Just I and me They are still out there. Moose Lodge #whatever, or the Elks, relics of a 19th century, white- male America that survive somehow in the 21st. Like Mother’s Day that way, another quaint 19th century tradition that holds on in a time when Americans in increasing numbers harbor suspicions about one another and mutual mistrust is more persistent than inflation. Ian Ward writes at Politico: “National divorce” — a term that frames America’s current political crises as symptoms of a deeper social breakup — is suddenly a well-worn phrase. Over a quarter of Americans believe that it might soon be necessary to take up arms against their government. It would be a shocking number if not for the violent assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Ward explores the national mood with Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam (“Bowling Alone,” 2000). Putnam examined the meaning behind the decline of civic organizations like the Moose and the Elks. Social capital in decline. Putnam told the Denver Post in 2000: “Virtually every measure of social interaction is down, big time, over the last 25 years.” The most vivid illustration of the trend, Putnam suggests, may be the decrease in league bowling, which has plummeted more than 40 percent since 1980, even though the total number of bowlers in the United States has risen 10 percent – hence the notion of “Bowling Alone.” But regular surveys of consumer behavior, he says, chronicle similar declines in numerous other indicators of social engagement, from…