On Loneliness
A friend asked, "Do you ever feel lonely?" Apparently, I've thought about it.
Dynaxiom entries with "lone!" ~2006-2022:
2715. We feel lonely because connection seems like it should be continuous.
2560. Artists should always be working alone, as it prepares them for collaboration; Artists should always be collaborating, because it prepares them for working alone.
2184. Cultism gives people the feeling of certainty, and palliates their loneliness and isolation. If you're truly free, you're not feeling comfortable. People don't like the feeling of being unmoored with no direction so they resort to groupthink. It's the easy way out. (2020)
2126. We're no more connected to the world than in 1995. Social media hasn't enhanced connectivity: you're still sitting in front of a computer alone. (2020)
2030. The higher the connectivity, the less immunity to feelings of loneliness. (2020)
2029. We were already distanced and wanted to be alone. That's what the suburbs represent. (2020)
2026. Loneliness is essentially the same even in a gathering of thousands or millions of people. Crowds are essentially a temporary escape from the loneliness and uncertainty inherent in freedom. (As Erich Fromm elaborated in Escape from Freedom).
2025. All creative work requires some (sometimes lots of) work alone. Feelings of loneliness simply mean parts of your inner life are weak.
2024. A lonely road sometimes ends in a desire to be alone. (3/25/2020)
1741. This is where social media goes wrong: 'Sharing' is nothing more than the delay of the ego to confront feelings of loneliness. To not feel lonely means there has been spiritual growth and awakening. The loneliness epidemic is not loneliness per se, but rather the avoidance of time alone. Art as a spiritual practice is an abnegation of loneliness. (2019)
1724. Dictatorships typically follow epidemics of loneliness. Once a nation runs out of solutions or distractions from loneliness (in the U.S. it has been techno-consumerism), a despot can quickly offer another, and millions of desperate people capitulate. Secular nations are always on the verge of spiritual bankruptcy because they may have never individually or collectively spent time thinking what spirituality means, or have spent time contemplating the essence of loneliness and isolation. (5/2019)
1708. It's no longer what is inherently interesting, enriching or even true; It's the popularity of the source. When you're popular you can do anything and people will follow you. This means people are lonely and following popular, seemingly un-lonely people makes them feel less lonely, among the crowds of people unmoored from the absurdity of life. (5/2019)
1611. One of the job requirements of an artist is to militate against loneliness and cultivate solitude. Artists have to enjoy their own company. Social media made that harder to do. (11/2018)
1102. We've always been in front of something as a group, a stage, a radio, a TV. But then a computer, alone, a smartphone or tablet alone. But the canvas and the camera have always been something we've been alone with, ultimately to be in front of as a group, until the internet, when art is viewed alone again.
0950. Perhaps the reason we feel we're alone in the universe is because our limited Umwelt prevents us from sensing other beings in the universe. Aliens might be everywhere, we just can't 'see' each other. The multiverse exists in the sense that there might be multiple 'viewers' of it. We look up at a mass of stars but perhaps other beings perceive it in a different way. Fermi asked 'Where is everyone?' The answer might be that they're all around, but we just don't have the same sensory organs. It also begs the question why other beings would want to travel large distances with the risk that when arriving there, the civilization was long gone. It should also be assumed that many trips would need to be made as trial runs. Either that's always happening and we don't see it (or occasionally by some people in the form of UFOs).
0630. Seeing is a collaboration. We see alone, but assess the importance of what is seen by consensus.. Beauty is at best an abstraction made real when many viewers decide on the overall impact of the visual experience. In a sense, the eyes of every viewer are in perfect alignment with the eyes of the artist.
0513. People have a tendency to watch and wait to see what other people think or do before thinking for themselves. (It's the fear of being alone—when in reality a majority of the people thought the way you did.)
0428. Researchers have discovered that suburban sprawl is causing obesity and other health problems, as people are confined to cars. How depressing to go from house to garage to car and never have the opportunity and pleasure to walk alone to somewhere interesting.
0270. Walking alone makes you smarter.
0200. The biggest goal of an artist is to get people thinking and changing their lives, even if it is through aesthetics alone.
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