Loneliness is White

Loneliness is white,
Like a world with nothing in it,
And a conversation that you can’t join in.
Loneliness is like a dinner for one,
And with all this loneliness
you’ve gone too.

(Poem written by Henry Hanrott, aged 9)

Numbers don’t matter. You can feel lonely in a room full of strangers. Imagine what it must have been like when the Earth was sparsely populated, and when you could go on a foraging trip for berries or antelope and never see a soul for days. Imagine, under these circumstances, not getting on with your spouse and your children, with no community or help to fall back on. Even the introvert would yearn for warmth and company.

It is for this reason that we live in cities, towns and villages and that we find mechanisms for cooperating, supporting one another and caring. Thus the true loners, the libertarians, the anti-social greed-mongers are outliers. What Epicureanism stands for is pleasure, and that means friends, companionable acquaintances, and getting on together. And that means compromise. Democracy is a superior form of Epicureanism, provided it is based on common sense cooperation and not bloody-mindedness.