Loneliness/yearning to recognize someone and surprising Shining insight

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

On 05.07.2011 18:21, Paul Mackin wrote:

> On 7/5/2011 11:35 AM, alice wellintown wrote:
>>> TR Pt 2 ch 1
>>> p.303
>>> "With his dispatch case, and an unkind thought for everyone he knew,
>>> Otto carried his head high: Affecting to despise loneliness, still he
>>> looked at the unholy assortment past him as though hopefully to 
>>> identify
>>> one, rescue some face from the anonymity of the crowd with instantly
>>> regretted recognition , and so rescue himself."
>> Goodbye Yellowbrick Road. All the Lonely people live in the city. So
>> eeasy to meet people on the farm.
>>

> Reminds one of a book very popular (and influential) in the 50s, The 
> Lonely Crowd (Riesman, Glazer et al), which identifies the predominant 
> social type of the day,  the other directed. (as opposed to tradition 
> and self directed)
>
> The other directed person needs others and the opinion of other to 
> define himself.
>
> This mode was considered  adaptive to modern social  conditions.
>
> Very inauthentic as far as the sentiment of being is concerned.
> P
>

In your description it sounds as if Riesman/Denney/Glazer were 
uncritical of the inauthentic and affirmative re the urban crowd's 
loneliness. This is not the case. Check out the last but one paragraph 
of The Lonely Crowd where the authors say that by diving into the crowd 
people will never soften their loneliness, just like you cannot quench 
your thirst with salt-water. If people realize this, the text says, it 
is to expect that they give due regard to their feelings and demands. 
And the book's last sentence has it that people are created differently 
and that they lose their social freedom and their individual autonomy 
when they try to be just like everybody else.

"Wenn die außen-geleiteten Menschen entdecken würden, wieviel unnötige 
Arbeit sie sich machen und daß ihre eigenen Gedanken und ihr eigenes 
Leben mindestens ebenso interessant wie die der anderen Menschen sind 
und sie ihre Einsamkeit mit dem Untertauchen in der Masse der 
Zeitgenossen in Wirklichkeit ebensowenig mildern können, wie man seinen 
Durst mit Meerwasser stillen kann, dann steht zu erwarten dass sie auch 
ihren eigenen Gefühlen und Ansprüchen mehr Beachtung schenken. (...) Die 
Idee, daß die Menschen frei und gleich geschaffen sind, ist wahr und 
zugleich irreführend: die Menschen sind verschieden geschaffen und sie 
verlieren ihre soziale Freiheit und ihre individuelle Autonomie, wenn 
sie versuchen, einander gleich zu werden." (David Riesman/Reuel 
Denney/Nathan Glazer: Die einsame Masse. Eine Untersuchung der 
Wandlungen des amerikanischen Charakters. Mit einer Einführung in die 
deutsche Ausgabe von Helmut Schelsky. 3. Auflage. Hamburg 1960: Rowohlt, 
pp. 319-20)

Ah, look at all the lonely people!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dsz4dB6DuM