The late, great comedian George Carlin, during one of his best live stand-up routines about 10 years ago, made the observation, “Nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.”

Carlin, as usual, was accurate in more ways than one.

I thought about his quote Monday night during the school bond forum sparsely attended by fewer than three dozen people. It appeared that most folks living in the Wayland school district preferred to stay home to watch TV, get on Facebook or play video games. Perhaps some of them didn’t show at the forum because they believe school officials are going to do what they want anyway, and the session would only be manufacturing consent.

However, as sociologist Prof. Robert Putnam so aptly wrote in “Bowling Alone” two decades ago, we’re living in a modern society alienated from one another and rarely gathering together in public, except to be entertained. Putnam asserted that Americans particularly have lost interest in community life and barely know their neighbors. This is troubling in that the lack of interest and caring in public affairs has consequences on the modern United States.

On the national level:

• The United States for the past couple of decades has incarcerated more of its people behind bars than any other country on the planet. Yes indeed, we’re No. 1 — in putting people in jails and prisons. “But nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.”

Now that President Barack Obama has signed a law severing the federal government’s ties to private, for-profit prisons, better times could be ahead.

• The United States continues to be No. 1 in health care costs per capita. Our system is much more expensive than “socialist” countries with single payer plans and the recent news about the Epi-Pen’s skyrocketing costs clearly shows how greed is not healthy for children and other living things.

“But nobody seem to notice, nobody seems to care.”

• America still spends far more on the military and weaponry, giving a lot of credence to President Eisenhouwer’s iconic warning in 1961 about the military-industrial complex.

“But nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.”

• The United States continues to lead the charge as climate change denier while we’ve just learned that 2015 has been declared the hottest year ever recorded and NASA said July was the hottest month ever.

“But nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.”

Closer to home, in Michigan:

• Our state is No. 1 in the nation with poorest rural roads. “But nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.”
• Michigan has gotten a lot of embarrassing publicity with its business-like approach to public problems, such as Flint’s water tragedy, the Detroit Public Schools takeover fiasco and the emergency manager imposition after voters statewide rejected it.

“But nobody seems to notice, nobody seems to care.”

There are times I think politicians know they’re dealing with an apathetic public that quit caring a long time ago, so they brazenly do things against the peoples’ wishes, like emergency manager and doing their best to make the medical marijuana law confusing and difficult.

Because nobody seems to notice, and nobody seems to care.

Sir Edmund Burke said, “The best way or evil to triumph is for all good men to do nothing.”