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by panaffa 1658 days ago
I'm a young GenZ adult. Just woke up and got depressed seeing this headline because it reinforces what I've experienced & felt. Loneliness is inherent to the human body and soul (unless perhaps we get Neuralink or AI friends someday). I am deeply sad over all the social fantasies I never had and probably never will now that I'm a working adult.
2 comments

Hey, you have my sympathy and understanding. And I've certainly been through some dark times mentally, and those often had strong elements of loneliness -- the kind that people say they 'battled my way through' as if fighting your self gets you anywhere and also assuming that it is somehow wrong or unacceptable to be in a dark place, i.e. it must be battled, or that the battling is what gets you to a different mental place...

So I get that from where you sit, you see that

> Loneliness is inherent to the human body and soul

But I've come to see that if that is true, it is only true in the way that there are shadows on a sunny day. The shadows let you know that the light is shining. The inherent nature of all life is love.

It can be damn hard to find sometimes, and ego and modern western culture seem bent on destroying it, but it is there.

Certainly. I do have friends and family who show me love, and I try to do the same. We're all inconsistent and imperfect in showing this love, and that is okay, but I think part of the problem is that our current way of life almost sociopathically doesn't value exploring and expressing love between ourselves, especially between strangers. Not sure whether there should be any cause for optimism that this societal structure will change soon.
Saw that my above comment in which I opened up about my loneliness got down voted. This is why I withdraw from society and experience loneliness. Loneliness is the fundamental nature of my existence; it is a deep spiritual feeling that is both tragic yet freeing. Read about Buddhism they understand how to redirect loneliness in a positive direction.