A Crisis of Meaning and Purpose: There's No Such Thing As Society

A Crisis of Meaning and Purpose Part I: The individualization of society through capitalism created a vast and seemingly inescapable loneliness

This is Part I of a series I’m calling A Crisis of Meaning and Purpose that will tell the story of how we became a profoundly lonely country and, in turn, how that helped create the authoritarian threat we are facing. It will examine the causes, the results, how this problem has affected all sectors of society and our politics, and what it will require of us to discover legitimate meaning, find our purpose in the shared struggle to defeat ascendant fascism, and ultimately create a better world.

As this series is published, please feel free to reply with any questions or thoughts. I’ll be posting a Q&A after the final article comes out and will address things as it goes. Thank you for your support. Dispatches From A Collapsing State depends on it, so if this work resonates with you or helps, please consider becoming a paid subscriber and please don’t hesitate to share these articles with your people.

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I have always felt a profound sense of loneliness.

As a kid, I spent hours upon hours reading and scribbling stories and thoughts into ragged notebooks. Got lost in fantasy worlds as well as deep-dives into the world around me, which I was also desperate to understand. Some of my best memories are finding secluded spaces where I could feel less lonely in my loneliness. Hidden within a giant flowered bush in the backyard, my back against a fence post and a book in my hands. Wandering the streets of my little town in the late darkness after I had snuck out in the middle of the night. Choosing to be lonely somehow felt better than the moments when it crept in, when I was surrounded by people.

I always thought I was alone in that. This drifting kind of feeling of moving through life, interacting with others, finding moments of connection but realizing they were fleeting. And then, as I got older, as I found actual connections, I realized how common it was. Part of the human condition, I guess. But in the past few years something felt different. Conversations were marked with a shared frustration. Friendships and family ties felt strained or nonexistent. A malaise had spread.

While America declined, data began emerging that was often untreated as unrelated to the worsening political crisis. Experts called it a “loneliness epidemic” and as Americans opened up about their isolation, they also started telling other stories, including a deep distrust of institutions, political parties, and an inescapable worry that the country was in decline. These stories were relegated to the margins. Little facts that popped up in media coverage but were overshadowed by the very loud business of ascendant fascism and liberal democracy fraying more and more every day.

Despite this marginalization, it has become clear that this is all interconnected. Fascism is not an isolated phenomena that bursts forth and corrodes the fabric of a society. It is a political project that feeds off these feelings, feeds off of corruption, feeds off of distrust, feeds off of uncertainty, and, most certainly, feeds off of loneliness.

It is past time that we connect these dots and recognize

There’s No Such Thing as Society

The post-World War II boom that represented the “Golden Age” that Donald Trump and his political adherents dream of reconstituting lasted roughly thirty years. That boom was a result of very specific political and economic conditions, namely the destruction of Europe and the shifting of capitalistic power to the United States of America, which refused to demobilize following the war and then used its military and intelligence apparatus to shape the world according to the desires of the capitalistic structure. The trappings of liberal democracy, including self-rule, were relegated to a powerful few countries while others around the world were manipulated, overthrown, held hostage, and relentlessly shaped by the powerful in order to create a system of exploitation and oppression that lined the coffers of the elite.

By the time that boom came to a crashing end in the 1970’s, it was obvious to those paying attention that the project had been successful only for a brief moment. The rise of stagflation created a need for a new approach and a re-configuring. Either the powerful would learn their projects had never been sustainable and were self-destructive, or they would embrace what was necessary to continue their own hoarding of resources.

I doubt I have to tell you which direction they chose.

Neoliberalism was the solution. This ideology, created during the ramp up to the war, held that the most important right and privilege was that of the market to function according to its desires, allowing the wealthy and powerful to do as they wished and continue their projects without fear of democratic impediment. The Neoliberals had looked at the ideologies of the moment - managed capitalism, communism, Fascism, Nazism - and shuddered at the fear that the economic crisis of the pre-war years would eventually lead to a loss in capitalistic freedom. What they proposed would fester and gestate during the decades that followed, but by the time stagflation hit in full force, the world was ready.

The figures most closely associated with the emergence of Neoliberalism as the replacement political and economic consensus are Ronald Reagan in the United States and Margaret Thatcher in Great Britain. Framing history through the choices of leaders obscures the larger factors and with Reagan it was like a script he was handed prior to the filming of one of his awful movies. Thatcher embraced it wholeheartedly after discussing Neoliberalism with its high priests and waged relentless class war once she reached power, crushing labor unions, lowering the standard of living, and wrestled the fabric of society toward something meaner, more exploitative, and, yes, lonelier.

“I think we have gone through a period when too many children and people have been given to understand ‘I have a problem, it is the Government’s job to cope with it!’” she told an interviewer in 1987. “…They are casting their problems on society and who is society? There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.”

This quote is a concentrated glimpse at the most potent weapon of Neoliberalism. It is not just the control of government or the rigging of the economy, but the intentional spreading of the poisonous idea that we are all alone in a world where we are destined to fend for ourselves. The lack of a society, or a shared experience, meant that government was free to cut social programs and focus instead on assisting corporations and the wealth class in furthering their already grotesque profits. We should not expect help from our leaders and, in turn, we should not expect connection with the people in our lives. This served to not only “solve” the problem of stagflation in terms of reviving continued growth and profits, but also de-powered our collective power through political parties, labor unions, and collectives, all of which had served to hamper the economic project.

We were a collection of individuals occasionally interacting with one another but shared only one, sobering thing: in this world and in this life, we were alone.

An Economic System Built on Loneliness

The main driver of capitalism is insecurity. Fears of being alone, rejected, and everything falling apart keep us laboring and keep us compliant. The entirety of the consumption model, which sells us things we do not need, is predicated on stoking this fear and overriding our logical faculties. It is literally an activated state, this consumption, and if fear or illogical motivations were removed from the equation this system would collapse.

This process begins as early as possible. Capitalism requires us to feel as if we are inherently broken. Todd McGowan, author of the excellent Capitalism and Desire, spoke with me a couple of years ago and described this as the “Negative One” position of capitalism, saying that capitalism takes advantage of an inherent feeling within us that, as we are, we are missing something that can fix us. It reflects the notion of “original sin,” or the idea that we are born with something broken needing fixed, one of the philosophical pillars of control in the feudal era in which power resided with the church and nobles. Without capitalistic pursuits, purchases, and achievements, we will always feel like something is wrong with us. But, no matter what we do, what buy, or what we achieve, we are never able to leave the “negative” position on the ledger.

That concept primes us to be perfect consumers and constantly ready to shill out our hard-earned money in search of products and services that give us a momentary thrill or hit of dopamine but are never able to heal the wounds and trauma we have survived. By the same token, our interactions with the rest of the world are impacted. Capitalist incentives are inherently sociopathic and as the capitalist project accelerates incentives are increasingly brutal and unethical. As “economic units,” which is what Neoliberalism has always seen and treated us as, our relationships with others are boiled down to a transactional nature. When we interact, if that wounded nature is not treated, we are likely to engage in cycles that see two people, acting in self-interest, treating each other poorly. This is the “human nature” that capitalism was supposed to harness and has, ultimately, helped to create.

Perhaps no individual is more emblematic of this than Donald Trump and, by proxy, he is the “perfect” individual to seize power as things continue to decline. Trump was born wealthy, stayed wealthy despite numerous failures, has screwed over and hurt everyone who has ever cared for him, sees everything as an opportunity for self-enrichment, and, as a result, is both transparently miserable. This is why he does not trust or care for anyone who adores him. Deep down, that negative self-image, and make no mistake, Trump loathes himself, means that if anyone were to think he was good or worthy makes them a sucker. And the worst thing a person can be is a sucker.

We have seen the effects of this ideology play out in ways that are subtle but devastating. Because Neoliberalism requires increasing exploitation, we work harder and longer. Because our existence as economic units prioritizes self-prioritization and sociopathic relations, many of our relationships in life and work are shallow and tinged with transactions. We don’t trust one another. We don’t have time to spare for actual interactions or actual intimacy. We have seen that all safety nets have been shredded, the government is so corrupt and captured that we do not expect anyone to help us. Even in the most crowded room, we find ourselves alone. And, we have been told, that is because we are broken.

The Rise of the Individual

The emphasis on the individual versus the collective was both a political strategy bent toward disarming collective action and a boon for capitalist consumption. Following the social revolutions of the 1960’s and 70’s, which saw a reemergence of mass, collective force, the aesthetic elements were quickly harvested for marketing purposes. The homogenized society of the 1950’s, with its uniform of dress and available products, gave way to a plethora of options, each fine-tuned for the consumer to express their true self.

In the social revolutions, individualism was a means of rebellion, of moving away from that homogenized, obviously-repressed society. What marketing firms and corporations realized was that these expressions could be used to sell products while distancing the consumer from the political and revolutionary ideas they had represented. What emerged was the idea of self-expressive consumption. Americans would choose who they wanted to be, what they wanted the world to see, all as a means of marketing themselves to others, often portraying themselves not as they were, but who they strive to be.

One of Neoliberalism’s most insidious concepts is its ability to absorb ideas that threaten capitalism, digest them, and regurgitate them as captured products. Here, we were fed decades of marketing appeals designed to focus on our individual selves, a process that coincided with the rise of the Neoliberal 1980’s. This strengthened the sociopathic reinforcement of capitalist incentives, leaving us a nation of individuals distanced from one another and more alone than ever.

This, it could be argued, is a skewed reality that we have lived in for decades now. Individuals who largely do not understand themselves or their motives, who are marketed to by corporations and politicians who expertly pick at and stoke vulnerabilities that we are unaware of, all while culture and our own living and working conditions take advantage of that unawareness. It is hard to connect with others and work effectively with others and create something better when this is the case. There is a natural and everpresent hindrance. If we are lost in that haze, if we have not healed those wounds or seen through the veil of capitalist manipulation, the next level of cooperation, especially with others in a similar position, is next to impossible.

It All Comes Down

Here’s the catch.

Neoliberalism never worked. As a short-term goose for corporate and wealth class profits, sure, that succeeded. In building a global structure of exploitation, that certainly worked. But what we have experienced in the last quarter century is evidence that Neoliberal Capitalism is far from the perfect and sustainable project its acolytes have claimed. Before the dam broke in 2008 with the economic meltdown, there were signs. The War on Terror, and this often gets overlooked, was driven by a desire to solidify the American order and its globalist agenda. The hoarding of resources and wealth by the powerful had created a society in which mass incarceration, intentional and historic inequality, military chauvinism, and worsening corruption were all symptoms of a systemic implosion.

Since, conditions have worsened and we have reached yet another moment of stagflation, the very problem the Neoliberal consensus was supposed to answer. Neoliberalism was, and is, a religious faith. Its supporters are not interested in empirical data. Their belief is enough and no amount of contradictory evidence will ever convince them of their folly.

Loneliness and a lack of meaning and purpose, in this situation, is only sustainable as long as profits and growth continue to increase. When the capitalist class required more austerity following 2008, the unifying gravity of the skewed reality began to lose power. Suddenly, all the striving in the world couldn’t make the narrativee work. You could spend your life doing all the things you were supposed to, working your ass off, following the rules given to you, and promised perks like economic security, home ownership, and a life that looked something like the mythological “American Dream” would never come. By the time the COVID epidemic hit and we were all made acutely aware the government was not interested in representing or protecting us, a question dawned in many of us: what is this all about?

The decline of America was not only made possible but inevitable by Neoliberal capitalism. Capitalism is a parasite that jumps from host to host, taking control and swaying the host to act in capitalist interest until those interests completely sever from the host altogether. The seeds of our decline were planted in that supposed “Golden Age” as America carried out those coups, assassinated “threats,” rigged the global economy, and created a runaway system that was never actually going to be sustainable. Eventually the check would come due. And, like any mark in a scam, we were always going to be left holding the bag and wondering what the hell happened to us.

And the death of those mythologies - American exceptionalism, our supposedly everlasting empire, the promise that all the work and self-dealing would pay off - left a massive, sucking vacuum. For some, the feeling was a cold, stark realization of the loneliness we had always felt and always covered up with all the prescribed methods and addictions. Suddenly, the drugs didn’t work anymore. And that left us with the distinct awareness that something needed to change. We needed to change. The world needed to change. Everything needed to change. And that need for change presented something familiar and filling: a burgeoning sense of purpose in finding ourselves and in finding a better way.

For some, that realization was much too painful. They had invested their entire lives and all their energy and all their time and money and effort into creating that fictional self that could stave off the profound loneliness and lack of self-worth. The vacuum wasn’t just frightening, it was apocalyptic.

For those people, a new breed of shameless grifters and opportunists and fascists were ready to sell them even more odious and absurd products and alternate realities and, unfortunately, the timing was right to manufacture a political movement predicated on continuing the capitalist project at any cost, including dismantling liberal democracy and destroying anyone who got in their way.

In A Crisis of Meaning and Purpose Part II: As the American Empire declines, its people face an existential crisis. While the Neoliberals flounder, millions are forced to reconsider their lives and perceptions and others join a fascistic movement that offers belonging at the cost of self-destruction