From the "epidemic of unity" to the social distance ... the history of the isolation of modern man

When the British academic and professor of social history David Vincent wrote his book "History of Solitude", he had no idea that it would be published in 2020 in conjunction with the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, which imposed on hundreds of millions of people a kind of self-isolation, as part of the measures to prevent and prevent the spread of the emerging virus.

Driven by his fears of a growing "pandemic of unity", Vincent has been trying to chronicle the evolution of isolation over the past three centuries from his country house near British Wales, exploring how people behaved in the absence of companionship and social companionship.

In his book, which is a complete account of the history of contemporary isolation, Vincent said that the intellectuals in the European romantic era - characterized by caring for feelings, emotions and imagination - were seeing unity as a period of comfort for citizens living in modern and complex societies, and while unity was seen as a characteristic of modern life, it was considered Also a serious illness that may lead to mental disorder and anti-social behavior.

This contradictory nature of isolation has become a major concern in the modern era with the emergence of the so-called epidemic of unity. This is why studying the history of man’s desire to isolate and separate from the world has become a more important topic today than ever before.

Dread of loneliness
In his book, Vincent is exposed to the concept of unity and panic about the so-called "epidemic of unity", which he sees as a failed isolation, reviewing the rapid growth in the number of people who choose to live alone since World War II because they wanted to enjoy the benefits of isolation, and this became possible after the improvement of living standards, housing conditions and communications It is likely that the pain of acute loneliness is due to deprivation and lack of social and health services and not because of loneliness itself.

Vincent focuses on British society, and notes that hobbies such as hunting and embroidery, orchard care, amusement, crossword puzzles, stamp collecting, collecting pet and others, express the people's familiarity with life on their own, while the digital revolution represents the climax of the search for social sociability and physical isolation.

Vincent says that many choose to be connected to others via the Internet in an optional and immediate manner while still living alone, and believes that the smartphone allowed the individual to be absent and present with his companion at the same time, and that is the culmination of a long journey of development through correspondence, printing, phone, films and television.

For the Enlightenment in the 18th century, the existence of a human being was a deviation from the natural instinct of humans that was supposed to be social in its essence, but in the romantic era this idea changed in the western world, and the feeling of loneliness became a feature of the modern era, and it represented a kind of spiritual contemplation and self-knowledge And explore what is missing from the material community.

However, this was not easily available for economic reasons, as the single private room was a kind of luxury not enjoyed by many in British society at the time, but with the increase in urbanization and the loss of the nature of large extended families and the division of labor, this became possible and more available.

According to a study prepared by the British Journal of Psychology, the more intelligent a person prefers isolation, not because he despises others, but simply because they do not excite him socially.

What researchers think today is what makes people happy, such as friendship or social interaction, mainly related to the habits and roots they inherited from their ancestors.

On the other hand, the character who is looking for evolution far from what we inherited from our ancestors is more intelligent than others.

They also believe that survival has nothing to do with our social presence, especially since socialization is an option and not an obligation.

Religion and prisons
Vincent studies the relationship of Christian monasticism with the development of a vision of loneliness, and analyzes the correctional prison pattern and solitary confinement in the 19th century, which considered a punishment that included rehabilitation for a prisoner by keeping the prisoner alone in a cell and following up by the prison priest.

He believes that the experiment failed in the end, however, solitary confinement remained not because of the pursuit of reform and refinement but rather for the failure to provide safe and human conditions in prisons.

Vincent analyzes the tradition of Christian monasticism and spiritual isolation within walled societies, while societies outside the walls live a consumerist and modernist life, comparing them with the silent “secular” mental meditation that finds its roots in Christian monasticism and Buddhism.

Vincent was not the only writer to study the history of isolation. His book coincided with the work of British historian Faye Pound Alberti, who in her recent book "Biography of Solitude: The History of Passion" examined examples of literary and research works dealing with loneliness and its physical and psychological dependencies and treatments.

Alberti blames the modern lifestyle for causing this increasing loneliness, and considers that drowning in social media posts of people we often do not know constitutes a kind of loss in a world that is more individualistic and avoids feeling the suffering of others or pretends not to see them.

Clothes and fashion
In the 19th century, maintaining a separation distance - similar to the social distance advised to avoid infection with the emerging coronavirus - was a European tradition, especially between sexes, classes, and races, and traditions required adherence to it in social gatherings and public life.

Social exclusion had nothing to do with isolation or health; however, it did express the rules of taste and class, and women wore "grenol" or mega skirt as a fashionable attire in the mid-19th century to create a gender barrier in social events, according to the academy of the American Reserve University Enav Rabinovich-Fox.

The origins of this trend can be traced to the Spanish royal court in the 15th century before these huge skirts turned into a sign of high class and fine taste in the 18th century, as only women who enjoyed the privileges to avoid domestic chores wore it and lived in houses or palaces with enough space to be able to move. Comfortably from room to room with a maid to help wear it, the sheer size of the skirt reflects social sophistication, according to a Fox article in the website.

But the isolation of man in the present time does not seem a sign of class and taste, but rather an effect of the increasingly accelerated modern lifestyle, which has been exacerbated by quarantine measures due to the outbreak of the Corona pandemic this year around the world.