At 1:51 in the video, it shows a plant with red spikey balls at the top of the plant. That is the Castor plant, scientific name ricinus communis. One of the deadliest poisons known to man comes out of that plant, a poison called "ricin". It only takes micrograms of the refined poison to kill a full grown man dead. There is no known antidote. It's a horrid, lingering death with flu-like symptoms that takes days - days during which the victim knows that there is nothing that can be done for them. Probably not the best thing to start a video on loneliness out with!
I think, personally, that the video makes a couple of good points regarding "loneliness", at least from my own experience.
I've not experienced loneliness in years, but when I was young, I was chronically lonely, even in massive crowds of people. I don't think loneliness can be cured by quantity, only by quality. You can have a bazillion "friends", and still be lonely, and conversely you can have no friends at all, only associates, and not be lonely. The difference is not in the interactions, but in the quality of the interactions you do have.
It goes back in part to the old adage that "women want to be wanted, men need to be needed". I think that, at least in part, explains the disparity in loneliness between the sexes. Men are no longer being made to feel they are "needed" - we are, to a man, being told we are superfluous, a drain on a female dominated society, a danger to them, or, in worst cases, simply inept and useless. Is it really any wonder that we withdraw under those circumstances? And then women complain that no men want to date them. Why would we bother? We can be useless all by ourselves, than you very much! If women are not going to need men, then men are not going to want women, and society starts to balkanize based upon gender.
I have zero close friends any more. None. BIAD is probably the closest male friend I have, and I've never met him face-to-face. But I'm good with that. When I was younger, I had lots (most of whom have since died off), but I had no purpose despite that, and I think that may be what made me feel "lonely" back then.
Back then, I tried to fill that hole in my soul with "stuff", since people were not working to fill it. I amassed a bunch of "stuff", and none of it worked. I've lost 3/4 of that stuff over the years, and don't miss it. I still have piles of useless "Stuff", and most of it I've not seen in years... so it can't have been that important to begin with.
The one thing that is different between the days when I was "lonely" and now is ME. It's all within myself. I've made myself "useful", albeit only in small ways, but that is enough. On top of that, I've stopped amassing more and more "stuff", and learned to be content with what I have. I think those two things have contributed to the banishment of my "loneliness", and they did that years ago. I just keep them going now is all, and that makes all the difference, at least in my life.
Being satisfied with what you have, however much or little that may be, contributes to your "contentment". Being useful, even in small ways, give you purpose and meaning. Those two, taken together, produce a lack of loneliness - at least that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.
And by being "useful", I don't mean changing the world. Just contributing to those parts of it that I can reach. I'm useful to Grace. Not as much as I probably ought to be, but enough. I can fix her a cup of coffee if she wants one, or help her get around on bad days. It's not much, but it makes me at least of some use. I have a neighbor that almost no one gets along with. He lives alone, and has no running water. So when he needs water, I provide it. If he's short on anything else I have, like sugar or cigarettes, I help. If he needs a jump-start on his vehicle, i take my jump pack over and boost it. Little things, but enough to give me some usefulness, and therefore some value.
I'm not "lonely" any more, and have not been for years, despite my isolation. Those are the only three changes I can identify - shrinking my "friends" circle, being content with what I have, and being useful in small ways.
So, I think "loneliness" comes from within, not from without. No person or "stuff" can fill that hole in the soul until the individual comes to terms with themselves, and contributes "something", anything, back to the world around them, however small that world may be. As a matter of fact, it's even easier to get done if you shrink that world to just the part of the bigger world that you can reach. There is less anxiety about an inability to change the bigger things which are out of reach if one gets busy changing the little things that ARE within reach.
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For the women out there without a man who may want one - especially the "feminists" - the solution is to stop making men feel useless. Make us feel useful, even in small ways, and men will beat a path to your door and fall all over themselves to find ways to make you feel wanted. If you don't believe me, give it a try to disprove me. You'll be glad you did!
Us men are such simple creatures - we have very few moving parts, and a very small instruction set. We ARE simple, but the converse of that is that we break easily, and just breaking one small part causes the entire organism to become non-functional for your purposes! In other words, since we ARE so simple, it doesn't take much to break us. Luckily for women, it doesn't take much to fix us when we do break - you just have to have the know-how to find the broken part and repair or replace it within your favorite specimen of manliness, and all is well again!
.
I think, personally, that the video makes a couple of good points regarding "loneliness", at least from my own experience.
I've not experienced loneliness in years, but when I was young, I was chronically lonely, even in massive crowds of people. I don't think loneliness can be cured by quantity, only by quality. You can have a bazillion "friends", and still be lonely, and conversely you can have no friends at all, only associates, and not be lonely. The difference is not in the interactions, but in the quality of the interactions you do have.
It goes back in part to the old adage that "women want to be wanted, men need to be needed". I think that, at least in part, explains the disparity in loneliness between the sexes. Men are no longer being made to feel they are "needed" - we are, to a man, being told we are superfluous, a drain on a female dominated society, a danger to them, or, in worst cases, simply inept and useless. Is it really any wonder that we withdraw under those circumstances? And then women complain that no men want to date them. Why would we bother? We can be useless all by ourselves, than you very much! If women are not going to need men, then men are not going to want women, and society starts to balkanize based upon gender.
I have zero close friends any more. None. BIAD is probably the closest male friend I have, and I've never met him face-to-face. But I'm good with that. When I was younger, I had lots (most of whom have since died off), but I had no purpose despite that, and I think that may be what made me feel "lonely" back then.
Back then, I tried to fill that hole in my soul with "stuff", since people were not working to fill it. I amassed a bunch of "stuff", and none of it worked. I've lost 3/4 of that stuff over the years, and don't miss it. I still have piles of useless "Stuff", and most of it I've not seen in years... so it can't have been that important to begin with.
The one thing that is different between the days when I was "lonely" and now is ME. It's all within myself. I've made myself "useful", albeit only in small ways, but that is enough. On top of that, I've stopped amassing more and more "stuff", and learned to be content with what I have. I think those two things have contributed to the banishment of my "loneliness", and they did that years ago. I just keep them going now is all, and that makes all the difference, at least in my life.
Being satisfied with what you have, however much or little that may be, contributes to your "contentment". Being useful, even in small ways, give you purpose and meaning. Those two, taken together, produce a lack of loneliness - at least that's my theory, and I'm sticking to it.
And by being "useful", I don't mean changing the world. Just contributing to those parts of it that I can reach. I'm useful to Grace. Not as much as I probably ought to be, but enough. I can fix her a cup of coffee if she wants one, or help her get around on bad days. It's not much, but it makes me at least of some use. I have a neighbor that almost no one gets along with. He lives alone, and has no running water. So when he needs water, I provide it. If he's short on anything else I have, like sugar or cigarettes, I help. If he needs a jump-start on his vehicle, i take my jump pack over and boost it. Little things, but enough to give me some usefulness, and therefore some value.
I'm not "lonely" any more, and have not been for years, despite my isolation. Those are the only three changes I can identify - shrinking my "friends" circle, being content with what I have, and being useful in small ways.
So, I think "loneliness" comes from within, not from without. No person or "stuff" can fill that hole in the soul until the individual comes to terms with themselves, and contributes "something", anything, back to the world around them, however small that world may be. As a matter of fact, it's even easier to get done if you shrink that world to just the part of the bigger world that you can reach. There is less anxiety about an inability to change the bigger things which are out of reach if one gets busy changing the little things that ARE within reach.
------------------------------
For the women out there without a man who may want one - especially the "feminists" - the solution is to stop making men feel useless. Make us feel useful, even in small ways, and men will beat a path to your door and fall all over themselves to find ways to make you feel wanted. If you don't believe me, give it a try to disprove me. You'll be glad you did!
Us men are such simple creatures - we have very few moving parts, and a very small instruction set. We ARE simple, but the converse of that is that we break easily, and just breaking one small part causes the entire organism to become non-functional for your purposes! In other words, since we ARE so simple, it doesn't take much to break us. Luckily for women, it doesn't take much to fix us when we do break - you just have to have the know-how to find the broken part and repair or replace it within your favorite specimen of manliness, and all is well again!
.