Already in the twentieth century a book that became famous (by the sociologist David Riesman) identified the paradox and the drama of “The lonely crowd”. But things got worse and it is the 21st that is truly turning out to be the century of loneliness, with a heavy impact on the economy and society. At a “macro” level, the globalized production system demeans solidarity among workers, weakens the union or makes it irrelevant: if the investment fund to which your factory belongs decides overnight to close the plant, even if it is profitable, and to move it to another country to obtain a modest increase in profits, what do you get by protesting together with your fellow sufferers at the gates? And the increasingly weak roots not only of the trade unions but also of the parties, which perhaps boast of having become “liquid”, gangrens the isolation; we are not talking about the replacement of traditional political militancy with clicks on the web: a crowd of atomized individuals advances in front of the computer or smartphone screen.
On a “micro” level, the author of the book “The century of solitude” underwent a job interview in which she did not sit in front of a person but was evaluated by an algorithm; and the plasticity of Artificial Intelligence will make it easier and easier to credibly replace all social interactions with humans (even sexual ones) by resorting to android robots.
Is it an unstoppable drift? Maybe yes and maybe no. The pandemic and lockdowns have raised a global alarm bell: people have experienced that working in isolation at home can be good or awful, and that going to school in Dad mode is intolerable. Among the unpredictable effects of Covid there is a reaction, for now not very organized, against the structural loneliness created by the capitalist system that pushes us to think only of ourselves and to see others as competitors or enemies and not as possible partners.
Isolation leads people to feel neglected and betrayed by their political representatives and institutions. But according to Noreena Hertz, economist and consultant to multinationals and non-governmental organizations (among other things, she directs the Center for International Business and Management of the University of Cambridge) it is possible to transform this dehumanizing economy into a socially more sustainable system, through targeted interventions. from above and below, such as greater investments in welfare, reconstruction of local communities, time banks and solidarity condominiums. It is an invitation to rediscover and cement the values of collaboration and altruism: the celebration of the individual not as an isolated atom but as an integral part of a community.
It will be possible? There is the diagnosis of the disease, there is the prognosis. And therapy may not be utopian.
Noreena Hertz, “The century of solitude. The importance of the community in the economy and in everyday life ”, il Saggiatore, 411 pages, 25 euros