Thursday, April 16, 2009

Of all the domains in which

I have traced the consequences of social capital, in none is the importance of social connectedness so well established as in the case of health and well-being.

There is something mysterious here - a benefit of human social organizations that is apart from the rules that the organizations impose on their members. Some day (hope it is today) we may learn the biologic mechanism for this benefit. The mysterious nature of it, though, shouldn't prevent us from using it to keep ourselves healthy, any more than not knowing how bacteria caused disease prevented people in the 1860s from saving lives by constructing sanitery sewer and water lines.

Social organizations, like reules, are not part of the natural world; they are things we create. if we really want to be healthy, we can create them, nurture them, and give people as many opportunities as possible to be part of them. That could mean everything from ramping up federal jobs programes to revitalising town hospitals.

Not only the hospitals disintegrating, but our entire latticework of social organizations in Singapore (and USA) is crumbling. We are so 'success', that we forgot to ask questions. How important it is to rebuild it, healthy wealth.

1 comment:

Its ME said...

THE ADS: It seems ridiculous to have to make this point, but because many people we speak to don't believe it, we feel we must : advertising works.

The more we watch ads for Coke, the more Coke we drink. That's wahy the Coca-Cola company spends over 100 million dollars a year just on Coke ads. The company executives aren't stupdi; if the advertising didn't work, they would stop advertising.
But our children and adults now suffering from Coke dehydrating effects until they died prematurely not knowing the etiology of the diseases,dehydration at cellular level, subtle.