The Lonely Century

August 15, 2020
An economist and business adviser delves into "the ideological underpinnings of the twenty-first century's loneliness crisis." As Hertz notes, we live in a predominantly lonely world, a condition exacerbated by ever increasing social and economic inequality. When people feel they have only themselves to fall back on--lacking support from employers, the government, or our communities--is it any wonder that loneliness is the result? The situation is so bad that in 2018, the U.K. appointed a Minister of Loneliness for the disconnected, and the elderly in Japan are known to commit petty crimes in order to go to jail, "a sanctuary that provides not only company but also support and care." With plenty of anecdotes and scholarly referenced footnotes, the author meticulously picks apart our everyday world to reveal the many wellsprings of our loneliness, and she points to helpful first steps to deal with it. The trick, writes Hertz, is "to reconnect capitalism to the pursuit of the common good and put care, compassion and cooperation at its very heart." Of course, that is quite the undertaking; some readers may even consider it impossible, but many will find some comfort in these pages. Hertz diligently scrolls through the many causes of our existential conundrum, including living alone, the bustle of big-city life ("when confronted with all those people our default is often to withdraw"), contactless commerce, smartphone addiction, openly aggressive urban planning, the surveillance workplace, and a government that fails to prioritize libraries, parks, playgrounds, and community centers. Hertz also touches on the alienation of artificial intelligence and the downsides of co-living spaces, and she offer curative suggestions along the way--e.g., redefining work to deliver not just a salary, but "meaning, purpose, camaraderie and support"; committing to public service; and transforming ourselves "from consumers to citizens, from takers to givers, from casual observers to active participants." An alternately dispiriting and bracing dissection of loneliness and how to build community from the ground up.

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September 1, 2020
We are all travelers in what economist Hertz labels the "lonely century." She traces the origin of our troubles to the dawn of neoliberalism, particularly its predatory capitalism, in the 1980s. The devastating impacts of this economic theory, focusing on the now-pervasive gospels of individualism and profit, have been recently amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. Citing copious research, she addresses the existential problem of loneliness, exploring key causes, urgent dangers, and possible solutions. She humanizes her thesis with stories from people of various ages worldwide, living isolated lives, addicted to our screens, alienated and surveilled at work-you-to-death jobs that are increasingly threatened by the rise of artificial intelligence. Perhaps most ominously, she posits loneliness as a root of right-wing populism and a fault line for democracy. But the current pandemic presents a potential silver lining: the opportunity for a paradigm shift. Citizens, government leaders, and corporations can choose to redefine relationships centered on the values of solidarity, community, and togetherness, to build a more cooperative and kinder form of capitalism.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

November 16, 2020
Economist Hertz (Generation K) explores how to solve “today’s loneliness crisis” in this thought-provoking yet scattershot account. Modern-day loneliness, according to Hertz, “incorporates how disconnected we feel from politicians and politics, how cut off we feel from our work and our workplace, how excluded many of us feel from society’s gains, and how powerless, invisible and voiceless so many of us feel ourselves to be.” She notes that 20% of U.S. millennials “say they have no friends at all,” and shares evidence that Japanese senior citizens are committing crimes in order to find companionship, care, and support in prison. Blaming digital technology, urbanization, and neoliberal economic policies that widened the wealth gap and weakened government protections, Hertz examines the links between loneliness and physical illness, right-wing politics, and the rise of workplace surveillance technologies. Her solutions include stabilizing rental costs so people can establish roots in their communities, investing in public spaces, and “reinstituting a formal lunch break” so workers can “break bread together.” Hertz touches on many important issues, but explores few of them in-depth, and doesn’t fully address how cultural and geographic differences might impact perceptions of loneliness around the world. This intermittently intriguing analysis needs a sharper focus.