Wednesday 17 January 2018

The bureaucratic solution to Life

I have previously blogged about the serious problem of loneliness in modern society - loneleiness as the modern 'poverty'.

Well, Problem Solved. (Edited)

Theresa May has appointed the country’s first minister for loneliness in order to tackle the misery endured by around nine million Britons. Tracey Crouch will take on the role on top of her current job as Sports minister.

As well as announcing the new minister, Mrs May said a cross-government strategy to find ways to stop people feeling lonely will be published later this year. She said: For far too many people, loneliness is the sad reality of modern life. I want to confront this challenge for our society and for all of us to take action to address the loneliness endured by the elderly, by carers, by those who have lost loved ones, people who have no one to talk to or share their thoughts and experiences with.”

…a ministerial lead for loneliness who will work with the Commission, businesses and charities to shine a light on the issue and pull together all strands of Government to create the first ever strategy. We should all do everything we can to see that we bring an end to the acceptance of loneliness for good.

The Office for National Statistics will help to devise a method of measuring loneliness and a fund will be set up to allow Government and charities to find innovative ways to deal with the problem across all ages, backgrounds and communities. 

Ms Crouch said: "I am sure that with the support of volunteers, campaigners, businesses and my fellow MPs from all sides of the House, we can make significant progress in defeating loneliness".

8 comments:

Shaun F said...

Old people have the burden or joy of their life choices to contemplate - assuming they are not medicated on uppers which tends to get them out (for what passes for) socializing.

I can't think of a more intrusive Ministry.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Shaun - Indeed. Which is, of course, a feature not a bug for government - the excuses and possibilities for intrusion and state expansion are boundless.

Almost on a par with Global Warming as an excuse for regulating 'carbon' production (from every living thing).

Shaun F said...

Bruce - Oh I agree it's a feature of the government.

The Global Warming remark reminded me that where I live - the municipal government has successfully banned plastic bags from commercial grocery stories!

I was reading recently how morality used to dictate law.

Now law seems to dictate what is moral - like...recycling.

Wm Jas Tychonievich said...

This is satire, right? Something from the Onion? Please tell me it's satire.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Shaun - yet another 'inversion'...

Bruce Charlton said...

@WmJas - Thinking of it from the POV of an evil government strategically implementing a totalitarian society of Good-inversion, this is something of a master-stroke of policy.

In the context of a materialist, atheistic (psychotherapeutic) society - this could be irresistable... Who could oppose the objective of 'defeating' loneliness?

The egregious Tony Blair and his govt flirted with the idea of government being devoted to promoting happiness, and some kind of a Gross Domestic Happiness measure... but for Leftists the goal alleviation of suffering has a primal force - some US Liberal philosophers (including Richard Rorty) have argued that alleviation of suffering is the core Left value.

This core value, plus the Leftist faith in government solutions to all serious problems, leads logically to the Minister of Loneliness...

David Balfour said...

"The Office for National Statistics will help to devise a method of measuring loneliness"

This to me is the worst bit. Whenever I hear something like this it reminds me how modern Psychology has totally lost the plot and is permanently alienated from the human condition and cannot really understand it, just 'measure' it!

As an aside, I thought Teresa May is supposed to be Christian?! I can't see Jesus recruiting a ministry of loneliness somehow or commisioning research into the most lonely demographics nationally. I can only assume she must have been reading about a different Jesus to the one I have heard about in the gospels.

Bruce Charlton said...

@David - Teresa May isn't a Christian - she is a Leftist totalitarian, therefore she cannot be a Christian.