#96: Why Do We Aspire to Live Alone?

When hyper-individualism kicked into gear in the 1960s, people experimented with new ways of living that embraced individualistic values. Today we are crawling out from the wreckage of that hyper-individualism—which left many families detached and unsupported—and people are experimenting with more connected ways of living, with new shapes and varie... See more

On the one hand, we have the breakdown of traditional family structures, of belief in God, and of nationalism—the things in which we have historically found a sense of purpose that transcends the self. As these collective myths break down, the void has been filled by the rise of extreme individualism. There are no gods, no objective moral truths, a

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“The mass phenomenon of loneliness...has achieved its most extreme and antihuman form. The reason for this extremity is that mass society not only destroys the public realm but the private as well, deprives men not only of their place in the world but of their private home, where they once felt sheltered against the world.”

A couple of hours later I leave with a pot of lemon balm for my garden stuffed into a plastic bag — one of the house rules is that no guest goes without something to take home. Oldfield is setting up to work on her podcast before preparing for house night. Her advice is to “resist the ties that pull us apart” and it seems like wise counsel. “There ... See more