Loneliness: An Epidemic:

 Observant and True ?

 Mother Teresa once said to an inquiring student the  following,

  " there is a poverty in your country that is just as severe as our poorest of the poor " adding," in the West there is a loneliness which i call the leprosy of the West. In many ways,it is worse than our poor in Calcutta."

This was spoken and keenly observed in 1994 which could only have gotten worse since.

 

Such societal and individual loneliness has been observed by a number of social psychologists, e.g., Jonathan Haidt, whose scholarly,yet also plainly insightful research is captured in the international best seller, The Anxious Generation.  It is also noted that this book postulates more than an epidemic of loneliness, including  the tidal- wave rise of mental illness in the West.

 

Could--as some say-- the Covid-19 pandemic have isolated and provided a researsal ( deliberate fusion of the words: Research & Rehearsal ) for the dark forces of the  Claus Swab and  the World Economic Forum ( WEF)  to determine the suitability of their nefarious aims for a global society in the near future. This induced panic in the global population, of Governments and other organisations led to such sustained isolation, leading to all kinds of issues, some of which are still felt today.

Is there a scheme to divide and profit? In the West and elsewhere?

 

 "Seventy-five years ago, when radio was the most advanced form of mass media available, Political philosopher, Hannah Arendt saw the exploitation of mass media as the goal of every totalitarian leader, in order to create legions of isolated and lonely citizens who are easy to manipulate.

 

 

 

"....otherwise-to enrich their shareholders by dividing and isolating members of our society, you can recognize the enormous forces we are up against."

 

"In free societies. we see orchestration of mass isolation being hailed perversely by social media as the inevitable result of freedom of choice in the marketplace of ideas."

 

Prior to WW2, Hitler decided to make available  radios for the mass population in Germany. Making it easier for he and his circle to facilitate and enable his ' charismatic' speeches to be heard everywhere.

 

Other tyrants and autocrats have enabled such modern communication devices to further their cause. Of course these advanced devices can be used for good purposes as well. However, the availability of mass communication can just as easily be shut-off by a Government as is the case in Iran currently. (achieving their nefarious aims)

 

Dr Stuart Russell has said that algorithms:

 

"have more control over human thinking than any dictator in history,"

Historically, he explained human propagandists could only create one message and they had no real-time data on how it was impacting people They had to make educated guesses from virtually unknowable information.

Now algorithms decide what each person,watches and reads and this occurs for billions of persons, for hours each day, in real time. 

 

These algorithms are not designed to provide the best nor the accurate information. Imperfectly giving, as they are, they will provide deceitful, at least in part, information because they are a set of rules designed by humans  who are prejudiced and biased and limited. Even given a set of data they can make you seem foolish, ill-informed and inherently biased and vice versa. In the post -modern world, truth is relative and there are no absolutes, not even this one!

 

These algorithms provide a multiple set of multiple sets of individual universes isolating each person from each other except where the individual is similarly like-minded. Thus creating a virtual prison  for each person and an enlarged group prison for each like-minded segment.

 

Loneliness is a symptom with other attendant ills of this virtual alone prison.

 

 

( By Digital Anvil ) 

 

Please let me know, what you think ?