File:What after playing ball.jpg

"What after bowling alone?" , by Erik Pevernagie,(100 x100cm), Oil on canvas xx

If we only live through the eyes of others and don't try to capture the vibration of our individual experience, we may miss out on the beam and brilliance of authenticity that is essential to move forward in life.

Great potential for emotional balance and mental flexibility can help us fight the bleakness and sterility of a statistical matrix that clashes with the needs of our inner compass.

Reality may not always be a happy companion. If we learn to trust ourselves and fully put through our paces, we can discover a winner's soul ignoring itself, passing with flying colors. The future can be an open space with a range of surprises.

Some cry out against the majority's despotism that knocks them off their feet and hacks into their fundamental values. Since the unbearable intrusion on their lifestyle's quality frightens them, they are obsessed with losing their integrity through the backlash of an overpowering "democratorship."

A reconciliation between freethinking and mediation is essential because mere resentment can be an evil counselor.

Conspiracy adepts love storytellers who want to exorcise their fear, mixing rational and irrational elements to construct a plausible narrative for people craving a meaningful decoding and breathtaking clarification.

Self-confidence is vital, but sociologists and politicians can be paramount for people's mental, social, and material well-being.

Social scientists analyzing human society's development can proceed clinically or, conversely, with total social commitment. American sociologist Robert Putnam was undoubtedly an inspiration for the picture "What after bowling alone?" Financial capital has always been a priority in our communities, and a dynamic process of social integration has been neglected.

By emphasizing the decline of "social capital" in our society and pointing out the dangers of specific social measures with negative consequences on mental well-being, sociologists can take politicians on the road to improving a social system.

But the actors in the political arenas need to hear better or look in the right direction. Politicians can be tantalizing storytellers. They mix facts with fiction, grab our emotions, and tell things they want us to believe. Their factoids are unremittingly reiterated, take a life on their own, and in the end, become the very truth… until the bubbles burst.

Critical sociologists raise questions: do we have a government of the people, by the people, for the people? Do politicians have a short-term vision or a long-term vision? Do they keep in mind the social identity of their constituents? Do they think of the mental well-being and the individuals' culture, or are only the next elections imperative?

In the rough-and-tumble play of politics, dog-whistle messages are amply dispatched over the heads of the grassroots generations who do not recognize the writing on the wall, remaining ignorant like dumb puppets on a string.

We must not look past the maneuvers of politicians who feel driven by intuition fed by visionary hysteria. They pretend to have a 'privileged' mission to shoulder but rob people's physical or mental property, appropriating their cultural heritage. If their intuition is cautioned as vicious or murderous by reason or facts, history will forever eradicate their soul from the holy grail of humanity, especially those who want to set the world on fire for their sole ambition.

Phenomenon: Sociological and political reflections

Factual starting point: Bowling cones with woman

Que faire après avoir joué aux boules?

Le sociologue américain Robert Putnam a certainement été une source d'inspiration pour cette peinture: le déclin du capital social dans nos sociétés. Nous avons été témoins de ce fait depuis des décennies. Le capital financier semble avoir été une priorité dans nos communautés. L'intégration sociale semble avoir été laissé mal à part.

Wat doen we na de bowling? De Amerikaanse socioloog Robert Putnam is zeker een inspiratie voor dit schilderij: de afname van sociaal kapitaal in de samenleving. We hebben dit al decennia lang gezien. Financieel kapitaal lijkt een prioriteit te zijn geweest in onze gemeenschappen. Sociale integratie lijkt slecht bedeeld te zijn.

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