No one knows isolation like Caspar David Friedrich. At the early age of seven, family members around him died one after the other. First his mother, then one sister, a brother and another loved one. By the time he was thirteen, he had an up-close relationship with death, loss and abandonment.
Instead of hiding behind a veneer of toughness to avoid being alone, he embraced solitude and even made it beautiful. The male figures in the majority of his paintings are strong, majestic and all alone. For Friedrich, being alone is not a weakness. It is an indispensable opportunity to appreciate your position within the natural world.
“I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full; I have to surrender myself to what encircles me, I have to merge with my clouds and rocks in order to be what I am. Solitude is indispensable for my dialogue with nature.” – Caspar David Friedrich
The wrong red pill
Although these words by Friedrich are powerful and profound, they were spoken centuries ago. The idea of loneliness in the modern world carries a stench of weakness that most people wish to distance themselves from. Loneliness, particularly among men, has been labelled an epidemic in several societies. Even in Canada, 63% of our young men report feelings of isolation.
Unfortunately, as these men open up about their concerns, they become targets of the manosphere, which drags them deeper into the depths of isolation.
The manosphere is a shapeshifter that disguises itself as a safe space for those wishing to become ‘high-value’ men. Just as the red pill in the Matrix exposed Neo to the real world, the manosphere promises to show men how the world works and how to dominate in every important category: relationships, finances and appearance.
The problem is that this space is an echo chamber of grifters who (whether they believe in their message or not) sell solutions to impressionable men. Solutions that they never seem to use themselves.
On his podcast, red pill influencer David Cooley claimed that when it comes to dating, single mothers are for “recreational use” only. He also states that stepfathers are ‘beta males’ wasting their time raising someone else’s child. Yet that did not stop him from dating a single mother and becoming a stepfather of three. Cooley is not the only hypocrite in the manosphere.
The red pill gym bros are on steroids, the relationship manosphere gurus are not in healthy marriages, and the financial alpha males steal from their loyal audiences through crypto meme rug pulls.
The manosphere is a dangerous space for young men to be in. They become prey instead of alphas, hanging on every word these fraudsters speak. The red pill movement does not solve their problems and oftentimes makes them violent and resentful.
Luckily, modern men can release themselves from this bear trap. I think the 18th-century sentiments of a German artist can help us overcome the grip of the red-pill movement.
The power of the natural world
Imagine you’re standing on a high precipice way above the clouds and mist, gazing out at the world around you with no one else in sight. In that moment, would you consider yourself lonely?
Friedrich believed that man shares an intimate bond with the natural world around him. Even when the closest person is a world away, we are still deeply interconnected with the sunset, the changing of the leaves and thick fog sitting above the sea.
At the time, many labelled him a misanthrope, but Friedrich did not embrace solitude due to a hatred of society. Although he painted people who are alone, Friedrich rarely painted people suffering from loneliness.
His subjects are one with their surroundings. They often blend effortlessly with the waves or the rocks in a way that destroys hierarchy. Viewers are forced to focus on the landscape as an equal subject to the human.
Another artist whose work routinely comes up when discussing loneliness in art is Edward Hopper. Hopper’s approach clashes with Friedrich’s by showcasing subjects who are deeply disconnected from their surroundings, even when surrounded by other people.
For instance, in The Sheridan Theatre, a lone woman on the right is standing far away from the two men on the stairs. Even the two men who are standing much closer together are avoiding eye contact. The man in black stares straight ahead at the man in uniform, who lowers his gaze.
Hopper places subjects in proximity but still paints them as isolated loners. Even with three subjects in a frame, there is no connection. In contrast, Boy sleeping on a grave does not emit that same feeling of isolation.
Despite the connotation of a cemetery, the young boy is peaceful. He belongs in the scene and takes his place alongside the butterflies, the lush leaves and flowers. Knowing your place within the wider world offers comfort in times of distress.
Take time to recalibrate
Friedrich believed that a solitary communion with nature is necessary to truly develop a strong sense of self. Solo travellers frequently remark on the improved self-reliance, deep introspection and personal freedom they experience on their trips into the wilderness. This internal reflection diminishes the need for constant external validation, which recalibrates your inner moral compass.
Without a strong internal decision-making system, men are more vulnerable to falling for fake portrayals of masculinity online. They end up mesmerized by men who lie about eating raw liver every day, who flex with rented cars and whose girlfriends are also on their payroll.
These successful men with all the money aren’t successful due to their good looks, their business acumen or their ‘grindset,’ they get rich selling courses and experiences to other men. They promise to teach you the ins and outs of day trading or how to be a great salesman, but the reality is that more often than not, participants are signing up to learn from actual fraudsters with disturbing criminal histories.
My advice to modern men
I’d like to start by stating that yes, I am a woman. If you’re a man reading this, I admit that I can only witness the strange phenomena plaguing men; I cannot experience them.
Nonetheless, the patterns are disturbing. The red pill movement weaponizes loneliness and uses it against men. It takes young men in need of guidance and shoves them through a pipeline that often leads to toxic masculinity at best and white supremacy at worst.
Modern media tells us that as young people, we should be having the time of our lives, non-stop. Young men should be sowing their wild oats far and wide and arriving at exclusive clubs in expensive cars. Friedrich would disagree.
Pieces like The dreamer and View of Schmiedebergerkamm show us that men can be both confident and alone at the same time. Many of his subjects have their backs turned to us, yet we can feel their exuberance.
There is a strong, self-assured masculinity in Friedrich’s male subjects. A type of masculinity that doesn’t need to dominate or exploit to be masculine.
My advice to modern-day men echoes Friedrich’s sentiment: solitude is necessary to achieve inner strength. Whether it’s a night drive at 1 am or a quick solo camping trip on the outskirts of the city, men need to be alone and far away from Andrew Tate.
Only then can their brains begin to debug from the constant attack of the algorithm, and they can truly value the solitude of the world around them. Better yet, for the most part, the natural world is free.
About the artist
Although Caspar David Friedrich is regarded today as one of the most important German Romantic painters, his work at the time caused some controversy. He painted landscapes not as backgrounds to the human experience but as equal participants in the scene. Not everyone agreed with this vision.
Friedrich was most active from 1798 to the 1830s, when he created the majority of his most popular works. These pieces featured both men and women enveloped by the vast mists, fogs and forests of his creations.
He was born in 1774 in Greifswald, a town perched on the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Sea and the surrounding coasts of northern Germany became his muse and are depicted in many of his works, including Chalk Cliffs on Rügen and, of course, The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog.
