Hannah Arendt on How Loneliness Breeds Terror
In her classic work The Origins of Totalitarianism, the philosopher Hannah Arendt described loneliness as 'the common ground for terror.'
"“What makes loneliness so unbearable is the loss of one's own self which can be realized in solitude, but confirmed in its identity only by the trusting and trustworthy company of my equals. In this situation, man loses trust in himself as the partner of his thoughts and that elementary confidence in the world which is necessary to make experiences at all. Self and world, capacity for thought and experience are lost at the same time.”"
"“In isolation, man remains in contact with the world as the human artifice; only when the most elementary form of human creativity, which is the capacity to add something of one’s own to the common world, is destroyed, isolation becomes altogether unbearable… Isolation then becomes loneliness.""
"The collapse of community perhaps explains the meteoric rise of “social” media. The problem, of course, is that social media seems to be doing more to divide people than unite them—or in Arendt’s words, isolate humans “against each other.”"
Commentary: The seeds of totalitarianism are sown by the roots of collectivism which seeks first, to divide and categorize each division against itself and all others; and to forebode one from his thoughts, creativity and ultimately destroying all that one could add of his own to the world in common.
That sounds pretty lonely to me.
Thankfully, I do not observe any of that here at the gulch.
"“What makes loneliness so unbearable is the loss of one's own self which can be realized in solitude, but confirmed in its identity only by the trusting and trustworthy company of my equals. In this situation, man loses trust in himself as the partner of his thoughts and that elementary confidence in the world which is necessary to make experiences at all. Self and world, capacity for thought and experience are lost at the same time.”"
"“In isolation, man remains in contact with the world as the human artifice; only when the most elementary form of human creativity, which is the capacity to add something of one’s own to the common world, is destroyed, isolation becomes altogether unbearable… Isolation then becomes loneliness.""
"The collapse of community perhaps explains the meteoric rise of “social” media. The problem, of course, is that social media seems to be doing more to divide people than unite them—or in Arendt’s words, isolate humans “against each other.”"
Commentary: The seeds of totalitarianism are sown by the roots of collectivism which seeks first, to divide and categorize each division against itself and all others; and to forebode one from his thoughts, creativity and ultimately destroying all that one could add of his own to the world in common.
That sounds pretty lonely to me.
Thankfully, I do not observe any of that here at the gulch.
One might question if kids today are really Conscious, really aware of self, introspective. Seems to me, that is what alone time cultivates; thinking about what they have learned, does this learning make sense compared to one's observations, etc.
We might look at islam the same way. They are commanded to think a certain way and pray 9 thousand times a day...little time to one's self because they are busy adhering to their commandments.
Read about that 10 years ago in a Global watch group publication, but, put it aside in my subconscious until I began to observe it in reality.
" A mass movement attracts and holds a following not because it can satisfy the desire for self-advancement, but because it can satisfy the passion for self-renunciation." and: "Faith in a holy cause is to a considerable extent a substitute for the lost faith in ourselves." Eric Hoffer
However, finding myself alone in my philosophy does not then lead me to want to terrorize others or be an authoritarian over them. It would have been nice to have met a woman who is of like mind.
If they only knew...it's actually 72 white raisins... just about the amount you get in a box of Sun Made these days...laughing
Nothing to contribute, nothing to add and seemingly unwanted...goes to show you what being human is really about.
I think I'll stand by my definition and Rand's definition of humanity.
The left can go to hell.
A selfie of me would be considered a Hate Crime these days....laughing
I am sure it's not always that simple but whom ever is one's keeper; mother, father, grandma or pa, anyone else responsible for them early on should ease them into social contacts.
A little phenomenology goes a long way.