I couldn't agree more with Henry A. Goessmann of the Hicksville Gardens Civic Association about the importance of community involvement (Letters to the Editor, Feb. 4, 2005.) Volunteerism was once an inextricable part of the American character. Writing in the 1840's, Alexis de Tocqueville was most impressed by this nation of joiners. Television sitcoms of the 1950s and 60s, reflecting the society, were populated by characters who were members of fraternal lodges, Scouting troops, gardening clubs, and ladies' organizations. But that spirit of volunteerism and civic involvement seems to be in decline and the consequences of that decline - especially with respect to the next generation - could be dreadful indeed.

Valclav Havel, the playwright-turned-statesman who led the "velvet revolution" against the communists in what's now the Czech Republic, once said that the most deleterious effects of the totalitarian system was not its corrupt and brutal police state, not the assault on basic civil liberties, and not the reshuffling of whole populations to dilute the identity and culture of this region or that. The most deleterious effect was how the communist state undermined the institutions of civil society in which people learned to exist as civilized creatures. What we must now consider, however controversial, is that our pluralistic democracy and capitalist economic system may be just as deleterious to civil society as was communism.

Certainly the deck is stacked against many civil society institutions. Cultural attractions such as zoos, parks, museums, historic sites, and performing arts centers don't reach their full potential in places where families need three incomes to be able to afford the rising cost of living and skyrocketing cost of taxes. Churches, charities, fraternal organizations, social clubs, nonprofits, historical societies, volunteer groups, and civil improvement associations can't function effectively when members or would-be members need to work evenings and on weekends because the 1950's economy that offered manufacturing jobs with a family wage has been replaced by a nation of supermarket cashiers and department store clerks. Add to the mix, bureaucratic red tape and lawsuit-generated insurance costs and the task becomes all the more difficult.

But civil society's greatest challange is cultural. Suburbia, the "American Dream," is becoming less a network of close-knit neighborhoods and more a sprawling mass of real estate listings and commercial properties wherein citizens know more about their favorite sports figures than their children's teachers, can name more sitcom stars than people on their block, and - as Mr. Goessmann states- "would rather watch people eat bugs while someone else worries about our community's problems". It's the great paradox of our time. Do we really think we can maintain our status as a modern affluent society when our children are so bored, apathetic, and incurious about life that they would rather play violent, mindless video games all day long than read a book, have a hobby, or get an education?

Should we be surprised if children grow up to be shallow, lazy, and in- considerate adults if their family's weekends are spent hanging out at the mall instead of camping, visiting a museum, or enjoying a picnic? Should we really be surprised if they become viscous, self-centered, and unscrupulous later in life if their parents allowed their young minds to be exposed to a rude, materialistic, raunchy, cruel, degrading, and stupid popular culture rather than art, music, literature, history, and science? Let's not fool ourselves. It used to take a village to raise a child. In the 1950s, parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, neighbors, clergymen, and aunts and uncles were the chief influences in children's lives. Today children are being raised by media conglomerates, mega recording studios, big advertisement firms, and giant software companies. Violence is no longer introduced into their lives by street thugs and pornography is no longer plied by perverts hanging around schoolyards: they are the products of companies whose stock is traded on Wall Street every day. Our sons are being taught to act like hooligans and village idiots and our daughters are being taught that shopping and makeovers are life's highest aspirations.

In many ways these problems seem insurmountable. But they are not. The communist regimes were brought down by ordinary citizens - students, workers, housewives- who finally saw how their political and economic system was destroying their culture and poisoning their children's minds and they said "enough!" Maybe we can't do that here right now. But we can do something in our own community. When we take our children to a concert, flower show, or art gallery, they might be restless. But eventually they will grow up learning that beauty is important. When we take our children to an historic site or antiques show, we are teaching them that the lives and accomplishments of the people who came before them are important and worth remembering and that their own lives and accomplishments are important and worth remembering. When we bring our children to a zoo, botanical garden, planetarium, or science museum, we are endowing them with the sense of wonder for the world that makes life worth living. When youngsters see us volunteering in our community, they discover something even more profound than the discovery that the universe doesn't revolve around the earth: they learn that it doesn't revolve around them either.

And finally, if at the age of 16 someone has spent more time in a forest, meadow, beach, or backyard than in front of a computer screen or megabox store or shopping mall, he or she might experience the "natural high" that comes with real life and be less compelled to seek drugs, mindless violence, irresponsible sex, and crass materialism for stimulation. Parents today give their children TVs, VCRs, PCs, palm pilots, DVD players, iPods, cell phones, designer jeans, $300 athletic shoes, and new cars. Expensive items - but nothing that in and of itself has any value. That's the culture we are up against.

Paul Manton