Does loneliness threaten democracy? Charities warn of a mental health 'time bomb' as lockdown drives soaring levels of alienation leading to a surge in angry populism and social breakdown.
Society on the brink as second lockdown looms
Does loneliness threaten democracy? Charities warn of a mental health 'time bomb' as lockdown drives soaring levels of alienation leading to a surge in angry populism and social breakdown.
Age UK says it has seen an "unprecedented" 88% rise in calls and emails from lonely pensioners since March.
And Childline has had 3,168 calls from anxious and abused children since April.
Experts said the country faces a mental health crisis that could cost lives - then Samaritans say they are getting more than 600 covid-relatedNational organisations working to tackle loneliness and build social connections have been invited to apply for a share in a 5m Loneliness Covid-19 Grant Fund allocated by the government calls per day.
Age UK says that further lockdowns will leave the elderly more isolated. A new study by the charity found 2.9m over-70s say their mental health has already suffered.
"They're worried about their health if they go out, and crushed by loneliness if they stay home. It's going to be a long, tough winter."
Experts have long warned that loneliness affects both mental and physical health - increasing the chance of strokes, heart disease and dementia.
But now there is mounting evidence that it can also damage social cohesion and democracy.
It was Hannah Arendt - one of the titans of 20th-century thought - who first wrote about the link between loneliness and the politics of intolerance.
As a young Jew, Arendt fled Germany in 1933. After the war, she devoted herself to making sense of why the country had descended into barbarism. In 1951 she published The Origins of Totalitarianism.
It is a wide-ranging book, encompassing the rise of anti-Semitism, the role of propaganda and imperialism's fusion of racism and bureaucracy. But at the end, she turns to what appears to be a surprising factor: loneliness.
Noreena Hertz, author of a new book, The Lonely Century, argues that in a world reshaped by globalisation, automation, austerity, and most recently by the coronavirus and an ongoing economic downturn, loneliness also encompasses feeling excluded from society's gains, and feeling unsupported, powerless, invisible and voiceless.
"This combination of personal and political isolation helps to explain not only why levels of loneliness are so high globally today but also why loneliness and politics have in recent years become so closely linked."
Hertz points out that a 2016 poll by the Centre for the Study of Elections and Democracy revealed Donald Trump voters to be significantly more likely to report having fewer close friends, fewer acquaintances and to spend fewer hours a week with both than supporters of either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.
<h5 class="eplus-CaZhpr">So, is she right? Does loneliness fuel <span class="wordwatch">populism and threaten to undermine democracy?</span></h5>
Yes. Think of Trump's rallying cry that "The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer" or Marine Le Pen's oath to serve "a forgotten France, a France abandoned by the self-appointed elite". It's an appeal that resonates most strongly with those who feel newly forgotten and abandoned.
No. Even if there is clearly a correlationA connection between two things in which one thing changes as the other does, but it is not necessarily the case that one thing has caused the other to change. between the growth of right-wing populist politicians and the increase in levels of global loneliness, this does not imply causation. Although worldwide levels of loneliness and right-wing populismA type of politics that claims to represent the common people in the fight against a powerful and "elite" establishment. may have grown concurrently, that does not prove that one has caused the other.
Covid-related - National organisations working to tackle loneliness and build social connections have been invited to apply for a share in a 5m Loneliness Covid-19 Grant Fund allocated by the government
Correlation - A connection between two things in which one thing changes as the other does, but it is not necessarily the case that one thing has caused the other to change.
Populism - A type of politics that claims to represent the common people in the fight against a powerful and "elite" establishment.
Society on the brink as second lockdown looms

Glossary
Covid-related - National organisations working to tackle loneliness and build social connections have been invited to apply for a share in a 5m Loneliness Covid-19 Grant Fund allocated by the government
Correlation - A connection between two things in which one thing changes as the other does, but it is not necessarily the case that one thing has caused the other to change.
Populism - A type of politics that claims to represent the common people in the fight against a powerful and "elite" establishment.