With the death of singer-songwriter Eric Carmen last month and Earth Day today, I got to thinking about Carmen’s song “All By Myself” and how deeper forms of activism are both essential to making change and a powerful antidote to our growing epidemic of loneliness.
In a New York Times essay last year, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said that loneliness not only leads to poorer health but is also “associated with reduced productivity in the workplace, worse performance in school, and diminished civic engagement.”
Diminished civic engagement was the focus of a 2022 National Public Radio interview with “Bowling Alone” author Robert Putnam titled “Politics and America’s Loneliness Epidemic.” Putnam discussed “bonding social capital,” which links you to people who are like you and “bridging social capital,” which links you to people unlike you. Putnam warned: “Bridging social capital … is way down. And that is encouraging polarization.”
That’s where people like Bill Barron come in. Barron — who lives in Utah and organizes climate talks in places like Wyoming, an oil and gas state — seeks out conversations with people who are not like him.