A Community View of Loneliness

🤓 Bite-Sized Knurd: The Ukraine Crisis reminds us how fragile human life is and how community can bring us closer together to heal the loneliness epidemic and begin to solve society’s issues.

Read on for more…

As we wrap up our loneliness series, the world has forever changed, proving once again that community is needed more than ever.

One man’s decision to invade a sovereign nation has altered the world in unimaginable ways and has reminded us of the fragile nature of peace and human life. At times of turmoil, our world has been resilient. We saw unity after World War II in establishing the United Nations (in San Francisco, I might add). Or more recently, the global movement spurred after George Floyd was murdered by police in Minneapolis. Countries from around the world questioned their own racist policies and stood in solidarity with Black communities.

But oftentimes difficult moments pull us further into our own camps of belief. The COVID-19 pandemic (and the BLM movement for that matter) has proven that early actions of solidarity can quickly turn into division. Unifying moments can be weaponized by bad actors who are looking to gain political and economic power and distract from the issues that need solving.

We see this in the anti-vax movement where Alex Jones uses his platforms to sell fake remedies to unsuspecting people. Bad actors often leverage loneliness or fear to pack their pockets. Feelings of isolation can warp your sense of truth and cause normally good people to spread hate.

And that is why a powerful remedy to hate and greed is community.

Solving a Public Health Crisis

In many ways, the loneliness epidemic is a public health issue.

Solving society’s problems starts with individual growth. The more we heal individually, the healthier our society becomes. Plus community has many individual health benefits.

But that doesn’t mean individuals should be solely responsible. When you’re deep in loneliness as 61% of US Americans are, it’s easy to convince yourself that you are the only one.

Acknowledging that most people are feeling some sense of loneliness right now is powerful.

Acknowledging the toll that the pandemic and daily life has taken on all of us is powerful.

It means that we can begin the discussions of healing ourselves and those around us.

It All Comes Back to Community

Solving the loneliness epidemic can have a cascading effect. Helping yourself and your community gives us strength and resolve to take the necessary and big steps to transform our world for the better. It means we can shore up our democracy so that our government works for its people and not the wealthy.

The happiest countries in the world are Finland, Switzerland, and Denmark. Look at what these countries have in common, besides cozy sweaters and snow. Each country is a community-driven society. They have social safety nets to protect their citizens from poverty, a robust education system, and the lowest rates of incarceration (another proof point that crime isn’t about police; but about supporting citizens).

We have the capacity to rebuild the US social safety net through collective action. And it starts with a healthier you and a healthier me.

Next Week: We launch our next series on Feminism & Patriarchy

The Good Knurd:

Now's your chance to join in on the action! Thoughtful ways to influence change within yourself and your local community.

• 🫂 Community: Call (or text for the phone-phobic Millennials) your friends to check on them. It’s an overwhelming time and we all could use some extra love these days.

We’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment to share your perspective.