Sen. Christopher Murphy (D-N.Y.) wants to solve the crisis of American loneliness with “anti-loneliness strategies” supervised by a new White House office titled the “Office of Social Connection and Policy.”

The office would “advise the President on loneliness and isolation and how these issues relate to the economy, public health, national security, the environment, and civic and community engagement,” according to Murphy’s proposal. (READ MORE: There Is Still Good in the World)

The policy, introduced on the Senate floor on July 18, comes on the heels of a recent op-ed by Murphy calling for a “spiritual renaissance” heading into the 2024 election cycle.

“The deep truth is that American life needs a radical reframe, one that will require more than smart policy proposals, vague promises of growth, or even thundering denunciations of our opponents,” Murphy wrote in an op-ed for the Daily Beast. “If we’re going to pull out of this national nosedive, left politics needs a spiritual renaissance.”

The rise in loneliness is, in fact, a genuine problem. In a recent Harvard University study, 36 percent of all Americans reported suffering from “serious loneliness.” And, while loneliness is connected to poor mental, emotional, and physical health, is another office in the White House a genuine solution to the problems Americans face?

The Roots of Loneliness

It’s a cliché to argue that social media facilitates loneliness. We all know it does. Go to any restaurant and watch people’s interaction — or lack thereof —while eating dinner. An average American family eating out has at least one phone on the table. Parents drug their kids with iPads so that mom and dad can eat a meal without a public meltdown.

But to say that technology and social media are solely responsible for the problem is to ignore other aspects of society that have broken down, such as the fraying relationships between members of the opposite sex.

Nathanael Blake in the Federalist points to the sexual revolution as a possible source of social decay, writing: 

The sexual revolution places self-indulgence at the center of relationships between men and women, rather than commitment and self-sacrifice. This emphasis on adult autonomy denigrates the dependence of children. It sacrifices their interests and even their lives (nowhere are children more dependent than in the womb) on the altar of adult individualism and indulgence.

Similarly, marriage has been remade into an institution of adult self-actualization — what members of the professional classes settle into after building their careers — rather than the fundamental basis of society in which the two halves of the human race are united to continue it.  

The consequences of the sexual revolution have been ongoing — but the sexual revolution itself is also not the entirety of the problem. Like social media and technology, it is just another puzzle piece.

In his seminal work Bowling Alone, author and political scientist Robert Putnam documented the decline of institutions — which he called “social capital” — that facilitate common ground, weaving together the fabric of society. The book, published in 2000, documents the decline of these associations — well before the advent of social media, dating apps, and cell phones.

So what else could be leading to the decline of community and friendship?

Friendship Grows Organically

While Sen. Murphy’s policy proposal does not correlate exactly to other government initiatives, asking bureaucratic agencies to solve private human affairs prevents natural freedom of association — just like DEI. 

Because, in reality, that’s what the government will do. Instead of letting people choose their friends, the government will regulate private associations — whether at the workplace, intramural sports leagues, or any other club that requires some sort of bonding over a common activity — stifling people’s desires to get to know one another, for fear of being “exclusionary.”

While it is important to be charitable toward all, one is not obligated to be everyone’s friend. If everyone is one’s friend, then one, indeed, has no friends.

Government involvement will stagnate the organic development of deep, true friendship. Most people are only capable of a few deep friendships in their life. Friendship is neither a food stamp that the government can hand out nor a good on which the marketplace can place a price. In all of its messy, unruly, and rewarding glory, friendship takes time and effort to develop — which no office at the White House, ban on technology, or return to some previous date before the sexual revolution can simply fix.

Elizabeth Crawford is a rising senior at Hillsdale College studying politics. A member of The American Spectator’s 2023 intern class, Elizabeth enjoys drinking good tea and plans to pursue a career in journalism.

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