Not sure why you were deadened, which caused this pertinent question (particularly on HN) to be ignored. I've lots to say but will just quickly make a few point

Not sure why you were deadened, which caused this pertinent question (particularly on HN) to be ignored. I've lots to say but will just quickly make a few points here. You've lots of company. More by the day, surveys say. You may be suffering more, but the suffering is incredible ubiquitous now. Worse in Japan, a very well-run society. Marx's principle concern about capitalism was that it created loneliness. Yes, near-starvation, but also, "alienation" from other people as a result of the commodification of labor (people) that removed them from community. New brain research shows we tend to pick as friends those whose brain works like ours. In a mass society people get spoiled early, they can choose close similars, but evolutionarily that's weird. Brains of rare use gather few friends. http://www.pnas.org/content/108/5/1993 http://www.pnas.org/content/108/5/1993. "we resemble our friends at a genetic level that’s akin to being distant cousins." https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02722-7 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-017-02722-7 The novel Watership Down says that none of us deserve friends, we all have sharp edges and that only when we, collectively, have a dangerous task can real friendships form because our few virtues become extremely valuable to others. But modern society is designed to eliminate this circumstance and pretty much has. Even so, finding a task or cause for which cooperation matters is a path, or the start of one. Friendship is convenient, but the chance to help others is important. Traditionally in the East those who attain enlightenment aren't surrounded by friends. They're too unusual for that. They become hermits. Hermits that are very useful when needed, but hermits. Re that brain research, there's an alternative to finding peers (when that's all but impossible) and that's to help children. Children aren't peer friends but it's important to help them and they are grateful for those who can entertain them and help them learn at the same time. It’s possible to learn how to do those two things at once. Learning through play is their job and they like those who can really help them do this. In modern society children are truly starving for the amount of interpersonal interaction that their brains need for proper development.