A survey that has been given out since the ’50s in the US shows that they have got more space in their homes, but at the same time, they have got fewer close friends. This shows that even though they have got richer money-wise, they are socially poorer.
The feeling of loneliness comes from a time when we lived among the other animals on the savanna. Back then, we were totally dependent on being part of a group to survive. If we ended up alone in the wilderness, we were doomed to fail. It was in interaction with others that the humans achieved their superiority. The horrible feeling of loneliness that’s like a knife to the heart, is the body´s way of communicating to the conciseness that we have to be social. To force us to be part of the group. In the mirror stands the incarnation of loneliness, he has torn out his own heart to show us his pain.
Today, social media plays on the same strings as real social interactions and are satisfying the social needs of the body, without us really spending time with other people. This may lead to a bad spiral, making us more isolated and lonely. At the same time, it puts us in contact with people with the same interests from all around the world.
Newton, on the other hand, thrived in his own company. He preferred to be alone in his office at Cambridge, instead of interacting with the other people at the university, which he betrayed as submissive and frankly quite stupid. In return, he gave us huge scientific contributions like mathematical formulas to understand gravity.
Many of the biggest artists of the modern age were both lonely and hunted by mental illness. In return, they have granted us outstanding works of art that fill our lives with joy and wonder. Artists like Van Gogh, Picasso, Bacon, and O´Keeffe were all suffering from mental illness and loneliness, but are granted high admiration from a wide audience today.
A statue of King Midas refers to the old Greek tale of the king who made everything he touched to gold. This made him the richest man who ever lived, but also completely devastated when he embraced his daughter and turned her to gold. Love and friendship can’t be bought for money, that’s what Charles Kane painfully experienced in the movie Citizen Kane from 194. He died alone in his own bed, as the wealthiest man on earth. The newspaper he owned lie untouched on the coffee table, together with pills and red wine, which can be used to numb the pain of loneliness.
Out there in the dark night shines a lonely moon, it brings us light in the darkest hour. Right underneath hovers an unidentified object. Can it be strange lifeforms from a distant galaxy? Then we might not be alone in the universe after all.
