Ground control to Major Tom : The lost and lonely of the human cosmos
' Here am I floating 'round my tin can , far above the moon Planet Earth is blue , And there's nothing I can do.' Thus concludes David Bowie’s epic space ballad; the bittersweet tale of a lonely Astronaut stuck forever in the vast oblivion of outer space. The song however cuts deeper for the more impassioned fans of Bowie, who identify it as the late singer-songwriter's struggle with his own loneliness and depression. And today in the pandemic ravaged world, its core message rings truer than ever before. Reading an article in the Harvard Magazine entitled ‘The Loneliness Pandemic’ I was left both shocked and comforted by how strongly I related to its contents. My struggles I found out were not all unique but in fact as much a trademark of my generation as effeminate East Asian pop stars, bizarre feline humour and unhealthy obsessions with early 2000s’ sitcoms. The ubiquitous nature of loneliness today indicates a failure of society on a more fundamental leve...