Organized Loneliness

Abstract

The point of departure in this essay is Hannah Arendt’s intriguing reference to “organized loneliness” at the end of The Origins of Totalitarianism. If loneliness is a unique experience of psychological suffering fundamental to human life, organized loneliness threatens our very existence for it systematizes the isolation produced by totalitarianism to suppress solidarity and action. I will argue that the concept of organized loneliness has never been more relevant, though its conditions have changed, and no one elaborates these conditions as effectively and urgently as Franco Berardi. Loneliness under “high–tech capitalism” is one of many psychosocial symptoms resulting from the erosion of empathy and sensitivity, social media–fed mass conformity, and the severe isolation caused by our competitive, precarious and flexible work environments. Bringing together the insights of these two remarkable thinkers will help us understand the danger — at once psychological, social and political — of our contemporary loneliness.