Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
I kind of suspect that "social institutions" is code for "Church".
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Very, very crude.
Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone" would be a good place to start. Overall, globalization, increased technologization of many lower-level delivery of services, etc... have wiped away many of the pillars of a blue-collar community.
From the Burkean perspective, these are termed "the little platoons of society." Myriad, interlocking pieces that form some sort of safety net that extraneous to the state, and yes, a church would be one of those platoons, but not necessarily the Church. It doesn't help that even the most minimal of state entitlements are being rolled back.
The reserve is a perfect analogy. A type of community where all individuals are totally autonomous, divided, and alienated from each other, but tend to see their common identity through the lens of an external State.