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Re:Work on these things by zozbot234 on Thursday January 09, 2020 @09:27AM (#22001415)
> I think what society is really missing is this sense of belonging.

Social capital is what gives people this sense of belonging - of being in a "tight knit tribe". I think that conservatives understand this a lot better than progressives, who tend to see everything about society in terms of either material conditions (wealth vs. poverty), or zero-sum power relations where one side 'wins' and the other side 'loses'. It's not clear that these matter all that much. Plenty of people throughout history had very little in the way of material resources, and were required to answer to people, institutional frameworks etc. exerting some sort of power on them - and yet, they still found lots of ways to smile and be happy at their life. We should understand how they managed to do that.

Re:Work on these things by muzani on Thursday January 09, 2020 @09:33AM (#22001462)
I'm not exactly sure it's "social capital".

My favourite definition of a tribe is that it's a group where everyone gives what they can and takes as little as they need to. Everyone should be willing to give their last slice of bread and be offended at the idea of 'owing someone' for it.

This just doesn't scale well, but it happens in things like gaming groups, married couples, etc.

Re:Work on these things by zozbot234 on Thursday January 09, 2020 @09:42AM (#22001542)
Social capital works differently at different scales. By definition, the kind of tribe you're talking about where "everyone knows (and trusts) everyone else" cannot possibly scale beyond 100 members, which today doesn't even cover a tiny neighborhood in a city. But having dense and reasonably stable social connections is quite helpful even beyond that.
Re:Work on these things by tonyedgecombe on Thursday January 09, 2020 @09:43AM (#22001543)
My favourite definition of a tribe is that it's a group where everyone gives what they can and takes as little as they need to.

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

Karl Marx.

Re:Work on these things by Ar-Curunir on Thursday January 09, 2020 @09:29AM (#22001429)
???

If anything, conservatives and liberals, due to their devotion for capitalism, are united in fracturing people and communities. That's just the natural end goal of an economic philosophy that views everything via the lens of corporate profit.

Re:Work on these things by zozbot234 on Thursday January 09, 2020 @09:45AM (#22001567)
Capitalism is an economic system centered around market relations, which has little to do with how "people and communities" organize themselves socially. The two issues just have very little to do with each other.
Re:Work on these things by Ar-Curunir on Thursday January 09, 2020 @04:28PM (#22005991)
Capitalism relies on the state to enforce private property rights. The free market then naturally influences your government, which in turn naturally influences how people organize their lives. So yes, capitalism influences how people and communities organize themselves.
Re:Work on these things by jacobush on Thursday January 09, 2020 @10:17AM (#22001850)
Also, capitalism itself needs to be guided, or it will escape and ruin the rules until it's no longer capitalism, except in name only.
Re:Work on these things by muzani on Thursday January 09, 2020 @10:37AM (#22002025)
Wouldn't guiding a free market be opposed to the concept of a free market?
Re:Work on these things by mcguire on Thursday January 09, 2020 @11:39AM (#22002657)
Anti-trust laws, for example. Safety and environmental regulations.
Re:Work on these things by jacobush on Friday January 10, 2020 @05:09AM (#22009882)
Yes. In some sort of ideal world, where corporations would never dream of regulatory capture, abusing a monopoly position, finding ways to keep upstarts out of the way.

In the real world, capitalism is an unstable system. The "winner" gets too close to the state and then tries to shape the rules so they fit the incumbent and discourages everyone else. Boeing and the FAA is a recent high profile example.

Re:Work on these things by icebraining on Thursday January 09, 2020 @07:21PM (#22007312)
That's a very US-biased view. There's plenty of conservatism skeptical and even hostile to capitalism and free markets. It's a quite common position in the Catholic community, for example.