‘Far right groups prey on it’: Olivia Laing on the weaponisation of loneliness
Article excerpt
A decade after publishing *The Lonely City*, writer Olivia Laing reflects on how loneliness has become a political weapon, particularly by far-right groups seeking to exploit isolated individuals. Laing examines what's changed since the book's release and argues that the emotional isolation driving her original work remains central to understanding contemporary political turbulence. She traces connections between personal disconnection and radicalization, offering insights into how vulnerability becomes a vulnerability exploited by extremist movements. The piece combines memoir, cultural analysis, and political commentary as Laing revisits themes that have only grown more urgent in an era of social fragmentation.
A decade after The Lonely City was first published, the writer reflects on what’s changed, and how the feelings that drove them to write their bestseller are key to understanding our turbulent politics
I first had the idea of writing a book about loneliness in 2012. I was 35 and had just moved to New York City when I became lost in a labyrinth of isolation and misery. A love affair had ended abruptly while I was still sky-high with expectation, buoyant with relief that I was finally entering settled coupledom. To have failed in this transition, to have been rejected and left alone, filled me with a shame that felt literally unspeakable.
So there I was: alone in the city, an exile condemned to watch the world go by. It was a humiliating and very frightening feeling. The pain was intensified, as a broken leg or even a broken heart would not have been, by the fact that my loneliness felt inadmissible, a thing that could not be said for fear of repelling other people. This was the most alarming aspect of the experience, in that the need for concealment further entrenched the isolation, so that loneliness grew ever more inescapable, a fortress of solitude whose bulwarks and ramparts would not stop growing.
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