Paying attention

The sense of individualism is always here in America. Bellah talks about how Americas are losing attention and getting distracted. Democracy comes from people paying attention to civic engagement. One of the topic we talked about in class was the distinction between obsession and attention. I just want to response to it that I agree that we can't really identify an worthy object to get a large collective people to pay attention to, but I feel that it is important to some how unite a group of people to care about a significance event or a cause. And yes, following celebrities is very significant for some people. But I don't think following celebrities is creating any social capital.The author is hoping that we can use our institutions to create democracy, and in the culture of focusing on individual and individualism, it is not that easy. We need to go out of the individualistic wall and learn to pay attention to what we are dependent on and responsible for.