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The Loneliness Epidemic

melmagazine.com

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Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#41

Post by defterGoose »

radcon wrote: post #17

At the risk of sounding like a crazy hippy, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that some kind of subsistence-based neighborhoods would be a great option for dealing with this problem. Not only would it provide some relief from the feeling of being shackled to bullshit jobs for life if you don't want to starve to death, it would also help foster much stronger communities.

Some friends of mine from college and I, while considering our impending matriculation into the housing and job market of LA, conceived of the idea of 'failure house'; a place where we could all live when we failed at life. We still talk about it ten years on, and it has evolved into the idea of 'failure commune'. One of these friends became a lawyer and bought a house in Orange County recently. Traitor.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#42

Post by blablabla123 »

kodz4 wrote: post #16

Ants don't meet at the bar at the end of the day to chill with each other. It isn't necessary. And their society isn't unraveling. The more connected the human ant hill gets the more we will behave like ants. Disconnected because we don't need to be as connected. Connected because that is the only way to survive. Those that can't handle the change...wont. This is a process of societal metamorphosis whose tracks have…

Yeah but Ants cannot drink out of glasses. ;) I think never in history it has been possible to act as individually while still being embedded in an ant hill.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#43

Post by mises »

defterGoose wrote: post #25
trentnix wrote: post #2

When 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.

Can you see that this is an extremely dogmatic view? If society has seemingly agreed that society needs government, part of society needs to actually administer that government.

> Can you see that this is an extremely dogmatic view?

Snuck premise much? I doubt he'd agree that it's dogmatic, nor would I. Governments are certainly needed for certain things, but politicians tend to come up with problems to solve, or try to solve problems which they are not equipped to solve. They aren't really supposed to create a social order so much as a legal one, anyway. Even if the could, I'd see that as disturbingly close to brain-washing...

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#44

Post by SketchySeaBeast »

slothtrop wrote: post #26
rofo1 wrote: post #3

It 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…

Monotheism was popularized to transcend kinship, in order to raise large armies. Prior, people were fragmented into close-knit tribes up from 100-200 people. They had their own lore and beliefs. Loneliness was not the issue they had, and not what monotheism addressed. In order to wage warfare and conquer a region with large numbers, you have to convince others to fight for you. This was difficult. It led to the agric…

> Monotheism was popularized to transcend kinship, in order to raise large armies.

When you say that, what are you thinking of? Rome wasn't monotheistic, before it Judaism wasn't really a military powerhouse, and Christianity only really came of power due to it's growing popularity in the Roman Empire. I can't think of an example of an ancient monotheistic empire, and post-classical it's really only Islam and Christianity, and for Christianity at least, that seems to be largely secondary, based upon institutions of a polytheistic past.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#46

Post by YinglingLight »

kodz4 wrote: post #16

Ants don't meet at the bar at the end of the day to chill with each other. It isn't necessary. And their society isn't unraveling. The more connected the human ant hill gets the more we will behave like ants. Disconnected because we don't need to be as connected. Connected because that is the only way to survive. Those that can't handle the change...wont. This is a process of societal metamorphosis whose tracks have…

Edgy, but humans are social creatures. Civilization was built upon tight knit communities. Tight knit communities were built upon the family unit.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#47

Post by arvinsim »

dexwiz wrote: post #34

The Screen and the Job have displaced almost everything else is our lives. Loneliness is just a primary symptom. The Screen, whether it’s TV, computer, or phone, has supplanted almost all social interactions. This manifests itself in things like SitComs on TV (just a bunch of friends or family hanging out) or Social Media on phones. It’s very easy to fill the social needs of right now with a Screen. But under even a…

> The Job has completely taken over as a driving force in evaluating choices.

Not to mention most of our time. People nowadays spend far more time at work than ever.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#48

Post by Ensorceled »

rofo1 wrote: post #3

It 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…

In the 1950's my dad, and his brothers, were constantly assaulted by classmates because they were protestant living in a Catholic town. World War II had just ended, a horrific edifice to nationalism and the Cold War was ramping up. Blacks in the US couldn't even eat at many restauants. How is even close to being more of a problem in 2019?

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#49

Post by YinglingLight »

defterGoose wrote: post #41
radcon wrote: post #17

At the risk of sounding like a crazy hippy, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that some kind of subsistence-based neighborhoods would be a great option for dealing with this problem. Not only would it provide some relief from the feeling of being shackled to bullshit jobs for life if you don't want to starve to death, it would also help foster much stronger communities.

Some friends of mine from college and I, while considering our impending matriculation into the housing and job market of LA, conceived of the idea of 'failure house'; a place where we could all live when we failed at life. We still talk about it ten years on, and it has evolved into the idea of 'failure commune'. One of these friends became a lawyer and bought a house in Orange County recently. Traitor.

Can't stay Peter Pan forever. Must choose our sacrifices and become Captain Hook.

Re: The Loneliness Epidemic

#50

Post by koboll »

radcon wrote: post #17

At the risk of sounding like a crazy hippy, I'm going to go out on a limb and say that some kind of subsistence-based neighborhoods would be a great option for dealing with this problem. Not only would it provide some relief from the feeling of being shackled to bullshit jobs for life if you don't want to starve to death, it would also help foster much stronger communities.

Or maybe something that's just a little more like a college dorm than an apartment building or a suburb -- neighbors in close proximity that you're forced to attend social events with and get to know.

I feel like we consistently choose the short-term risk aversion of walling ourselves off from neighbors, blind to the long-term damage it does to our society.

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