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Loneliness and the End of Learning
As is my wont, my mind is connecting a bunch of things this morning: Paul Mirengoff of PowerLine blog is providing a critique of one of Sen. Ben Sasse’s theses in his book: that there is an epidemic of loneliness. Paul pulls a couple of quotes from Yuval Levin’s piece in the National Review, “All the Lonely People?” Here is the key quote:
[W]e talk about loneliness as we do because we lack the vocabulary to describe the kinds of problems that arise when institutions grow weak and communities unravel. Those problems are very real and they are near the heart of what is happening in America now, but maybe they are not the same thing as loneliness—and maybe seeing that can help us better understand them.
So how and why are our institutions unraveling? As I read all of this I was put in mind of George Gilder’s appearance this past Sunday on “Life, Liberty and Levin.” George spoke of how “learning is the heart of capitalism.” In contrast socialism assumes the end of learning, that everything that can or must be known is known by experts and thus society can be organized around this static body of knowledge. This is why capitalism promotes innovation and progress while socialism promotes stagnation and decline.
But it also explains the enduring appeal of socialism even in the face of a history of failure and disaster — it’s easy. It is not for nothing that the expression persists about “the school of hard knocks”. Life is hard not because few of us lack the financial wherewithal to acquire every labor-saving device, but because it presents us with an unending set of challenges, large and small. For those of us who are retired, we can recall our pining in our younger years for the respite of retirement. And now that we have arrived we realize that one set of challenges is simply exchanged for a different set of challenges.
The failure of our institutions is directly related to a broader rejection by our society that life not only is hard but must be hard. That we must accept the challenge of living rather than seeking to avoid or diminish the challenge. Our (illegal) immigration challenge is not simply that so many people are coming, but that their expectation is that by coming here their life will be easier by taking advantage of the economic safety net we offer. Thus if they do not accept the challenge of life they will not contribute to our economic well being. Our debt problem is due to us not currently shouldering the burden of the government costs we have incurred. Our spiritual problem is that we must resist rather than give in to temptations, that we must live disciplined lives of high character. We want virtue on the cheap.
We become “lonely” when we give up and are secretly ashamed of our cowardice.
Published in General
Why does Ben Sasse want to be a US senator?
by Philip Klein
The guy’s delivery is a little dry, but I thought this was one hell of a takedown of socialism.
This is hilarious – are you sure you’re not describing politicians? I can relate….
This sounds like a powerful book, that he seemed to be motivated to write as an American, not just a politician. I just scanned the beginning on Amazon, but will probably order it. Life has changed in every aspect in a short amount of time. Politicians and those we don’t agree with are being chased, harassed, shamed from society. Information both on social media as well as in the classrooms are being censored, suicide, drug use, alcohol, sexual abuse way up, in spite of increased wealth, job opportunities, better healthcare (at least before Obamacare), etc. and people are more alienated than ever. Yet, in small towns, say in the Italian countryside, where families and neighbors are knit together – generations learning and caring for each other, accountability, faith – the old fashioned things that people pounce on today, seem to be crumbling around us and are producing a dire outcome.
In fairness, I don’t think socialists accept this critique.
Not really. As mentioned in other posts, the number of old people in our society has increased substantially. It’s to the point that 70 year old children are taking care of their 90 year old parents.
So, if there were less old people for most of human existence, then it follows that the young didn’t need them after all, since they progressed without them. And the wisdom of actual living old people was already being passed without them once the printing press was invented. And face it. Not all old people are Aristotle or Plato, who by the way, wrote their enduring phlosophies when they were young to middle age.
Personally, as one who is entering the cusp of old age, and who is childless, I will be doing my best to not be dependent on the young for as long as I can, with the knowledge that with some exceptions, the young aren’t all that interested in me as an old person.
But there is another factor. Since there are so many of us now, we can depend on each other more for help. The stereotype of old people in old folks homes being lonely has truth to it, but it’s either because the people there gave up, or they had simply lost their cognitive abilities to old age.
Loneliness is a state of mind.
There’s a counter argument. They were treated better because there were so few of them, and surviving that long, was a true accomplishment that inspired respect.
To me, that’s become an eye rolling cliche. Getting older simply is, whether you’re a sissy or not.
I would say that was more applicable for most of human existence when making it to old age was an accomplishment in itself, and required some spunk, as well as luck.
2 of our biggest government programs (social security and medicare) are designed to transfer wealth from the young to the elderly.Financially and politically we treat the elderly quite well.
I’m on the edge of the Baby Boomer cohort. There is so much money being transferred to that generation when you include inheritence from the postwar generation, that boomers, who are mostly spending that inheritence, not leaving it to their own children, are resented.