& lt Lonely Man > What is the main point of this book? Is there an e-book txt download for this book?

There is a book called Lonely Man, which is a sociological work to study the development pattern of American society after World War II. This book tells about the changes brought by highways, television and suburbanization to American society, the changes of American character, the disintegration trend of families and communities and the prosperity of mass media. Wait a minute. Because this is an academic work, I don't think many people have read it, but the word "lonely man" has undoubtedly entered the vocabulary of contemporary culture, which shows that the social form it analyzes does exist. It exists not only in American society, but also in any society with rapid economic development. It exists not only in the real world, but also in a looming illusory field, that is, the Internet.

loner

loner

-reprinted in the Economic Observer

Author: Qin

Conceptualized language can't present the great anxiety and loneliness around us.

Everyone is deeply lonely: migrant workers and their wives who stay at home, urban vagrants, intellectuals, office workers, old people with children in other places, shopkeepers, officials who try to make a difference, and businessmen who stay out at night. ...

This kind of anxiety and loneliness look very different, economic conditions, life trajectory, description language, dreams.

But anxiety and loneliness are so similar. This huge and weak anxiety actually has the same form. Everyone is driven by some "noble" goal, so that those who are content with the status quo have to defend their complacency.

Since the disintegration of the late Qing Dynasty, the people of China have been liberated from their families, clans and dynasties. For more than a century, they have been driven by lofty goals and high enthusiasm-strengthening the country, reunification and development ... but in the past 20 years, these goals have become so personal for the first time, and they are no longer affiliated with a long-term cause.

There is no longer an overwhelming, safe, completely correct, great and all-encompassing goal, which once made countless people outside China engage in absurd work with incomprehensible passion.

After a long evolution, the romantic collective goal has lost its original credibility and gradually been replaced by highly differentiated and personalized pursuits and plans. This pursuit and plan may be a villa and a BMW, or a constantly updated sexual partner, or a successful child education. Those who miss collectivism feel at a loss. Those of them who can't set short-term goals for themselves, such as a shopkeeper in Heping, Beijing, submit themselves to the "mechanical state of daily life".

This nostalgia for the past can also be used to explain China people's habitual concern for national and world affairs. The reading volume and ratings of Reference News and News Network have left most American media behind. In 2005, the circulation of Reference News ranked eighth among the major daily newspapers in the world. Even during the SARS epidemic in 2003, the circulation of many newspapers plummeted, but it and circulation were hardly affected. An English reporter told me that his most surprising experience was in a remote village in Shanxi. When he was introduced to an old farmer, the other person nodded and praised him: "The British Times, well, this newspaper is very famous."

However, even this habit, which once linked the whole society, is gradually disintegrating.

Also in 2003, CCTV had to revise News Network, reduce regular meeting reports and increase people's livelihood information, which proved to be popular. Similarly, the contents of culture, life, science and technology in reference news are also increasing.

For the new generation who have no memory of the average and homogeneous collectivism era, it is much easier to adapt to individual isolation. Like those elders who quickly adapt to the trend, they chose the Internet. In a report of China Academy of Social Sciences in 2003, researchers found that young Internet users have higher life satisfaction than non-users and do not feel lonely. The longer teenagers spend online, the less lonely they will feel. 65% of teenagers choose the Internet "to meet the needs of communication".

It is conceivable that this proportion will continue to rise with the increase of the number of netizens in the future. At the same time, distrust of the Internet is also decreasing.

We also need to know what role the Internet has played. Does it increase or decrease the social interaction of netizens? Can it completely replace this social interaction? As described in E.M. Foster's novel Machine Stop, 1983, will the future of machines devouring people come? Or, instead of devouring people, the Internet has promoted and created new connections in this divided society?

Loneliness, deeper loneliness, does not seem to be disintegrated by family gatherings. Most people's social networks are inflexible-classmates, relatives and colleagues create so-called "circles". In a society where credit and resources are scarce, it is not easy to break the isolation between circles. Rigid circles have a great influence on individuals' thinking, interests, emotions and development opportunities. They silently maintain closed zero-sum thinking in an open society.

What on earth caused our loneliness today? Is it history, current rules or the inevitable result of urbanization?

The discussion of "public space", from the college to the media, and then to the seminar of real estate developers, has proved the universality of this loneliness. Everyone is saying: We need an open public space.

What is public space? The lengthy definition of this word may distort its broad scope. It may be the shadow of a big banyan tree in the middle of the village, it may be a cafe, or it may be a newspaper or magazine, but it is not just these things. It is similar to Habermas's "public sphere", which is a dialogic concept, that is, an individual concept based on mutual dialogue gathered in a * * * enjoyment space as equal participants face to face. We believe that this space must be formed spontaneously from the bottom up, not the other way around. The one-way communication of traditional media makes this task impossible. What they created was what Habermas called "false propaganda".

The advantages and disadvantages of the Internet are as obvious. Words and pictures cannot replace all expressions, nor can they replace a person's smell, appearance and body language; The speaker only appears in the form of words and pictures, and may be deleted by the moderator at any time. Just making such a speech, it is difficult for him to cultivate enough self-confidence and sense of responsibility-the latter is particularly important, because in an ideal field, citizens can cultivate deep self-confidence and sense of social responsibility, which is what our lonely and restless society lacks. Each of us feels powerless because he has no chance and power to change social rules-he can't even ask to change the property management company in his community.

The sense of powerlessness also creates the crazy pursuit of material things. A businessman said, "In this risky society, only making a lot of money can give me a sense of security." But at the same time, the increasingly divided society is also creating anxiety for the rich. In addition, various consumer places have once again turned public space into a closed circle.

But this is still a vibrant society. Between expensive and secret clubs and dirty and crowded street parks, there are plants that we can't see growing. "Turn off the lights and lie down and sleep in the dark; Wake up, turn on the light and make the room bright; Eat something, chat with friends for a while, listen to music and lectures; Turn off the light and lie down and sleep in the dark. " This is not the whole of life, but also includes an open library, a brand-new neighborhood Committee, and a free community ... Everything we can imagine will enable us to participate in group life on an equal basis while maintaining personal freedom.

Farewell, escape

So far, we seldom discuss the obvious escape tendency of internal directors. On the contrary, we mainly discuss popular culture and regard it as an effective way to cultivate the herd mentality of individual groups and guide consumption orientation. For others, this is a very serious problem. Regardless of its external performance, we can see that the guidance of others seems to be unable to escape from ourselves and waste time in a rich or indulgent way. Of course, if compared with fugitives who drown their sorrows in wine, the result will be different.

Under the influence of Puritanism, the inner director is unwilling to waste time. In order to show their inner guiding character, aspiring young people from the lower classes do not associate with playboys who drink too much and gamble on horses, and conduct self-examination every day to get rid of bad habits such as root fees and laziness. They almost never enjoy themselves unless they think that entertainment will help them change themselves. Therefore, their lives are bound to be very tense and they have no leisure for a moment. Other people's guides have never had such a strong puritanical thought. He doesn't care about wasting time. His clothes, words and deeds, and ethics are all casual. However, in his leisure life, there is inevitably the power of Puritanism. When he wants to take a vacation or relax on weekends, he may say, "I can spend my time freely", but in fact, his ego is like a car or a house, which must be carefully maintained to sell at a good price. Others-oriented people have no clear self-core to escape, no clear boundaries between production and consumption, no clear boundaries between conforming to the interests of groups and serving individuals, and no clear boundaries between work and entertainment.

An interesting fact can illustrate this point. Nowadays, people (especially men) are not used to wearing evening dresses, and some even wear sportswear to work. This seems to be a fanaticism about the principle of labor saving. Men will say that wearing a suit to work is really troublesome, and use it as an excuse not to change for dinner or at night. Today, most people simply don't know how to change their roles, let alone change their roles by putting on appropriate clothes. Another possible reason is that people are very afraid of being considered arrogant. People would rather wear flashy clothes than straight ones. Sportswear or casual wear can show that this person is not only an easy-going person on golf courses and holidays, but also easy to get along with in offices and dinners.

Women still wear evening dresses, which may indicate that they are slow to respond to changes in social patterns. They are more susceptible to popular consumption patterns than men. Men talk about work when they go to work, while women are more concerned about housework, taking care of children and attending parties. Besides, in order to win the favor of husbands who go out to work all day, women always try to do all the housework well. I found that women's topics are nothing more than children and housework (of course, the topics are not limited to these two categories). The change of male roles blurs the boundary between work and leisure, but unlike Seven Days of Solitude, they can be more skillful, interested and realistic in conversation.

What drives men not only to talk to people during working hours and solve problems during the day, but also to talk to people urgently in their spare time? Perhaps this is like the fear and loneliness shown by bandit film science, and fear leads to psychological tension. Pop culture can not only fill the distance between people, eliminate people's loneliness through conversation and promote people's communication, but also is not only a way to kill time, it has been recognized by peer groups. On the other hand, other-oriented women will go to the movies together. They don't have to talk to each other during the screening. They just face the question, should they cry when they see sadness? What kind of response is appropriate and mature in this case? When they come out of the cinema, they always feel that they should be infected, but they don't know how to express their emotions.

On the contrary, the inner director reads a book alone and pays little attention to other people's attitudes towards himself. Not only that, he also entered the role in the book, integrated with the plot of the novel, and then walked out of the story and put on the mask again. Just like several people gathering in the back room to play poker, all wearing masks, this situation seems more suitable for internal directors, who are used to social distance and even loneliness. Another person who is oriented by others has a deep fear of loneliness and tries to eliminate the fear of loneliness in the crowd and fantasy. This is like a mirror, which only reflects his concern for himself.