are trying something that hasn't been done before, which is growing and sustaining a multiracial democracy.
02:26 Politics and policy ultimately depends on the social health of our country.
02:31 Organization, connections with other people, is the only way you get big change.
02:36 Democracy is a pain in the ass.
02:38 If it was just easy, no one would have to go to a meeting and it would all just be fair and easy.
02:43 You should join, your kids should join, and if there's not an organization you want to join, create one.
02:48 America doesn't have to be the kind of America that you've lived in your whole life.
02:52 You could decide to change history.
02:57 [Music]
02:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]