Humility, Rationality or Maturity

I read and read the statement you posted and I just don't understand what the author is saying! What's all this got to do with "solitude"?

dictionary.com defines "solitude" as:

1. The state or quality of being alone or remote from others.
2. A lonely or secluded place

Let's take another look at the statement from Mr. Dallas:

The problem with solitude is not being alone, ...

Ok so there is a problem with being remote from others?

... it is convincing ourselves that we are unnecessary, ...

As the author is talking about "the problem with solitude" it could be re-written as:

The problem with solitude is convincing ourselves that we are unnecessary ...

Which does not make any sense to me. This is not a problem on the part of solitude. I would not use the word "solitude" in the above sentence I would use the word "humility" or perhaps the word "rationality" or maybe even the word "maturity". In fact I would remove the phrase "the problem" completely. And "unnecessary" for what? eg. Your existence *is* necessary for the continuation of this blog for instance :-) One would also need to state what problem one is talking about, for instance:

The problem with achieving the state of humility is that we need to convince ourselves that we are uneccesary

Which is not something I agree with anyway - but my point is "The problem with solitude" does not make sense. "The problem with achieving a state of solitude" makes more sense but is that what the author means?

He then goes onto to say:

The problem with solitude is that the world will not collapse if we go away.

I don't see what this has got to do with solitude. Rationally we all believe that the world existed before we did (there was a rainy day in 1005 etc) so rationally we all believe that the world will be here after we are gone (eg. there will be a rainy day in 3005). That may not be the case. Each of us may live in a world personally created for us, all of history was invented for one person (ourselves), and as soon as we die (go away) it will all be torn down. Not provable or disprovable, but possible nontheless. The likelihood of it seems low, but that's only because we can't see a reason for it.

Then he goes on:

Solitude is the discipline of letting go of our self-importance,

Er, I do not agree with this. Imagine a prisoner in solitary confinement. He or she might think that they are the most important person on the world. I would not use the word "solitude" in the above sentence I would use the word "humility" or perhaps the word "rationality" or maybe even the word "maturity".

Solitude is letting go of our belief that we are necessary for the world to continue.

Again I would use the words "humility", "rationality" or "maturity", not solitude.

The whole sentiment of what Mr Dallas is hinting at seems very anti-Christian. Although he used the word solitude incorrectly in my humble opinion he is hinting at the fact that the individual is an unimportant piece of flotsam who is not that important on the whole. The Judo-Christian tradition is telling us that each of us are uniquely important to God, so much so that He sent His only Son to die for us.

I am most probably misunderstanding something. This is happening to me more and more lately. People are taking positions that seem completely illogical or untenable to me, but others around are nodding their heads. For instance the complexity we see with SOA, java, .NET etc. I don't feel confident in my own mind anymore when I see such glaring mistakes and everyone else in agreement.

This is why it was so refreshing talking to Ian Stewart, because I guess we all want to feel part of something and not to feel like aliens. Would you agree?