Socialibity and Privacy

I find that some people have incoherent feelings about sociability and privacy. A great reward of being prosperous is that one can afford privacy. But, the same people who can afford and enjoy privacy also lament the loss of sociability. This may be for two reasons: one,  they have only chanced to get their riches, have not created or inherited that, and/or they are not prosperous enough to pay for sociability. 

Earlier, not unlike the present, those who could lord the society had both private indulgences and fun with cronies. But, sociability was essentially about having and not having. Those have-nots had social life only and needed it badly for security and relief and the haves could buy both, but it had ever been problematic for the people in the middle. They too lacked privacy but could afford sociability. Nonetheless, the sociability strained the households as such and was burdensome for the women folks. Now, the nuclear families living in independent houses or flats, have come to value privacy and cleanliness, and at the same time as mutual help gets rarer and hiring help costlier, middle-class families find it very difficult to be sociable. The living rooms are deserted in most households. 

The moral of the story is that you cannot have cake and eat it too. If you can raise your income, you can have regular supplies of cakes. If not, enjoy your privacy and be friendly to whomever you interact with.

Niraj Kumar Jha