Could three glasses of wine derail your life? Only if you live like Steven Bartlett |
It is a common observation that human beings are more individualistic than they ever have been. We hear endless hand-wringing about the decline of third spaces – community centres, after-school clubs, well maintained parks. And then there is the reasonable anxiety about the silo-ing effect of the internet: too much time spent on our phones at home means too little time spent experiencing the world together. And what about the pandemic? Working from home? Are we the loneliest generation?
There’s more. Yes, some say Christianity is experiencing a minor revival (the jury is out on how robust the evidence for any of this is). But in the great sweep of history it is obvious that religious observance is trending downward, in the West at least. Blame it on all those contemporary mores such as sensible faith in science over blind faith in the ineffable. Or blame it on Richard Dawkins. Whoever’s fault it is, we know that the attendant rise of western secularism is held responsible for further human isolation – church is, at least, a communal activity.
All of this conspires to boost the self-help industry – perhaps the most clear-cut case of 21st-century individualism. The subtle art of not giving a f*** by Mark Manson might epitomise the genre with its relentless focus on prioritising the self. But take a glancing inquiry into any such books and you are unlikely to find much in the way of “Kumbaya” and “love thy neighbour”.
But it........