spit out and cut off..

[undergroundpanther]

Among the most excruciating suffering one can endure is social death. Historically, in tribal cultures, being cut off or shunned was a death sentence. Social death, especially when it covers both interpersonal and occupational domains, is something we may be evolutionarily prepared to experience as highly traumatic.

As family and tribal social structures erode and fewer individuals compose the typical social network, social death occurs more readily. Loneliness and isolation are on the rise (see news article). A national survey conducted by the University of Chicago found that the average size of each individual’s close friend network shrunk by 30% during the past two decades, and 25% now say they have no one to confide in (compared to 10% in 1950). For many, their spouse or partner is their only confidant, making divorce especially difficult.

http://wakingheart.com/2009/12/spit-out-and-cut-off/

[hunter]

1. Social death makes you a better consumer unit.

Buy some stuff. It'll fill that emptiness.

[rrneck]

2. Yep.

Retail therapy. That't the ticket.

[SpiralHawk]

3. Try TeaBagging Therapy

Allow yourself to be manipulated by corporate republicon media, and gain lots of special new 'friends'

[snappyturtle]

4. I read the entire article. I am in a place where I have been socially

cut off. Long story. Thanks so much for posting this piece. Wish I could have read this months ago. I'm now readying for the final stage of divorce and a move across country. Believe me I couldn't disagree more with the above posters. A solution is far more complicated than consuming stuff and seeking 'friends' in unlikely networks.

[hunter]

5. I'm sorry you've been ejected.

I was being sarcastic.

I believe natural social networks are deliberately broken up by the ruling classes.

Consumerism -- work, work, work, buy buy buy -- fills the void. That's the way the people on the top want it to be. The wage slaves on the bottom of the pyramid are kept hungry in a perpetual state of social disconnect and insecurity.