Sep 9, 2006 8:30:35 PM cite

Hey there Nadja. It is kind of funny you are asking that. I thought like that too last year (2005). People started to open my eyes about how much God loves me, and i started a personal relationship with Him. Life makes sense now and has been awesome ever since. God opend my eyes and gave me an answer to most of my problems, and feeling lonely is not an issue anymore. ;) God bless your Heart. Take care

by Arian Hakim

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva: Because people are disconnected, very disconnected. It begins after our birth. When the child is born and parents have no time to grow up it they give it to... or it stays alone. People are disconnected, people have much emotions, this greed and this competition, you know. They see in another person an enemy, you know. But why don´t you try to make enemy to your friend? As in childhood You can return in your childhood because children believe, they believe people, they believe their mothers, they believe teachers and friends, you know. And sometimes they are fighting, but after that they become better, closer friends because they clear the situation and their positions. If people have an accident or unpleasant things in your life because life is very complicated they "close" themselves off, they have so much fear and they close themselves off. And I think people must open themselves, they must open out. Because there is love - love around you. And how much love you give so much love you receive back. It´s a law, it´s a law of light. And light is inside people. How much love or light you give you get more back, because you, you alone give your light to many people and a lot of people give it you back. It´s a principle of my life. I am very happy because, I am very happy because I get support from people´s good wishes to me. And I can work, I can do my job more positively and with more love.

by Antoschka - Ekaterina Moshaeva

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Abbas Beydoun: I just would like to say a verse I have composed. The verse is: „I live surrounded by all of those who made me alone".

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: I think that being alone is the natural condition of a human being, we all are alone. We all are lonely and we have to learn to be alone. I think that each of us has to confront its life and death alone. We should stop being afraid of being alone. We should get prepared from our childhood on to be alone and we should get prepared for the death too. We feel united in loneliness, we are afraid of being alone and we are not able to be alone with ourselves. Loneliness is tragedy for us. I think that there is no higher privilege than being able to enjoy loneliness, being able to be alone with itself. Furthermore, we should learn to prepare ourselves for the process of our own destruction, for the death. It is common to talk about loneliness in a crowded place. We should appreciate loneliness as a gift, as a gift of stregth and not as tragedy. Here we are talking all together in this big event and still we are alone, infinitely alone.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea: I think when a person has ideas in his mind and wants to change something you can compare this to the situation of a mother: her life will change and having a child means she lives and fights for it; a mother doesn't feel alone. This shows that we feel alone when we are empty on the inside. We won't feel alone if we are not empty on the inside. To overcome this emptyness we should unite and do something social.Let's join an organisation, let's do something in the field of solidarity, let's join something which will transform us in a way that we feel useful for ourselves and for humanity.

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Nadya, I think - I think we as a civilization, as a global civilization, have evolved into this idea of singularity. We’ve lost our sense of community. So the more people that move into the cities, the more isolated we become. We lose our sense of traditional community. We lose the - we’ve lost the idea that we are an independent and co-dependent entity. So, the irony is that the more congested we become, the more fraught we become. The traditional nuclear family has completely lost this idea that it belongs to the traditional collective family. Where in a community of people we can belong, but instead in a larger community of people the space conflates, contracts, and we become isolated from one another. I think this is the reality of contemporary life. We’re nervous, we’re afraid, we’re neurotic. Our collective spaces are fraught.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: Answertext will be available soon.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: I think the question of aloneness doesn’t need to be linked to the question of the fact that there are so many people in the world that you can only understand isolation today in terms of social circumstances that produce isolation, that produce feelings of alienation. We have a society that deliberately tries to atomize people, deliberately tries to isolate people, and deliberately tries to make people feel that they are alone. That does so as a means of social control; that does so as a means of limiting the kinds of collectivities, the kinds of organization that could bring about social change, that could bring about social transformation and the alienation is very much linked to the conditions of labor, to the conditions of the reproduction of labor in our society. So, really, if we want to feel part of a collectivity, part of a greater global community, the first step we can take is to challenge the ideologies that encourage that feeling of atomization, isolation. But, more importantly practically to find ways of connecting even small collectivities that can become a part of challenging that process of atomization, challenging those conditions of alienation, challenging the ideologies of our society that lead us to believe we are crazy for thinking that this world is unjust, for thinking that there must be a better way of organizing our societies, thinking that there must be a better way of being in this world.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala: It is, I think, that we have egos and that is why we feel that if we live with egos—we love to live with egos-- that is why we always feel alone.

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: I think we feel alone because we come alone into this world and we go alone. But the question that I’ve grappled with is that when we have so many people, why are we lonely? Why are we lonely? And I think it’s because of the fragmentation of our communities, because of this materialistic consumer world that we live in, where instead of human beings, we turn into consumers; that we are of value only when we are buying. So, given that, when we are disconnecting from our families, from our communities, from the environment, from nature, from our religion, from our faith, from our courage, from our belief system, yes, it gets very lonely.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: And this excellent question [makes] upon a theme that we’ve seen over and over, like loneliness in a crowd. And that loneliness goes right back to the isolated ego. That when we make ourselves and live in an ego culture, we separate ourselves off connectivity. And that theme has echoed through all of my responses to these 100 co-questions. And we are at 98 now. That when we are in the ego way of being a human, we’re in a deeply, lonely, and isolated place. And you can be surrounded by millions and billions of people around us and still, we are in an isolated artificial shell of separation and loneliness. So, we can be lonely in a crowd. Whereas people have thought us, our great wisdom traditions, that when we break the ego barrier and discover our humanity and connectivity, that we are dialogic beings. That I am already in the other and the other is within me and that this incredible breakthrough of the ego barrier into connectivity. We overcome that isolation and loneliness and separation and find deep connectivity and camaraderie and community in our very selves. So being alone is never being lonely. It is always being connected and interconnected. And that really is the irony of this question that notices that when we are surrounded by so many people, we can be and feel deeply alone and isolated, which is a very deep global truth.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: One's sense of loneliness and isolation really comes from the intimacy and connectivity that you feel to others. So that if you don't feel intimacy with the people you are with, you would feel alone even though you're surrounded by many. There are people who grow up in large families and feel very alone because they don't feel the heart-to-heart connection, the intimacy, with the people that surround them. So they feel very alienated. Intimacy requires some heart-to-heart connection, the sharing of yourself with another, and the sharing of the other with you in ways that are authentic, in ways that are honest , in ways that reinforce trust, that allows you to open up with each other. So it is this kind of intimate connection that takes us out of our feelings of isolation and loneliness and helps us to feel this profound connection, meaningful connection, valuable connection that ultimately comes from hearts that are able to love each other, nurture each other, to pay attention to each other, to listen to each other, and to be present for each other. Not just to be there, as for example, responsible parents who in fulfilling their responsibility work hard but are absent from the lives of children and will be able to put food and clothing, which are essential in meeting the child's needs, but also must not neglect the needs of the child to be heard, to feel loved, to feel paid attention to. So these are other qualities that make life and living very important.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Avi Primor:

by Avi Primor

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: We are so many people. In the beginning, we were connected and then we’re born into this body. If we realize that we are so much more than this body, in this flesh, that the truth is that we are existence, knowledge and bliss. That we were never born or we shall never die; I’m not this body, I’m not this mind. If we come to this realization that we are much more than this body and this person, now we were actually together then we can realize and be enlightened, be lighter, we can be enlightened about not being alone. And though we might be alone in a room, or in a plaza with the million people, or the internet with millions of people. We’re never really alone because even though we’re separated, we’re connected to the divine. In this world, we’re ruled by the three Gunas, the illusions of Maya: Sattwa, Rajas, and Tamas. And that while we are limited to this perception, we can also break free from this perception and see that we are all connected. We can be in a circle holding hands and feel the support and feel togetherness, we can turn around, hold our hands again, and be facing until the opposite directions. We still feel the support of the circle. Likewise, as we radiate out into the world, we can still feel the support of the circle, if not we will be very much alone in our worlds and in our own paths. This is the way that our world structure that reinforces us being alone and being an individual, that’s why we feel so alone, let’s continually reinforced.

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: I think the answer to this question is that we - post-modern [inaudible] times are forcing us to disconnect with each other. We don't have any time to be with our neighbors or our friends. We're in the era of interruption. We in the era of obstruction, of getting in our own cocoon, in our own – of creating our own reality. And this just really disconnecting people, disconnecting friends, disconnecting people. We don't have any time any more to interact, or to connect with others. So, this is what really, at the end over the days, you know it create a feeling that you're alone. Even if you see so many people around, what do we share? What do we have in common? You know these are the questions that came up in this regards. But there's an existential dimension to this - to the answer to this question. And is that the feeling that some people born with the feeling that they're empty. That they need to fulfill that emptiness. And they seek over the life for things how to fulfill that loneliness. And on the other hand, there are people that born with that feeling that they're full and that they need to empty theirself. So I think in the way we're connected, we can really bring these existential and, the can - structure a condition that creating this sense of loneliness to a place where connected we can really compliment with each other, and really can build relations that can fulfill and that create possibilities to be more connected.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: I was pleased to meet many years Jacque Attali who’s a friend and patron of micro-finance. And he had written something which I found very interesting about utopias and the spirit of the French tricolor he said, some people’s idea of utopia is where everyone has liberty, and some people’s ideas of utopia is where everyone is equal, there’s equal opportunities say, but a society where one has liberty and equality still leaves us feeling alone because what people want and I think of what a more mature version of a utopia would be is where people feel comradeship or brotherhood, "fraternite" in the French. So I think the reason we feel so alone is because we don’t feel this sense of brotherhood. The world in which we live, the focus on consuming and all the things that the capitalist system brings us is not a sufficient focus on fraternity, on brotherhood that our souls are nurtured. And that’s what we need. It’s a more spiritual focus that we need to feel like we’re not so alone.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: Human being feels as lonelier as more people surround him/her, this is understandable paradox. There are some weirdoes which are ready to spend whole life alone, sometimes guided by certain constructive idea. However most of the people, even those who are creative and full of vacations, feel at most comfortable in small groups, the big world is not made out of an individual, but from many small worlds similarly to the universal systems.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 6:05:00 PM cite

Brian J. Weller: The feeling of aloneness is not a function of how many people there are around us. It’s actually a qualitative issue about how we are within ourselves. If you think about it from another perspective, as individuals we’re like waves on an ocean and we appear to be very separate, very alone. But actually when you look inside, the waves are simply the movement of the ocean and the ocean is our collective awareness, our collective soul. That is the sense of self that we’re really reaching for and that’s where our true connectiveness is, and that’s when we cease to feel alone. So, this wonderful paradox in life is that we’re both alone and we’re both connected. It’s a matter of where our attention is and where our sense of perspective is. Once again, to feel that sense of connectiveness is principally what? It’s through the heart and you know it’s through love. It’s through stepping beyond the mind. The mind by nature is comparative. It’s by nature divisive. It’s by nature compartmentalizing, cutting reality. The heart is the appreciator of wholeness. So, in a sense, that to come back to connectiveness it really is about reaching into the love deep in our hearts. So, why do we feel so alone? Because we’re not in touch with our quality. Anything else I can say about that, yeah, aloneness is a real – it’s an expression of our sense of separateness and it’s fear-inducing, and the behavior that comes from that does not serve us now. So, I think this is a great question. This really points us to, I think, one of the core issues of our time. Here we are in this great city full of people. Do we really feel connected with each other? That’s the question, and I think the answer is often not.

by Brian J. Weller