Ministers of Loneliness, Addiction, and Social Connection

HBO’s Vice News reported on the UK’s new Minister of Loneliness. Yes, loneliness. Not loveliness.

This is not a joke. During the segment, they quoted a startling statistic that, by one count, 14% of the nation’s people reported being “often lonely” or “lonely all the time.” Damn. And I have a guess that the number would be about as high in the United States. We’re a society of so much stuff that maybe it’s hard to discern what has lasting value. Like relationships. Or really, really good ice cream.

It made me immediately think of a haunting TED talk I watched recently that has stuck with me in the months since I’ve watched it. This TED talk is about addiction. And a bit about the shame around addiction. It is a fabulous and unique theory and it feels like a fresh voice in a loud room about this complicated topic.

I believe that in a way, this TED on addiction is speaking in the same general conversation as the conversation that launched the Ministry of Loneliness. It’s not that all lonely people are addicts, but that a lot of addicts may be intensely lonely or isolated. Not all. These are generalizations and guesses of course and they wouldn’t apply to everybody.

Here’s an idea that may be good in theory but difficult to carry out (please, somebody, deliver this message to Tracey Crouch, the Minister of Loneliness, and then maybe to some people experiencing addiction):

What if everyone belonged to at least one club? A club for eating chili or watching football or standing quietly in the woods or watching Star Wars and Star Trek and Dr. Who. What might that change? And what if you got a slight tax discount if these clubs happened to be diverse? What might that world look like?