tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post5392775878385919044..comments2024-03-28T00:17:55.823+00:00Comments on Bruce Charlton's Notions: What endemic loneliness tell us about secular modernityBruce Charltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09615189090601688535noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-18384014466722785652013-11-13T20:38:07.985+00:002013-11-13T20:38:07.985+00:00Friends cure loneliness only when they are admirab...Friends cure loneliness only when they are admirable people, the kind of people who will stick by you and whose affection and regard is meaningful.<br /><br />But modernity doesn't encourage the development of virtue. So friends are replaced with buddies.Adam G.http://www.jrganymede.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4683970826895755480.post-43068114401370318522013-11-13T20:02:05.960+00:002013-11-13T20:02:05.960+00:00"If, at its best family life is a foretaste o..."If, at its best family life is a foretaste of Heaven; then loneliness is a foretaste of hell."<br /><br />Excellent observations, though they also have to be squared with the ascetic view of the desert (especially self-imposed isolation) as the place of most intense spiritual warfare. Though they do square very well. Clearly, someone who does not spend much time with other people is somehow more open to communicating with spiritual entities. Which -- absent some kind of incredible gift of discernment -- necessarily includes more demons than you can shake a stick at.<br /><br />Thus the monk who is not content with the ordinary experience of resisting demons while among brethren, will go off in solitary isolation, where he is practically guaranteed to have to battle against demons an order of magnitude more vicious and persistent, with no humans around to provide a reality check.<br /><br />The modern lonely lifestyle has the worst of both worlds, then; all the openness to negative influences, plus a bevy of alluring distractions that destroy the possibility of actually fighting them on a day-to-day basis. Sort of the anti-desert. So I'm not surprised that Screwtape would regard the modern-day loneliness as an advantageous phenomenon to cultivate.Arakawahttp://arakawa.github.comnoreply@blogger.com