“The mass state has no intention of promoting mutual understanding and the relationship of man to man; it strives rather for atomization, for the psychic isolation of the individual.”
— Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently released an 81-page advisory titled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.” I have already reported on the devil in the details of Murthy’s report here at The Federalist. Its sprawling plan to address social isolation as a public health crisis includes substantial elements of surveillance, mandatory “diversity, equity, inclusion” (DEI) policies, and federal control of local infrastructure and organizations—all beckoning with love language about the need for more “caring” and outreach.
In another article, I wrote about how that strategy opens the door to unprecedented and potentially unlimited government regulation of our private lives and relationships. But exactly why is the private sphere of life important?
After all, many of us seem content to forego privacy now that we’ve gotten used to convenient technologies that constantly mine our data for every detail of our lives. Maybe a lot of us now believe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing for the government to try to fix the loneliness epidemic by monitoring our levels of social connection “across the full scope of the socio-ecological model” and thereby provide a path to better mental and physical health.
Yet there is a very strong connection between the survival of freedom and a healthy private sphere. If we don’t want to be further atomized, we
