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The Effects Of Loneliness And Its Effects On Society Essay

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Did you know the physical effects of loneliness are comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day? Or that loneliness raises your chance of death by 26%. Throughout history we’ve known loneliness is harmful. Emily Dickenson called loneliness, “The horror not to be surveyed.” In the beginning of the Bible, it says, “It is not good for the man to be alone.” And yet, in our western society we constantly seek after individualism. Our society glorifies going it alone. In a survey done by the PEW research center, parents ranked independence as more important that empathy, tolerance, and persistence. The drive to go it alone is deeply rooted in our culture and we’re seeing the effects of what we’ve sown. Mental illness is on the rise. One in four women between 16 and 24 have harmed themselves, another 26% of these women are also affected by anxiety, depression, phobias or OCD. Depression and loneliness are at an all-time high. In the Facebook era we seem to have forgotten the value of community. Loneliness is especially dangerous for leaders. In The Prince, the world Machiavelli lays out for a leader is a lonely one. His “better to be feared than loved” principle is an idea that stifles community and isolates a leader. The story of Esther, however, proposes a different view of leadership, one in which community is of high value. While Esther’s courage was heroic, it would not have been possible without the support of her community, specifically Mortdecai. Through Esther, we

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