And while people may not be going to political clubs anymore, they are discussing politics in the Internet equivalent of smoke-filled rooms. While communicating on the Internet isn't exactly like attending a town-hall meeting or a speech on the village green, it is not being alone either. It is being alone together, which will increasingly be a form of togetherness. Sounds like ad copy for an Internet stock's initial public offering. To some these days, volunteerism is so important that it's no longer voluntary.
Many universities offer courses in which volunteering is part of the curriculum.
At the University of San Diego, students majoring in juvenile justice must work as literacy tutors at the city's juvenile hall. At Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, a third of the 2,000 students are engaged in community-service programs. And it's not just today's university students who are becoming active. Once upon a time, university alumni groups might have met for martinis at the local country club, but in Chicago this year, graduates of Stanford, Williams, Kenyon, Carleton and Brandeis opted instead for an evening of work at a local food depository. Not all of the new forms of civic engagement can be considered salutary for the republic.