One of the things that people complain about is loneliness, disconnectedness. If you live in a society where your life is rarely threatened and most of your relationships are more on an economic exchange basis, then this could leave people feeling less connected.
Interpretation
Loneliness arises from shallow connections and a secure environment, leading to feelings of disconnection.
In this quote, Steven Pinker highlights the issue of loneliness that can occur in modern society. He suggests that when individuals live in a safe environment where their lives are not at risk and their relationships are primarily transactional, they may experience a sense of disconnection from others. This underscores the importance of deeper, meaningful relationships in fostering a sense of community and emotional well-being.
In practice
During a mental health awareness talk, to emphasize the need for deeper relationships.
The foundation of individual rights is the assumption that people have wants and needs and are authorities on what those wants and needs are. If people's stated desires were just some kind of erasable inscription or reprogrammable brainwashing, any atrocity could be justified.
The linguistic clumsiness of tourists and students might be the price we pay for the linguistic genius we displayed as babies, just as the decrepitude of age in the price we pay for the vigor of youth.
If we are not to abandon values such as peace and equality, or our commitments to science and truth, then we must pry these values away from claims about our psychological makeup that are vulnerable to being proven false.
We adults protect ourselves with laws, police, workplace regulations and social norms and there is no conceivable reason why children should be left more vulnerable, other that laziness or callousness in considering what life is like from their point of view.
The idea that children are passive repositories to be shaped by their parents has been massively overstated. A child's peer group is a far greater determinant of its development and achievements than parental aspiration.
Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.
A man looks pretty small at a wedding, George. All those good women standing shoulder to shoulder, making sure that the knot's tied in a mighty public way.
Eroticism thrives in the space between the self and the other.
Anybody who doesn't make you feel good, kick them to the curb. And the earlier you start in your life, the better.
It was common enough, to see so much death and want a child. Common, therefore human, and he wanted it all the more. When the wounded were screaming, you dreamed of sharing a little house somewhere, of an ordinary life, a family line, connection.
Getting people to like you is merely the other side of liking them.
I wish I’d a knowed more people. I would of loved ‘em all. If I’d a knowed more, I would a loved more
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