Capitalism & loneliness

The opposite of a great truth is another great truth. I was reminded of this, well, great truth by George Monbiot’s claim that modern capitalism is creating loneliness. This is partly true.

The geographical mobility required by labour market “flexibility” can break up families and cause children to move away from their parents. The rare cases of upward social mobility cause us to lose touch with family and friends whilst feeling out of place in our new environment. And the pursuit of external goods such as money and power can generate zero-sum conflicts and fragile identities whereas the pursuit of internal goods, such as mastery of a craft do not; Richard Sennett’s The Corrosion of Character is good on this.

But, but, but. On the other hand, there are ways in which capitalism has ameliorated loneliness.

To see one, try an experiment tonight if you are on your own. Turn off the TV, radio, phone, recorded music and your computers. See how you feel. I suspect you would suffer deeply from boredom and loneliness. You might take solace in a book – but remember that before the mass literacy of the 20^th century, few could do this.  This reminds us that capitalism has provided the technologies for either overcoming loneliness or at least displacing it.

It’s not just the more recent technologies that have done this. One reason why the second industrial revolution transformed lives was that the bicycle and radio expanded people’s contacts.  

But capitalism has done something else. It has caused urbanization and so rescued people from what Marx called the “idiocy of rural life”. By this he didn’t mean that peasants were stupid, but that they were isolated. Before urbanization, your world was pretty much your village – in fact the Russian language has the same word for both, mir. And if you’d upset your neighbours or were a bit eccentric, you’d be condemned to almost unendurable solitude.

All this is not mere conjecture. We have empirical evidence. Country music is chockful of references to loneliness; for me, the most harrowing expression of this is Porter Wagoner’s Albert Erving. This suggests that loneliness was a massive problem in the pre-urban and, by extension, pre-capitalist era.

I say all this to raise two points.

Point one is that there might be (yet another!) fundamental trade-off here. The process of creative destruction contains a trade-off for loneliness. One the one hand, the new technologies it gives us can bring people together: we all have friends whom we wouldn’t have met but for the internet. But on the other hand, it means jobs can be destroyed thus weakening friendships and communities. It’s entirely legitimate to ask, as George does, whether this trade-off can be better managed – or, indeed, whether we have by now enjoyed all the feasible upsides of the process but still face the costs.

Point two is that music is not simply one note after another. Proper music – rather than mindless corporate shilling - gives a voice to the voiceless and a glimpse into perspectives that would otherwise be lost. From this point of view, whatever one thinks about Bob Dylan’s personal merit, the Nobel committee’s decision to award the literature prize to a songwriter was quite justified.

Comments

[Patrick Kirk]

I grew up in the Irish coutryside - back then the isolation of being different from your neighbours was a reason I fell in love with London where everyone can find a group of like minded oddballs. Beautiful thought provoking article - especially about endorsing the Dylan Nobel. Thanks.

[Andy S]

I love it when your blog touches on the personal- how Capitalism, Cognitive Biases et al affect us as individuals. How it relates to me personally. This is one of the best blogs you have written. By the way, one quibble- the building blocks of the internet were developed by Governments and research institutions. Only later did private, capitalist entities make the wonderful applications we have today. Way before there was WhatsApp, there was IRC, developed in Universities.

[Luis Enrique]

even communists have cities.

hard to distinguish what is down to capitalism per se from what is down to technological progress, modernity, everything else

[chris]

@ Andy S, Patrick - thanks. And I wholly take your point that the internet (among many other things!) was a govt-sponsored project.
@ Luis - actually, former Soviet bloc have low levels of social capital and happiness. This suggests state communism did not foster healthy inter-personal relationships.

[StuartPembery]

And what did the Romans ever do for us?

Oh yes. Founded every city ending in ...chester.

[Dave Timoney]

"And if you’d upset your neighbours or were a bit eccentric, you’d be condemned to almost unendurable solitude".

More like burnt as a witch.

[patrick]

A very good blog that puts into words what I thought but couldn't quite express when reading the Monbiot piece yesterday. One person's utopia is another's hell... I've always thought that what Monbiot sees as communal togetherness would feel horribly oppressive and wearing

[Seth Edenbaum]

"We have empirical evidence. Country music is chockful of references to loneliness"

Country music is a product of modern capitalism.

I could go on but it's not worth it. Reread your own words with the devil's eye, and see what you come up with.

[Avraam Jack Dectis]

.
Assertions that modern amenities displace boredom may be misplaced.

Is it not likely that before modern amenities, people were more active socializers, engaging in groups and organizations?

If so, it is not that temporary removal of modern amenities highlight their usefulness, their temporary removal highlights their social destruction - as the void created by their existence is illuminated.
.

[nothing but the truth]

you fail to mention the real reasons.

peasant loneliness is due to physical isolation. when he meets fellow peasants he does with gratitude. that is why the peasant is happier, even though poorer.

loneliness in capitalism is due to the monetization of every aspect of life - each individual is reduced to a bank balance and life exists to protect that balance. one is perpetually afraid of there being a monetary liability or fineprint trickery involved. that is why modern humans and westerners in particular are miserable - because their instinct is to mistrust - and incompatible with gratitude.

[dilbert dogbert]

The wife is away visiting her daughter and grand daughter. I miss her.
That said, the system allows both the daughter to live in Florida and my wife to visit from California.
For me, having a close companion and the shop, tools and materials, can keep me very busy and not feeling lonely. I got lucky and learned how to use every tool in an old time machine shop + loving to work with wood. Capitalism allowed me to spend the last 16 years enjoying having the system pay me not to work.

[Luis Enrique]

"each individual is reduced to a bank balance and life exists to protect that balance"

What does that even mean?

[nothing but the truth]

"each individual is reduced to a bank balance and life exists to protect that balance"

What does that even mean?

sorry ESOL.

the only purpose of life in a capitalist system is to make money. it is monetary monotheism.

[Boo]

"Proper music – rather than mindless corporate shilling - gives a voice to the voiceless and a glimpse into perspectives that would otherwise be lost."

Bob Dylan, with a personal net worth of $90 million, certainly didn't get his money from being a voice to the voiceless...

[derrida derider]

I grew up in a remote small town in the Australian outback (hot, dusty and insular). When Hillary released a book titled "It Takes A Village To Raise A Child" I took this as clear evidence that Hillary has never lived in a village. Because my experience was similar to Patrick Kirk's; I fled to Sydney at age 17.

"nothing but the truth" is quite wrong - the rational reaction on meeting a peasant is to mutter "bloody peasant" and find better company.

[Doug]

Dylan started out doing decent folk and protest music that got ditched fairly quickly for drug induced gibberish, then decades of mediocrity. Blood on the Tracks was a fine album but what has he done since that relates to the feelings and lives of most people? And as for that hideous caterwauling voice...

Just because the baby boomers who decide who gets Nobel Prizes have gone all gooey and sentimental about their lost youth, doesn't mean we have to lose our critical faculties.