This is, of course, not a new phenomenon. “Bowling Alone” was written decades ago, and that’s like the seminal work on this…
But yeah. For a lot of people here, this probably holds true, in particular for things like online forums or specific gaming “communities”, LAN parties (yeah I know, old school) and the like…
I too, remember those heady days (Halo, mostly, for me. But there was some strategy gaming there, too).
MMORPGs can of course be good, too, but it’s so much more… Controlled, and sanitized, and frankly not the same…
But anyway, I’m more thinking IRL stuff, here.
Tomorrow (Easter Sunday) is the very last day ever for one of the largest community markets in my nearest city. The market has been going for 120 years, and the building it is in is probably at least 70 years old.
The market is pretty much the only weekly outing for many of the older stallholders and attendees, many of whom travel in from surrounding country towns. It is an institution.
Why is it “closing”..? Not because the market is running at a loss. Not because it has “declined”. No, the only reason is because the community entity that owns the site (showground, same as it is in most countries with Ag Shows. Not a private company, but a trust) is so greedy that they want to turf the site over to property developers, to turn into more low-quality, cheap housing, to fill with more (subcontinental and Chinese) immigrants…
Well, that’s what they’re arguing, anyway. In reality, they already sold off much of this (17ha) site, 5-10 years ago, ostensibly for housing and “community benefit”, only for it to be filled with big box retailers…
How is this possible? Because the CEO, effectively, of this trust, is a corrupt former public servant, who has “friends” in both major political parties…
He has been at this for a decade, with “bipartisan support”.
And politically, arguing against housing is a losing sum game, no matter what the true logic behind the development may be…
So the community loses out. Literally over 200 stallholders lose their income source, and the thousands of people, mostly old and/or lower income, who went there to buy stuff they needed, lose out completely. All because of greed, and so-called “progress”…
This happens all the time. All the fucking time. The local council for the area this is in are notoriously corrupt, and have a record of terrible decision-making.
But it’s much more broad than that. I’m sure most of us know of local sports clubs (leftists seem to really, really hate golf, car racing, tennis and rugby league, in particular), markets, bowling alleys, churches, community clubs, whatever, which have been destroyed in a similar way.
In Australia, at least, it’s almost always the same process.
“But don’t worry citizen - go support the local big-league sportsball team! Who cares if tickets are $50 a game - that’s all the community you’re allowed to have!”
Or join this “rally”. Or go to this shiny new store.
Real community, though? Nah, can’t have that. People gathering together and exchanging goods, or even just sharing an interest - that’s too dangerous. Better shut it down. They might get too many “ideas”…
Not sure how much this “phenomenon” exists outside the wealthy, developed West, but I know it’s a thing across many of our countries, not just the Anglosphere…
No wonder people feel so alone, especially the elderly…
Historically speaking, 'peace' is usually found unwillingly. Not by cheerful pacifist hippies meditating, but by broken bankrupt states at war, forced into it. It doesn't make the peace worth any less.
In the face of the 'end stage despair' you mentioned: try roleplaying as a dead man. Just say 'I'm a dead man' and lie there, let everything die. Actually saying it helps. Imagine what happens to the world with you as an unremarkable dead man, one of many sandwiched by countless other dead men dying yesterday and tomorrow; imagine what happens when all the fears and doubts crushing you no longer have you as their load-bearing point, since you're dead and gone. How worthless they all become.
Then realise you can attain this state without physically dying at all. I'm loosely describing a route to ego death, which I once went through myself at my lowest ebb. I'm very happy to now still be alive, despite not being a penny richer nor more cherished to anyone. It's not required.
The route back to vitality involves purpose, cf somehands10's post, and that's a harder garment to knit, but you need to be alive to start with.
Your consciousness is your weapon. Your masculinity is a treasure, getting rarer by the day in clownworld. Do not give it up needlessly. We'll all be something else, some day, but seconds count. Nobody will celebrate your death but your enemies; only you while alive know how to celebrate your life.