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Not only Arendt. Berdyaev discusses this also. He agrees that the isolation of humans increased with Industrialism. Importantly though he found the nexus in the isolation of man from God. Capitalism builds off this isolation by turning men into objects.

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Aug 25, 2022Liked by Thorsteinn Siglaugsson

Very interesting indeed. Somehow, I relate this subject to lack of self-awareness and poor leadership. In my managerial experience, both contribute to a dangerous confussion at an individual level which, in turn, expose people to a high level of manipulation. Especially when the manipulator despises human values.

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Thanks. It is interesting how you relate this with management and leadership. Do you think we might look at the corporation as a microcosm against the macrocosm of society, where in both essentially the same principles apply in this regard?

Related to this also, at the systemic level, I wonder if one of the reasons we ended up in the mess we are now in after 30 months of mostly misguided strategies, is that we have, in a situation that is, or is perceived as unprecedented and uncertain, and thus calls for true leadership, made do with delegating decision making to people with management rather than leadership capabilities, equipped only to running a system that is complicated, but neither complex nor chaotic? I'm referring here to the Cynefin framework and the different capabilities needed at different levels of complexity.

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Aug 23, 2022Liked by Thorsteinn Siglaugsson

In some ways, I think they have driven us (those with growing doubts over the past 2.5 yrs) into each other's arms. The 'fringe minority' have found each other and discovered they're not so fringe or so few after all. I think it has made us stronger, these new bonds, and I think we'll be harder to cow next effort (whatever form that may take), and I also think we are growing, as the government overreach and mistakes become more and more obvious. The attempt at isolating and distancing, has in the end brought us together. I feel like that anyway - that I have a new community.

At a little meetup/check in of some like-minded new friends the other day, one woman shared that she had agoraphobia for years, and was very withdrawn and retreated into herself. This last couple of years, and finding her fellow govt questioners has brought her out of that and she now feels engaged and stronger than before. I like to think that they have done that, inadvertently to huge numbers of people. Shown us that there is something we care strongly about and brought us together.

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I totally agree with you Rachel. I've never made as many new friends and acquaintances as durint this time, both locally and remotely. And interestingly I've also renewed bonds with old friends abroad through discussion groups, also some who do not even agree with me at all.

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