Anyone who lives alone and manifests no longing to be in a relationship is in our times, almost automatically, more or less secretly viewed as both pitiable and deeply troubled.
It's simply not thought possible to be at once, alone and normal.
This sets us up for collective catastrophe, because it means that a huge number of people, who have no innate wish to live with anyone else, and are at heart deeply ill-suited to doing so, are every year press ganged and shamed into conjugal life with disastrous results for all involved.
Only once singlehood has completely equal prestige with its alternative can we ensure that people will be free in their choices and hence join couples for the right reasons: because they love another person, rather than because they are terrified of remaining single.
Here, then, are a few of the many good reasons to spend your life alone: Because romantic love is a dangerous illusion.
We should recognize that romantic love, the idea of being deeply enamored of one special partner over a whole lifetime, is a very new, ambitious and really pretty odd concept, at best 250 years old.
From close-up, over long periods of time, almost everyone is condemned to be pretty dispiriting and difficult.
A good romantic marriage is evidently theoretically possible, but it's also be extremely unlikely in practice, which should make any failure feel a good deal less shameful.
No one thinks their partner is terrific - after a while.
Those among us who chose to stay single should not be thought un-romantic.