From Kafkaesque celebration of loneliness to the British Ministry of Loneliness

Conceiving of a government department dealing with loneliness would have come naturally with Franz Kafka or Albert Camus. Writers belonging to their genre have delved deep into the abyss of detachment and withdrawal from society. To their readers' relief, they were never that mundane to bring loneliness down to the dust-laden level of administrative straitjacket. But politicians are a different class. They deal with black-and-white practical issues. Nothing is grey or allegorical with them. Perhaps in accordance with this, British Prime Minister Theresa May has recently formed a ministry to deal with this otherwise philosophy-laced creative problem. The initiative has been prompted by the formidably large number of lonely adults in the United Kingdom. She has also appointed a minister to the Ministry of Loneliness. In contrast with this, the 20th century modernist writers have preferred highlighting the beauty of loneliness.  Most of the time they have been found making their characters bask in a mental state in which self-spun loneliness explains the meaning of life.

This level of the human mind has been celebrated in the works of a large section of authors throughout the 20th century. Thanks to the dominance of existentialism as an influential school of thought, loneliness as a topic has been found being exploited by the major authors of the time. Ranging from Meursault (Camus' 'Outsider'), Steppenwolf (Herman Hess's Steppenwolf) to Erostratus (Jean Paul Sartre's 'Erostratus'), these characters live on social fringes, and relish loneliness. The world they inhabit belongs to a time of subjective musings. Back then, loneliness was a pseudo creative experience that would help people get down to the essence of human existence. Few in society and the creative world had yet to dread the emergence of loneliness as a curse.

The authors' view on loneliness has changed over the 20th and 21st centuries. Activism has outshone passivity in the post-Cold War creative activities. With the 'romantic' and leisurely epochs gone for good, few are now found extolling lives in self-made cocoons. Yet loneliness is very much there, as are conjugal and familial and social maladjustments. It now affects human lives with its deleterious impacts left on societies, especially the highly developed ones. That to what extent loneliness can emerge with its crippling impact on society has been identified in Britain. Amid the pervasive presence of lonely people, with them risking being victims of many physical and psychological problems, the government appears to be facing the scourge on a war footing of sorts. Given the presence of nearly 10 million people who are suffering from the trauma of loneliness, the British government has embarked on its unique venture of creating its loneliness ministry. The ministry is assumedly assigned to look into this typically western social scourge, and work out remedial measures related to the affected people's rehabilitation and psycho-physical well-being. The British Ministry of Loneliness is to deal with the obstinately prevalent malady of people living in tormenting seclusion. Many other West, North European and North American countries are eligible for this group. Whether they are mulling opening a ministry like that in the UK will be clear in the near future.

The problem of loneliness has deteriorated to such a low that British Prime Minister Theresa May had to take up the issue seriously. As she has noted, "A sad reality affecting people leading modern life is they are lonely. I want to identify and face the problem." According to a report on loneliness, nearly one million people either chronically or frequently feel lonely. At the same time, a study conducted by the British government says there are 200,000 adult people in the country who are not in contact with their friends or relatives for more than one month. The charity organisation Age UK thinks loneliness is such a malady which might lead to death.

Few nations can deal with the scourge of loneliness efficiently. Sociologists believe the solution to the problem calls for a multi-pronged approach. Scores of issues are at stake. Even a number of medically advanced countries are found overwhelmed with this malady. The forming of a separate ministry by the British government to deal with loneliness is a step which ought to inspire many other nations to follow suit. Loneliness is no great physical ailment apparently. But in worse cases the victims may have to pay dearly. Societies at large have also to bear the brunt. Thus community disintegration creeps in.

Like the affluent countries, it has lately begun emerging as a nightmare even in many low-income countries. Their situation cannot be compared with the European or North American regions. Too much affluence has always been found breeding nausea for material abundance. That wealth in excess and the increasingly disintegrating familial and social ties will lead to isolation of a few is now universal truth. But on the other way round, poverty and deprivations also affect man psychologically. Loneliness out of deep-seated depressions is, thus, not strange to poorer countries. However, in terms of its nature the loneliness of the rich and the poor has their distinctive features. Many elderly lonely people in advanced societies commit suicide or die alone being unable to bear the weight of void. In the developing countries, the marginalised state of the extremely poor ends up in depression and schizophrenic complications. Bangladesh has lately been found among the poorer nations with an increasing prevalence of psychiatric patients. In the social and political violence-prone regions of the world, occurrence of varied traumas affecting people is a common sight. Most of the victims in these areas later turn recluse. Many choose the lives of a pariah.

As the experts in sociology view it, the poor people's loneliness develops in a mild intensity. Moreover, this psychological state of theirs is flexible in nature, hardly becoming chronic. It is curable unlike that afflicting the rich. The affluent and privileged people get simply stuck in the maze of loneliness, which encroach on them from all sides. When they finally discover themselves in their predicament, it is too late with no way out open.

Mr. Kupal is a fabulously rich Iranian with no dearth of anything that gives material and gastronomical pleasure. But in his palatial house on the city outskirts, he lives alone. His only companion is his faithful dog called Haiku. Kupal seems to have wilfully chosen this life detached from friends, relatives and acquaintances.  A minor glitch in his highly digitised door-lock shuts him one afternoon inside the house. All his efforts to open the door fail miserably; out of desperation he breaks a part of the wall to come out. It only complicates the situation. Meanwhile, the winter night falls with chilly winds blowing into the house through the holes that Mr Kupal has made in his frenzied attempt to get out. He cries frantically for help, but nobody is around. The mobile phone network is not working. Three days and nights have gone by. His water and food stock totally emptied, Kupal begins eating the leaves and stems of his tubbed orchids, then the garbage insects. His only companion, the dog Haiku, watches its master's plight in melancholic silence as it also goes on starving. The dog dies finally. An almost deranged Kupal makes attempts to eat his only companion's meat, but he cannot. He commits suicide. It's an episode from a new Iranian movie titled 'Kupal' directed by the new generation maker Kazem Mollaie.  Despite being apparently fictional, the tale is universal.

Rich people dying alone in deserted houses are common scenarios in every part of the world. The British Prime Minister may have been witness to the tragic ends of people like these in her country. The poor can somehow overcome the ordeal of depression and loneliness, as their affliction has its roots in a minimum need for material happiness. They remain far from the psychosis of the rich. However, there are causes for feeling alarmed. With countries vying for a place alongside those rich and content, many might, unwittingly, be inviting the dreadful pandemic of loneliness.

[email protected]