The most subtle suffering of the third millennium is loneliness, but this is at the same time as hated as it is loved. Many avoid it as if it were the worst of infections, others yearn for it and seek it as the path to personal elevation. However, modern society lives in the paradox of having created more and more contact between individuals but at the same time more and more detachment: "feeling alone" has transformed from being objectively in a state of isolation to living this state of mind even when you are in the midst of many people or when you are virtually hyper connected with the whole world.

If it is true that solitude can be seen as a cross or as a delight, it is evident that for many it is a cross while for a few it is delight. It is also true that the most "lonely" are those who desperately try to escape loneliness, while those who know how to be alone know how to be better with others and therefore do not suffer from loneliness.

Seneca wrote "The essay is enough in itself" not because he wants to be alone but because he wants to be in the company only of the people who are really important to him, selecting them very carefully. Very few, however, are the people who manage to reach this level of "operational awareness", the vast majority are unable to constructively manage loneliness but suffer it as a sentence or a damnation.