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Contemporary notion of loneliness stems from cultural and economic transformations that have taken place in the modern West
‘God, but life is loneliness,’ declared the writer Sylvia Plath in her private journals. Despite all the grins and smiles we exchange, she says, despite all the opiates we take.
Today loneliness has become ubiquitous. Some call it ‘an epidemic’, a condition akin to ‘leprosy’, and a ‘silent plague’ of civilization. In 2018, the United Kingdom went so far as to appoint a Minister for Loneliness. Yet loneliness is not a universal condition; nor is it a purely visceral, internal experience. It is less a single emotion and more a complex cluster of feelings, composed of anger, grief, fear, anxiety, sadness and shame. It also has social and political dimensions, shifting through time according ideas about the self, God and the natural world. Loneliness, in other words, has a history.
The above clip touches on this phenomenon, but I would strongly encourage the reader to delve more into this massive socio-political, biological & cultural condition which affects millions.
Thanks to Dandelion Salad for bringing this to my attention.
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