From City Journal in 2019: Kay S. Hymowitz on the problem of loneliness. An excerpt:
Loneliness, public-health experts tell us, is killing as many people as obesity and smoking. It’s not much comfort that Americans are not, well, alone in this. Germans are lonely, the bon vivant French are lonely, and even the Scandinavians—the happiest people in the world, according to the UN’s World Happiness Report—are lonely, too. British prime minister Theresa May recently appointed a “Minister of Loneliness.”
5 comments:
I'm not ambivalent about the subject but I'd like to understand what it actually means. Being alone? Not having connection? Or something more profound -- e.g. alienation?
Julian
Julian,
I think a lot of it is alienation. A person can be alone in a crowd.
The connections we once assumed everyone shared have been damaged by the snark of social media.
Strange times.
Michael
Indeed, Michael.
Very strange.
But I'm confident that Big Pharma will come to our aid and whip this CV-19 thing into shape. Quite whether that will cure or ameliorate the alienation point, who knows.
PS. One day we might get to speak in person -- at least via a ZOOM call.
Julian,
I would like that.
We've also got to get you and Nicholas Bate into the periodic bloggers ZOOM calls that Stephen Landry has set up. It's an eclectic bunch.
Best,
Michael
I would like that Michael. Very much.
Blessings my friend.
Julian
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