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President Biden’s Surgeon General Vivek Murthy had issued an advisory a few days ago,Alerting the nation to the epidemic of loneliness. Nearly half of American adults experience loneliness, reports Dr. Murphy, and the surgeon general warns that loneliness can contribute to depression, high blood pressure, dementia and other serious medical conditions.
Dr. Murphy announced a “National Strategy for Advancing Social Connections Across Society”. He called for more research on loneliness, and he pledged to implement pro-connection public policies and cultivate a culture of connectedness in American life.
A A few years ago, Americans would have greeted the Surgeon General’s advice with derisive hoots and catcalls. Who believes the federal government can do anything to make Americans feel less lonely? What Dr. Murthy is proposing Americans once may have asked: a government-run dating service?
However, today Dr. Murthy’s advice is being taken seriously. Maybe a few billion dollars in federally funded research at the nation’s elite universities will reveal how the nation can conquer loneliness. After all, who knows more about loneliness than a university professor?
Perhaps federal money can take loneliness out of our daily lives, but I doubt it. Americans once looked to their churches, their families, and social clubs for social connections. Unfortunately, many Americans have turned their backs on these institutions. Do we really think that the federal government can provide the social connections that our religious beliefs, our families, and our bowling league provide?
Besides, a little loneliness might not be such a bad thing. Loneliness has inspired great art, great literature, and great music throughout history. Edward Hooper’s famous painting, “Nighthawks,” for example,Masterfully captures the dissonance and isolation of urban life in the early 20th century. JD Salinger catcher in the Rye has spoken to generations of American teenagers because it is an almost perfect expression of youth alienation.
Country music, perhaps America’s most original art form, speaks to millions of Americans because it expresses the loneliness most of us feel from time to time. Roy Orbison’s “Only the Lonely,” Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone,” and Merle Haggard’s “Looking for a Place to Fall Apart” are so powerful because they express one of the most basic of human emotions, which is loneliness.
I don’t think the Surgeon General’s attack on the loneliness epidemic will make us any less lonely. It will make our loneliness more palpable.
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