Lonely Hearts Club: When Social Justice is Introverted

Zanoah Plummer

Beneath the faces of many out the millions that reside in cities is an issue that is seldom recognized. Cities, while being bustling hubs full of people and networks, are host to an ongoing crisis most seen in isolated peoples. City-slickers now, more than ever, feel abject loneliness in spite of being surrounded by many people.

All people at one point have felt lonely whilst in a room full of people, but within cities, the “room” can feel like the world.

Despite more people than ever living in cities, the advent of social media, and less barriers to connection, people are still now, more than ever, feeling lonely. The isolation plaguing people of today has gone so far as to transcend borders, with the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring loneliness as a “public health concern”. 

The reason for the ongoing crisis has no definitive cause. Theories range from blaming economic failings to social media for this crisis, but a lesser explored explanation for the crisis is the shortcomings of urbanization.

While the expansion and move to cities brought innovation and ease-of-communication with it, community and connection have in part, been left behind in the move.

As people flock to cities, they more often than not leave behind their friends, family, and other loved ones.  This is doubly true for immigrants and refugees, who enter cities with little and often without anyone by their side.

Connections with these people weaken over time even with effort, due to the hundreds of kilometers of space between one's family and themselves. Without the proper nourishment of these relationships, and without the forming of new ones, isolation begins to fill the gap between one's community and their family.

In the past, the Church was largely where the majority of people would find community. The persistence of attending the same place at the same time on the same day would undoubtedly lead people form connections and community with one another. 

With the rise of secularism, the Church’s role in community was lost. People in suburban, but especially rural areas have now largely sourced their need for community with relationships with their neighbors. The shared experience of living in the same area with the same people is more than enough to build a community upon.

However, within the city, there has been no adequate replacement for the community that church brings. While the shared experience of living in the same area with the same people does also apply to city-dwellers, city-dwellers are also less likely to both trust and interact with their neighbors on a regular basis than their suburban and rural counterparts. 

The purpose of community varies from person to person, but an absence of community presents much of the same. People seeking community in the city are left deserted on an island swarmed with people. 

With the constant drain of life’s day to day stressors, it is crucial that as one people, we come together to alleviate stress, whether it is through idle conversation or by being a shoulder to cry on. 

Most people cannot find the time nor energy to care about issues happening outside of their locality when their basic needs are unmet. Community, which can help those meet their basic needs, is also a need within itself. The need for connection is as human as the need for air.

Empathy is at its core a social justice issue. The greater issues of today reflect in our everyday smaller, more menial interactions. A society which isn’t in community with each other is hardly a society at all. 

Racism, ableism, homophobia and likewise social crises will not solve themselves simply through kindness. But through community, we can all take smaller steps to help make the world a better place.

Activists speak of the ways in which oppression can disrupt or in some cases, completely uproot one's life. By building community we can help mitigate the impacts of these stressors within our local community.

By volunteering at a women's shelter, not only do you build community with one of the most vulnerable groups of women there is, but you also aid in knocking down the driving force that is misogyny and the patriarchy within your own neighborhood. Volunteering at soup kitchens is a bonafide way to build up marginalized people within your community, while also disrupting classism and food insecurity at a local level.

Solidarity must be at the forefront of every movement. Compassion, empathy, and care are crucial in order to gather and mobilize people for a cause. It is far easier to find empathy and humanity within others when we are in community with one-another. 

As activists, it's important to not overlook the smaller actions that can be taken to improve the lives of others. It is just as important to fight the issues happening in our own backyard as it is to protest the issues happening overseas. Changing the lives out of what seems like a small group of people can have large impacts on the world.

A mother who has her child fed through community outreach programs can go on to focus her energy on fighting the sources of poverty amongst families. The child that is fed may go on to founding an organization that feeds more children, whether they are overseas or within their own neighborhood. 

Outside of class struggle, it is generally far easier to arrange boycotts, protests, demonstrations, and other forms of political engagement with a group that is in community with each other. 

People are less likely to trust events that are not organized by someone they are familiar with, and people who are curious about activism do not often attend protests alone. By community building, more people are likely to interact with activism out of the familiarity of the people attending and organizing the event/demonstration they are attending. 

It's often overlooked how far a familiar face can go when it comes to activism. Most people’s first interaction with struggle, whether it be class struggle, racial struggle, or gender-based oppression, will come from interacting with their own neighborhood.

In order to begin finding solutions for large-scale problems, we must first find it in our hearts to have some compassion for each other within our day-to-day lives.