Nah. My father and grandfather's generation had regular community and social groups to attend - usually very regularly. Lions Club, Rotary, Townswomen's Guilds,

Nah. My father and grandfather's generation had regular community and social groups to attend - usually very regularly. Lions Club, Rotary, Townswomen's Guilds, Women's Institutes, Working Men's clubs - often tied to the ship yard or other major works. Dozens of others, some tied more to place, church or community than others, but all roughly performing some combination of social and doing worthy works. They were hooked into the fabric of society enough that they contributed to social care, elder care, welfare, special needs and a whole selection of other roles that modern government have placed on the individual. Spun as giving "choice", the intent was to remove that bedrock foundation. The removal of that foundation was as much part of 80s monetarism/neoliberalism as deregulation or privatisation. We gained individualism and private everything, and lost all the community resources that glued those individuals together. Someone inevitably mentions Bowling Alone in these threads: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone