The least traditional "sad to be lonely guy" rant, ever...

I've been thinking quite a bit about this topic over the last 17 months since I last posted on this blog.  It seems that the average 20-something goes through quite a bit of change during that period of their lives.  Frequent moves, new jobs, evolving relationships - some may argue that flexibility is more essential at this time than any other.  I'd even take it a step further that we, as 20-somethings, take pride in the fact that our loose ties with some of the classical "adult" social constructs (conviction of faith, starting of a family, commitment to a job/career path, etc.) provide us this freedom to make whatever decisions we want in pursuit of our own perceptions of happiness.  However, I've found that this path has led me down many lonely streets since I've last posted, which to me, implies that it hasn't always been the most fruitful approach.

So besides the risk of being alone on the trail, what is the long-term risk here?  I'd argue that our current societal framework depends heavily on the acceptance of the "adult" constructs at this pivotal point in our lives.  The good news, though, is that we certainly aren't required to continue building our societies around them if we choose not to.

Can we, as 20-somethings, take the next generation into more formal "community-based" models?  We certainly have iterations of them today all over the world (cities, villages, etc.) but I'd argue that capitalism and its offspring have driven us, in some strange way, to narrow our minds when it comes to the larger community.  We seek the best outcomes for ourselves and our families in a way that oftentimes ignores the importance of bringing along the community as a whole.

I like the idea of being able to fully depend on a whole host of people - in the same way that many end up relying on one, at present - to talk me off the ledge when I'm struggling.  However, I feel like until we stop thinking "me first", we're stuck with trying to find one other person to share our vision, with a 50/50 chance (at best) of that mutual dependency lasting the rest of our lives.  Those odds are pretty daunting when we're talking about "forever".   I would liken the change I'd push for to the Web 2.0 evolution, which has moved us away from static hierarchies and traditional models into more fluid, community-based, and rapid-responding frameworks.

Does that even make sense?  Or in the end, am I really just writing all of this because I'm tired of feeling like the outcomes I've had in the past few years make me feel  like the pursuit of "the one" is an outdated model?