All our lives we are told to be independent, but honestly it is vastly overrated.
One of the things that YouTube has recommended to me is videos of people with emotional problems. They talk about how independent they are, and how they don’t need anyone but themselves. How delusional people are. Yes technically you can be independent, but the cost is way too high.
I think culture/marketing promotes the idea of being independent so it can sell more things. Rather than have a couple use one car, more cars get sold to individuals than a larger group. I think culture says that since were were independent from England, it is a US ideal which is not ideal.
You can independently take responsibility for your life. However, even then other people influence what happens in your life. The idea that we can be independent is a product of a hyper-individualistic cult. We like to think we are more unique than we are. We see that now that people are separating themselves into smaller tribes and then trying to destroy other people’s chance to live their lives in a way that is legal and non-hurtful to others.
Let’s give an example here. We have an increasing number of single people. Marriage popularity is reducing and divorce is popular. One could conclude that relationships don’t work, or we could see this failure as a complex cause. We as a society have failed to give people adequate mental health tools, and relationship tools, and constantly told them that materialism is more important than anything else. We work a record number of hours compared to other nations, and we think we can maintain healthy relationships with that?
I am not arguing for anything here other than the idea that we can have a fulfilling life by ourselves. Even people who don’t have sexual desire toward others have friendships and find life more enjoyable in their relationships. Very few people truly don’t want to know others, and if they do want to be alone that is ok. However, forced independence doesn’t help anyone. My life has always been happier when I have someone to care for and someone who cares for me. I am not telling you what is right for you, but we are still more monkey than monk.