In response to this too demanding price of belonging, we move towards isolationism in order to defend our individual freedom. We choose a life lived alone in order for it to be our life. We give up the meaningful life that can only be discovered in relationships with others for a meaningless life that at least we think is ours. What we can see from our pursuit of loneliness is the terrible price exacted for such independence. We end up in deep, vacant places, over0whelmed by loneliness and the emptiness of life.