Warp wrote:
>   I don't have an habit of making posts about my personal life, but I thought
> it would be nice for a change to hear people's thoughts about the subject.

It is a very complex subject to be sure.  At least two logical 
entanglements come immediately to mind.

One is deciding when it is valid to view loneliness as an affliction 
that happens somehow *to* the person and when solitude is actually the 
preference of the person and the result of their own decisions.  And 
then how to arrive at a coherent 'view' of the condition that can be 
shared by the affected person, subjectively, and at the same time by an 
'objective' or at least 'outside' observer.

Another entanglement comes with the moving target of social involvement 
in modern life which seems to allow for a greater commoditization of 
social interaction.  Everything from television personalities as 
companion to online sex-rooms.  I can hire a therapist or hire a sex 
worker with equal facility and both can provide a kind of human 
interaction that I am in control of and requires far less commitment and 
creates less stress than an actual friendship.  Or I can have a job that 
requires I interact with people, such as classroom teaching, but which 
has clear and stress-reducing delimitation.

I think your idea that people are generally unaware of the condition is 
wrong though.  I do think that many may substitute various standins for 
social involvement which may mask or disguise a state of loneliness.  In 
this case you might argue that the person is seduced by forces at little 
beyond his understanding and so the idea that he is lonely by choice may 
not be such a clear thing.

-Jim

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