The Loneliness Epidemic
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The Loneliness Epidemic
1–10 of 337 posts
Re: The Loneliness Epidemic
#2When politicians are staging national interventions to force us to connect with each other — and actually spending real money on the problem — you know it’s a genuine crisis
No. Politicians throwing money at something is not evidence of a crisis.
Re: The Loneliness Epidemic
#3It only makes sense for this epidemic to take place in the society we've developed. We are tearing apart the fabric and the bond that kept everyone feeling as a part of community; namely, religion.
Religion was never designed for people to fear the man upstairs; it was always about the values and the bond it created between each member of that religion.
Individualism and decadence are being more or less encouraged, or at any rate tolerated; families are shrinking and relationships are treated just like another object. The concept of friendship lost value as a result of the tolerance towards vices (envy being the leading cause).
I believe that the Christian religion was in part developed to address these problems. I am not aware of any society that lasted without religion and had strong communal ties.
I don't understand how anyone can be surprised at this result.
Stop for a moment and think: what bonds me with the people living in my vicinity? Since in 2019, you can't say: religion, race, nationality and nation without being labeled one way or another. And historically, nothing else worked.
Re: The Loneliness Epidemic
#4The good thing is we can walk next door and meet our neighbor.
It is strange this is an epidemic when it is a problem that seems so easy to solve.
UPDATE: based on responses to my comment it seems the core problem may be closer to home than we like to admit. CS Lewis' book The Great Divorce details this misanthropy, where hell is a product of the residents' own making because they choose to live on their own because they do not like anyone else.
Re: The Loneliness Epidemic
#5It only makes sense for this epidemic to take place in the society we've developed. We are tearing apart the fabric and the bond that kept everyone feeling as a part of community; namely, religion. Religion was never designed for people to fear the man upstairs; it was always about the values and the bond it created between each member of that religion. Individualism and decadence are being more or less encouraged, o…
>it was always about the values and the bond it created between each member of that religion.
Sometimes people formed bonds they shouldn't have and then the religion starts a crusade or two
Re: The Loneliness Epidemic
#6It only makes sense for this epidemic to take place in the society we've developed. We are tearing apart the fabric and the bond that kept everyone feeling as a part of community; namely, religion. Religion was never designed for people to fear the man upstairs; it was always about the values and the bond it created between each member of that religion. Individualism and decadence are being more or less encouraged, o…
Excerpt from the article:
"It turns out there’s also not much evidence to support a popular theory that the increasing secularization of Western societies — where religion is seen as a traditional route for people to regularly come together — is a major factor driving modern loneliness. Counterintuitively, says Hewings, “It would seem on a number of different surveys that levels of loneliness are lower in Northern and Western Europe than they are in Southern and Eastern Europe, which are generally a bit more religious.” Turning up at your local synagogue, church, mosque or temple of choice might well help by offering a ready-made network of social connections, if worship is where you find meaning — as highlighted in a recent report from the U.K.’s Parliamentary Group on Faith and Society — but at the level of society, religion itself, it seems, is no panacea."
Re: The Loneliness Epidemic
#7The good thing is we can walk next door and meet our neighbor. It is strange this is an epidemic when it is a problem that seems so easy to solve. UPDATE: based on responses to my comment it seems the core problem may be closer to home than we like to admit. CS Lewis' book The Great Divorce details this misanthropy, where hell is a product of the residents' own making because they choose to live on their own because…
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic.
This is like saying alcoholism is an easy problem to solve because all they have to do is stop drinking.
Re: The Loneliness Epidemic
#8The good thing is we can walk next door and meet our neighbor. It is strange this is an epidemic when it is a problem that seems so easy to solve. UPDATE: based on responses to my comment it seems the core problem may be closer to home than we like to admit. CS Lewis' book The Great Divorce details this misanthropy, where hell is a product of the residents' own making because they choose to live on their own because…
It takes two to tango. If people are not willing to meet people, then what can the one who initiates do?
Re: The Loneliness Epidemic
#9It only makes sense for this epidemic to take place in the society we've developed. We are tearing apart the fabric and the bond that kept everyone feeling as a part of community; namely, religion. Religion was never designed for people to fear the man upstairs; it was always about the values and the bond it created between each member of that religion. Individualism and decadence are being more or less encouraged, o…
Religion has nothing to do with the loneliness epidemic.
All my young friends are burdened by inflation that has never been addressed by increasing wages to match it.
People cannot see themselves saving for homes and specifically if they have a huge debt from student loans; being conditioned to go to university before the brain has developed. People are under a lot of stress as a result of these problems and loneliness is becoming the product.
Even my Christian friends that go to church are feeling the loneliness epidemic.
Re: The Loneliness Epidemic
#10It only makes sense for this epidemic to take place in the society we've developed. We are tearing apart the fabric and the bond that kept everyone feeling as a part of community; namely, religion. Religion was never designed for people to fear the man upstairs; it was always about the values and the bond it created between each member of that religion. Individualism and decadence are being more or less encouraged, o…
I grew up in a highly conservative and (according to statistics) religious society (Poland) and my observation is that it's not correlated.
People who sought company in church were often disappointed, because most of the others who went there had lives of their own and weren't that invested in the whole thing.
Hell, the loneliest people I know are consistently religious.