The end of isolation

I remember a time, before chat, MySpace, and Facebook when true loneliness and isolation was a part of life.  The structure of our society left us feeling disconnected from others.  Our deepest thoughts remained trapped inside of our heads.  If we were lucky, we had that one true love by our side or that one good friend with whom we could open up; but it was too risky or inappropriate to do so with colleagues or family.  So many of us felt deeply misunderstood and alone.

But today, the only excuse we have for feeling isolated is that we stubbornly choose to be.  Anyone can easily communicate with anyone else about anything at any time and from any place.  If we don't have "real-life" friends we can trust, we can open up to and form a relationship with a like-minded stranger.  What was once precious -- that feeling of being heard and of being understood -- has become common. 

Our lives are being made so much richer.  We are emotionally and intellectually evolving rather than stagnating in isolation.  But feelings of isolation, the frustrations of being misunderstood, were also a great source of artistic inspiration and life motivation.  Many of us would turn to writing, to music, or to art as an outlet.  Others would subconsciously pour that frustration into other ambitions: an education, a career.

The Church, oppressive governments, and greedy corporations all understood that people were more valuable to them, more dependent upon them, and more loyal when they were kept isolated, unhappy, and unfulfilled.  The Church invented the structure of marriage to limit our social interaction, oppressive governments make us afraid to share controversial opinions, and corporations want to keep us reliant upon them for subsistence, for information, entertainment, and for all of our material needs.  Institutions have kept us in isolation by design.  When starved of the satisfaction and the authentic fulfillment of deep, intimate, honest human connections...we are nothing other than loyal, obedient, eager subjects. 

So there is a flip side to this new social order.  Today, students are so often distracted from their studies because communicating with friends on-line is more compelling.  Employees are doing the same.  The end of isolation has left us not as motivated, not as hungry, and not as desperate as we were just a decade ago.  We have become more evolved socially, our thoughts are not controlled by institutions, and we are rejecting their rigid, inhuman ways. 

Enormous changes are coming.

Comments

[David Latinovic]

The basic thing about internet is that one can CHOOSE a source of information, CHOOSE information and CHOOSE which aspect and which explanation to accept and then further to explore it inside and outside of mind. Golden era of television is over, in those, lets say 50 or more years, they created a whole armies of zombies controlled, not only by TV directly, and what TV serves everyday, but with what those zombies became thanks to TV, and with what they honestly believe that its true, that is real, and that is a wright thing to do. That is the real problem. Lack of knowledge directed by ``enough to know`` corporate system, made people not hypnotized but to believe in that, cause they don't know anything else, cause they didn't have CHOICE, to choose what will they become.
I woke up this morning with a single thought in my head. ``Is this today really, the best that mankind could came up with in last 1 million years?!!!`` Wau, shit. 6 billion retarded people, in a way, I cook 3 times bad meal, but 4th time its good! But no, they are thought to not know better.
I said all this, cause I believe, that internet, and global connecting of people, thoughts and interests, can break these walls of false education and perception, and really wake up people in a matter of better understanding of planet we live on and environment we all share, for the cause of better life.
You know who I am, I remember windows 97, first internet, finding out a huge world of music, education, philosophy, I made a CHOICE to learn and search what I instinctively wanted, I made a CHOICE, and met my wife on internet, and found my love, I still have a CHOICE, and I use internet to further explore the world, people and mostly myself in all that.
I fully agree that enormous changes are coming, and I will always stand up for a free flow of information without censorship and sharing of experience through net.
Greetings
David

[Abscondo]

Hi David,
I was, indeed, thinking about your life story...as well as mine and the millions like us...when writing that. The thing that excites me is that people like us are actually far ahead of the curve...those few with easy access, a progressive, open-minded approach to life, etc. We are re-inventing what it means to live a fulfilled life and are simply using all of the tools available to us to do so. Yet, when we walk around town and observe strangers...nothing looks any different from before. It is impossible to observe the results of these radical changes in our personal lives. On the outside, we are still living in accordance with the old rules, values, perceptions...yet in private something else is happening. Anyway, it is the start of a new era...yet nobody noticed and nobody's really talking about it.

[singer01]

You better read this articles...Very inspiring!