Institutional and individual reform are mutually dependent, not alternatives

Evidence

The final false debate to be avoided is whether what is needed to restore trust and community bonds in America is individual change or institutional change. Again, the honest answer is “Both.” America’s major civic institutions, both public and private, are somewhat antiquated a century after most of them were created, and they need to be reformed in ways that invite more active participation. Whether the specific suggestions I have made for institutional reform are persuasive or not is less important than the possibility that we may have a national debate about how to make our institutions more social capital–friendly. In the end, however, institutional reform will not work—indeed, it will not happen—unless you and I, along with our fellow citizens, resolve to become reconnected with our friends and neighbors. Henry Ward Beecher’s advice a century ago to “multiply picnics” is not entirely ridiculous today. We should do this, ironically, not because it will be good for America—though it will be—but because it will be good for us. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 1485

Categorization

• APHORISMS: Ends on the genuinely self-interested case for reconnection: do it for yourself, not just for civic duty—the personal dividend is the sustainable motive.
• XREF: Converges with the self-interest-through-civic-engagement theme threaded through the law-merchant and social-capital sources already curated. — connects to: Social structure and individual agency are mutually constitutive, not opposed; Genuine authority and freedom are mutually dependent, not opposed — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 572; Individual and social liberation must be waged together but not assumed interdependent (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Social structure and individual agency are mutually constitutive, not opposed #corroborates (0.92)
• Individual and social liberation must be waged together but not assumed interdependent #qualifies (0.88)
• Genuine authority and freedom are mutually dependent, not opposed #corroborates (0.70) — Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 572