
What is at the root of the mass shootings and culture of gun violence that plagues the United States?
In our modern society, loneliness has become an almost inevitable part of life due to the current social and economic structures. People often live close to each other yet remain strangers, knowing little about their neighbors’ lives, struggles, and triumphs. This detachment from each other’s stories contributes to a feeling of isolation. Historically, human well-being relied on close-knit communities and mutual dependence, but today, monetary transactions replace genuine connections, leaving people feeling disconnected and alone.
Our economic system, which increasingly prioritizes money over relationships, exacerbates this loneliness. Monetary transactions are transactional and devoid of the relational bonds that gifts create. When all interactions are mediated by money, the sense of connection diminishes. Moreover, humans have an intrinsic need to be useful and contribute to something meaningful. Many people find themselves in jobs that, despite being indispensable to their companies, lack personal fulfillment and fail to align with their deeper purpose.
The solution lies not in finding irreplaceable work but in aligning one’s life energy with meaningful endeavors. Seeing life as a gift and recognizing the importance of both giving and receiving can transform our sense of purpose. This perspective shift allows individuals to feel valued and connected, even if their work seems humble. True fulfillment comes from contributing to causes one believes in and feeling necessary to the manifestation of those causes on Earth.
To break free from loneliness, one must embrace the concept of life as a gift. This orientation towards giving and receiving fosters deep connections with others and the world. Understanding that we are inherently dependent on each other and the environment, despite the illusion of financial independence, can help cultivate a sense of community and belonging. By recognizing the interdependence and embracing the gift of life, individuals can overcome loneliness and build meaningful, fulfilling relationships.
Loneliness is almost baked into the cake as far as a modern society with the kind of social setup and infrastructure and economic system that we have today.
The people you look at everyday, the people in the house across the street even may not be people that you know, or maybe at most you know their name but you don’t know their story, you don’t know where they came from, the hardships and triumphs of their life. We are not involved in each other’s stories anymore. And we also don’t depend on each other in the way that most people did for most of human history when your well being depended on the health and gifts of the people around you.
Gifts create relationships whereas a money transaction does not create relationship. We’re done. I paid ya, man. You don’t have anything on me. I don’t have anything on you. We’re done. When all of our relationships become mediated by money, we have again the feeling of being alone, the feeling of not being connected. We live in an economy that is moving more and more towards the totalization of money transactions.
On a deeper level, I think every human being has a need to be useful, a need to do more with your life than just being secure, having enough money, feeding your family. We need more than that. We need to contribute to something that is beautiful to us, that we care about for real.
Certainly on one level, if you are just a cog in the machine, replaceable by someone else, you are going to feel not needed, but I think even more than that, you might be doing something irreplaceable to your company, but still if your company isn’t doing something that fills your life with meaning, that makes you say, “yeah, I am doing what I was put on this earth to do,” then you are still not going to feel fulfilled. On the other hand, if what you are doing is something that is very humble, if it is part of a cause that you believe in, and if you can see that what you are doing is actually necessary for that cause to be manifested on earth, then you’ll still feel good about what you are doing probably.
The key isn’t necessarily in finding work that is challenging where no one else could replace you. It’s really more about where do I put my life energy? My lifetime is a gift. My life is a gift. What am I going to do with this? When I have that sneaking suspicion that I am not doing what this gift is for, then underneath it all I am going to have unease, disquiet, and a yearning that pushes me all the time with restlessness to find what is it that I am here to do.
There is this fear if I give generously, what about me, what is going to be left for me, who is going to take care of me because we do not see a world where the giver is taken care of too. So therefore we want to be financially independent, we want to not need anyone’s gifts. We want to be able to pay for everything and that leaves us alone. This paradise of financial independence means that you don’t need anybody and they don’t really need you either. Now actually that is an illusion. Actually you are still dependent on people, on the sun, on the water, on the soil. You are still actually in total dependency. It’s just dependency on strangers, dependency on distant beings that you are not in any other kind of relationship with. That is where our civilization has taken us and we are pretty lonely here.
For the lonely person in this culture who is not lonely because they don’t have friends,begin to orient towards the perception of gift meaning to see your life as a gift, to see your purpose as being to give, to understand that you have to receive in order to continue giving, and to evaluate situations like what am I meant to give in this situation and what am I meant to receive?
If you can get in touch, and this is not a to-do, it is an invitation, a suggestion, maybe even listening to this you’ll receive that gift, which is that I am a beautiful being that has been generously been gifted life and breath and sun and love and a body. I didn’t earn this but here I am. And I know why I am here. I know that I yearn to contribute to a beautiful world. When you are in the gift, you will no longer feel lonely and deep connections will grow with other people as a result of this orientation toward gift.
Charles Eisenstein is an American public speaker and author. His work covers a wide range of topics, including the history of human civilization, economics, spirituality, and the ecology movement. Key themes explored include anti-consumerism, interdependence, and how myth and narrative influence culture. According to Eisenstein, global culture is immersed in a destructive “story of separation”, and one of the main goals of his work is to present an alternative “story of interbeing”. Much of his work draws on ideas from Eastern philosophy and the spiritual teachings of various indigenous peoples. Eisenstein has been involved in the Occupy, New Economy, and permaculture movements. His work has also been popular with countercultural and New Age audiences. An advocate of the gift economy, he makes much of his work available for free on his website.
“I heard this on The Best of the Left Podcast & absolutely identified. Now I’m posting to my stories on IG & FB. I believe your words here will help people!❤️”
“In a world of individualism, don’t be surprised if we find ourselves all alone.”
“Exactly! The offering of a gift implies no reciprocity and no expectations, so there can be no individual personal disappointment. To adopt this behavior is to challenge the main ideology of capitalism, our dominant economic system, which, has the potential to shake that toxicity to its roots and perhaps, as the young people striking for the climate produce signage of System Change not Climate Change, something beneficial for all life, not just humans, may develop. Thank you for this video and the opportunity to place a comment. 🙏”
“WOW. Thank you so much for making & sharing this, Chris & Dawn Agnos (Sustainable Human), Charles Eisenstein & All. Definitely re-sharing it!”
“This is so true. It is a tragedy of loneliness. For a species made to be connected.”
“Awesome video, this is inspiring to so many!”
“Beautifully done! I loved it, it touched my spirit deeply and made total sense! Thank you!”
“This channel is inspiring, thank you Sustainable Human.”
More from Charles Eisenstein
Music by:
In our modern society, loneliness has become an almost inevitable part of life due to the current social and economic structures. People often live close to each other yet remain strangers, knowing little about their neighbors’ lives, struggles, and triumphs. This detachment from each other’s stories contributes to a feeling of isolation. Historically, human well-being relied on close-knit communities and mutual dependence, but today, monetary transactions replace genuine connections, leaving people feeling disconnected and alone.
Our economic system, which increasingly prioritizes money over relationships, exacerbates this loneliness. Monetary transactions are transactional and devoid of the relational bonds that gifts create. When all interactions are mediated by money, the sense of connection diminishes. Moreover, humans have an intrinsic need to be useful and contribute to something meaningful. Many people find themselves in jobs that, despite being indispensable to their companies, lack personal fulfillment and fail to align with their deeper purpose.
The solution lies not in finding irreplaceable work but in aligning one’s life energy with meaningful endeavors. Seeing life as a gift and recognizing the importance of both giving and receiving can transform our sense of purpose. This perspective shift allows individuals to feel valued and connected, even if their work seems humble. True fulfillment comes from contributing to causes one believes in and feeling necessary to the manifestation of those causes on Earth.
To break free from loneliness, one must embrace the concept of life as a gift. This orientation towards giving and receiving fosters deep connections with others and the world. Understanding that we are inherently dependent on each other and the environment, despite the illusion of financial independence, can help cultivate a sense of community and belonging. By recognizing the interdependence and embracing the gift of life, individuals can overcome loneliness and build meaningful, fulfilling relationships.
Loneliness is almost baked into the cake as far as a modern society with the kind of social setup and infrastructure and economic system that we have today.
The people you look at everyday, the people in the house across the street even may not be people that you know, or maybe at most you know their name but you don’t know their story, you don’t know where they came from, the hardships and triumphs of their life. We are not involved in each other’s stories anymore. And we also don’t depend on each other in the way that most people did for most of human history when your well being depended on the health and gifts of the people around you.
Gifts create relationships whereas a money transaction does not create relationship. We’re done. I paid ya, man. You don’t have anything on me. I don’t have anything on you. We’re done. When all of our relationships become mediated by money, we have again the feeling of being alone, the feeling of not being connected. We live in an economy that is moving more and more towards the totalization of money transactions.
On a deeper level, I think every human being has a need to be useful, a need to do more with your life than just being secure, having enough money, feeding your family. We need more than that. We need to contribute to something that is beautiful to us, that we care about for real.
Certainly on one level, if you are just a cog in the machine, replaceable by someone else, you are going to feel not needed, but I think even more than that, you might be doing something irreplaceable to your company, but still if your company isn’t doing something that fills your life with meaning, that makes you say, “yeah, I am doing what I was put on this earth to do,” then you are still not going to feel fulfilled. On the other hand, if what you are doing is something that is very humble, if it is part of a cause that you believe in, and if you can see that what you are doing is actually necessary for that cause to be manifested on earth, then you’ll still feel good about what you are doing probably.
The key isn’t necessarily in finding work that is challenging where no one else could replace you. It’s really more about where do I put my life energy? My lifetime is a gift. My life is a gift. What am I going to do with this? When I have that sneaking suspicion that I am not doing what this gift is for, then underneath it all I am going to have unease, disquiet, and a yearning that pushes me all the time with restlessness to find what is it that I am here to do.
There is this fear if I give generously, what about me, what is going to be left for me, who is going to take care of me because we do not see a world where the giver is taken care of too. So therefore we want to be financially independent, we want to not need anyone’s gifts. We want to be able to pay for everything and that leaves us alone. This paradise of financial independence means that you don’t need anybody and they don’t really need you either. Now actually that is an illusion. Actually you are still dependent on people, on the sun, on the water, on the soil. You are still actually in total dependency. It’s just dependency on strangers, dependency on distant beings that you are not in any other kind of relationship with. That is where our civilization has taken us and we are pretty lonely here.
For the lonely person in this culture who is not lonely because they don’t have friends,begin to orient towards the perception of gift meaning to see your life as a gift, to see your purpose as being to give, to understand that you have to receive in order to continue giving, and to evaluate situations like what am I meant to give in this situation and what am I meant to receive?
If you can get in touch, and this is not a to-do, it is an invitation, a suggestion, maybe even listening to this you’ll receive that gift, which is that I am a beautiful being that has been generously been gifted life and breath and sun and love and a body. I didn’t earn this but here I am. And I know why I am here. I know that I yearn to contribute to a beautiful world. When you are in the gift, you will no longer feel lonely and deep connections will grow with other people as a result of this orientation toward gift.
Charles Eisenstein is an American public speaker and author. His work covers a wide range of topics, including the history of human civilization, economics, spirituality, and the ecology movement. Key themes explored include anti-consumerism, interdependence, and how myth and narrative influence culture. According to Eisenstein, global culture is immersed in a destructive “story of separation”, and one of the main goals of his work is to present an alternative “story of interbeing”. Much of his work draws on ideas from Eastern philosophy and the spiritual teachings of various indigenous peoples. Eisenstein has been involved in the Occupy, New Economy, and permaculture movements. His work has also been popular with countercultural and New Age audiences. An advocate of the gift economy, he makes much of his work available for free on his website.
“I heard this on The Best of the Left Podcast & absolutely identified. Now I’m posting to my stories on IG & FB. I believe your words here will help people!❤️”
“In a world of individualism, don’t be surprised if we find ourselves all alone.”
“Exactly! The offering of a gift implies no reciprocity and no expectations, so there can be no individual personal disappointment. To adopt this behavior is to challenge the main ideology of capitalism, our dominant economic system, which, has the potential to shake that toxicity to its roots and perhaps, as the young people striking for the climate produce signage of System Change not Climate Change, something beneficial for all life, not just humans, may develop. Thank you for this video and the opportunity to place a comment. 🙏”
“WOW. Thank you so much for making & sharing this, Chris & Dawn Agnos (Sustainable Human), Charles Eisenstein & All. Definitely re-sharing it!”
“This is so true. It is a tragedy of loneliness. For a species made to be connected.”
“Awesome video, this is inspiring to so many!”
“Beautifully done! I loved it, it touched my spirit deeply and made total sense! Thank you!”
“This channel is inspiring, thank you Sustainable Human.”
More from Charles Eisenstein
Music by:
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