I'm currently reading The Great Good Place by Ray Oldenburg, published in 1989. Oldenburg's subject is the third place, a place distinct from the home (the first place) and the workplace (the second place) where people can gather socially on a somewhat equal footing and an informal setting. Oldenburg sees this kind of place as a necessity for civil society and democracy, and I'd be hard-pressed to deny it. Here's an excerpt:
Over many centuries, communities had refined and made highly effective those means of controlling local influences, but means of controlling the newer external ones were almost nonexistent. For example, an enormous amount of red tape might be thrown in the way of a pub owner wanting to stay open later than usual on Coronation Day. Meanwhile, a national newspaper could put a falsified, deliberately slanted and misleading story in the hands of millions and few would ever know. "The newer institutions," wrote the investigators, "are simply out for profits, and they have a pretty free hand."
The situation is familiar. In the United States, municipal officials can intimidate any tavern owner, close any park, declare establishments undesirable and put them off limits, and clean up their towns as election time approaches. Whether "for real" or "for show," local control over local influences can be effective. But the same officials and agencies who come down hard on local influences stand impotent in the face of mass media. Programming objectionable to millions of parents continues to be shown on television, while experts dryly and endlessly debate the effect--those experts, too, are remote from the life of the community.
Oldenburg is undoubtedly and old fuddy-duddy. In the very next paragraph he laments the effect that foul-mouthed comedians like George Carlin, Eddie Murphy and...Buddy Hackett are having on the nation's youth. But he does have a good sense of who holds the cards and who is allowed to do what. And if the whole idea of community and third places has been under assault for the past year-and-a-half plus, it's not something that Oldenburg would have been completely shocked over.