Nicholas Higgins 06/05/2020

On Solitude.

‘The unexamined life is not worth living’, Socrates

Solitude means much more than retreating to a land warmed by foreign sun; or, as the Cambridge dictionary puts it, to be ‘alone without other people’. Real solitude is to loll in ones thoughts, free of distraction and disturbance. With or without other people, at any time and any place. As Horace noted, ‘what fugitive from his own land can flee from himself?’

The term itself is viewed as antithetical to mans common sociability; what gain to be alone, when we can eat, drink and be merry with our fellow man? Solitude disregards the great good that comes from teamwork and rallying together. For material progress, it’s totally unproductive.

It’s seen as one and the same as it’s odious cousin, loneliness. That painful, frightening experience that people will do practically anything to avoid. So unbearable is being alone that one study found we’ d rather be subject to an electric shock than be left with our own thoughts.

Solitude today is thus stigmatised. If you are solitary then you must be an introverted recluse, idle and out of step with modernity. If you’re alone, you will probably spiral into loneliness, then anxiety and depression. So it goes. Solitude and its corollary are regarded as a disease with no redeeming features. Like Albert Camus’ Outsider, the solitary man is exiled to a figurative desert, nothing to come of his life but restlessness, questions and sleepless nights.

So instead of reflecting on our own thoughts, we run around in ‘action mode’, hurrying about as though the world revolved around our daily commitments. Our lives, it seems, are only legitimised when we produce, accomplish and achieve with tangible results. Technology aids in the endeavour. Running or walking you plug in headphones. In the car you switch on the radio. On buses and trains you listen to a podcast. Not to mention that modern man is bound to the sacred smartphone wherever he goes.

If we love external distraction, we crave external validation. Instead of turning inward, to ourselves and to the beliefs and values held there, we turn outward. ‘Popular’ groups of friends, societies, sports teams snd clubs, bolster our sense of worth. More broadly, in the West we are pigeonholed by race, class, politics, career and education. To the unobservant person who met myself, I am White, Anglo- Saxon and Privileged (WASP). If a man is unsure of his identity today, voices will not be slow to tell him it. The way to happiness and identity, we are told, is through the accumulation of possessions, gathering of experiences, worshiping of pleasure, grasping for power. Yet to what end?

Self-introspection in solitude gives space to build life not on such sand, but on one’s meaningful inner values, morals or beliefs. As a Christian myself, time spent alone is time to ruminate on the teachings of Jesus Christ. For the Ancients, it was time develop virtue (virtus) and wisdom (sapientia). To purge the heart of fears, pride, sordid thoughts, covetousness and desire. Similarly, for Buddhists, solitude in ones thoughts via meditation, is a critical component to be free form the endless cycle of birth and rebirth (samsara).

These three systems of belief are not only an encouragement to live life on more substantial values than todays, but to reclaim solitude from the dustbin of history. Each understand that identity, happiness and self-betterment (and salvation) begin and end in the interior solitary mind. We must heed their practices of solitary reflection. Sure it might not be on Jesus or Buddha or Caesar, but do it on what matters to you. In todays secular world, on yourself.

This fosters true, original identity. Is it not when you are really alone that you must confront that part of you which you don’t show to your family, friends or wife? It is here that you grapple with who you are, irrespective of culture. The way of solitude then, laughs at those who go abroad and wonder at different cultures, mountains and oceans, yet pass by themselves without wondering. As Lord Tennyson said, these men are ‘like sheep or goats that nourish a blind life within the brain’.

This is a self-respecting approach to life. Outward striving and accumulation fosters flimsy, socially constructed identity. The sort that is worryingly dependent on others opinions. Solitude in the mind is to give up this artifice. Loosed from the approval and reassurance of others, you can be content in your own person. You are no longer concerned with what the world says to you, but with what you say to yourself.

Does not the finest tree stand off by itself in the open plain? Unlike the tree in the crowded forest, it is free to spread its branches far and wide. The animal to be admired is not that which runs in herds, the gentle browsing deer or sheep incapable of personal independent direction. It is the lonely prowling lion that is worth looking at. Thus, independent thought in solitude is the path for the maverick. For those who long to step out from the unthinking herd. For the person who wants to be his own, autonomous man.

The said Maverick’s treasure is now where no moth or vermin can destroy, and where no thief can break in and steal. When the Italian city of Nola was sacked by the Barbarians (420 AD), the local Bishop Paulinus lost everything and was thrown into prison. Yet he still prayed, ‘Keep me O Lord from feeling this loss. Thou knowest that the Barbarians have so far touched nothing of mine’. Those things which did enrich him were still intact. Certainly, if he still has himself, the independent man of understanding has lost nothing. I wander how many people could say the same today? Yet we still go against natures laws and make our happiness and our identity a slave in the power of culture.

Moreover, solitude of thought fosters self-reflection, deep introspection and personal growth. Removing yourself from the barrages of external stimuli, you’re better able to assess your own flaws. Here you can learn how to mend your deficiencies, or how to avoid and out-manoeuvre some of the toxicity that might surround you. These moments of personal epiphany rarely occur during a bottomless Prosecco brunch.

I’ve tried this a couple times, simply by staring out the window. How easy to reach for your phone, consider what you’ll eat for lunch, or worry about your bank balance. But by silencing my mind even for a moment, I’d taken a third party view on my life decisions. Why am I being financially irresponsible? Why do I order Dominoes rather than make a salad? In my solitude, I can isolate these bad behaviours and fix them. Though this is usually unsuccessful, at least my solitary thought process had made me consider my choices.

Naturally, this was an uncomfortable process. As Lao Tzu put it, ‘ordinary men hate solitude, but the Master makes use of it’. It’s easy to let other people fill our identity and spoon feed us what to think. It requires no strength of will to occupy your mind with cheap triviality. Not least, this is why alcohol and other drugs are so well loved; drinking and pills run away from the authentic, sober you. This is the boys attitude. The mature man embraces critical self-examination in solitude, he is not frightened by what he might find in the dusty recesses of his mind.

Still, we need not closet ourselves away as hermits, or become tee-totling puritans. Neither realistic nor useful, the monastic life denies the joy of a life shared with others. The way forward, rather, is to reclaim some solitude for each day. Walk with no music. Write a journal. Leave your phone in your pocket when you boil the kettle. Then wallow in your own mind. Wrested from the interruptions of modern life, examine yourself. Who am I? What meaningful values do I live by? How am I shaped (negatively or positively) by my culture, friends and family?

However, as Michael De Montaigne points out, ‘it would be madness to entrust yourself to yourself, if you did not know how to govern yourself’. Be prepared to meet yourself in your solitude; the mind is powerful enough to make a heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven. If your aren’t, being alone can indeed spiral into what everyone thinks it entails, idle loneliness and self-loathing. No doubt it will become a haven of no profound revelations. Solitude is useful only when it’s voluntarily, and when you can ‘effectively’ control your own emotions.

Yet when properly applied, solitude is to isolate and take back into possession your own self. To be captain of your ship and master of your destiny. This is a deeply restorative act, and a much needed one.

Cogito Ergo Sum!