Alice Raybaud - Nos Solitudes - Silencio Book Club

It is silent, most of the time invisible. A wave of loneliness is growing in the world, and particularly in Western societies. Even when we are physically surrounded, the feeling of not being truly seen or heard spreads.

To explain it, responsibility is regularly shifted onto individuals. We are supposedly selfish, addicted to screens, incapable of commitment. But the emergence of this society of loneliness is above all the product of a vast dismantling: erosion of public spaces, rise of precariousness, ideologies of exclusion, destruction of workplace collectives... Often viewed as a personal emotion, loneliness turns out to be a shared condition.

The consequences are devastating. While it has serious effects on both our mental and physical health, it is primarily a threat to our democracies. Because certain forces have no interest in stopping the machine: loneliness now represents a lucrative market share and is also no stranger to the rise of far-right movements. This is the alert raised by Alice Raybaud in this investigation, which invites us to thwart policies of isolation by countering them with a politics of connection. Alice Raybaud will be at Silencio on 20 November, for a discussion on this new essay.