September 14, 2026
Some recent information indicates that many in my age range will not attend parties with a majority of people that they do not know. The intention of this blog post is to express my frustration with this sentiment.
To begin with, if one is confronted with an absolutely new environment - say, moving to a new city - it is unlikely that they know anyone. By virtue of this, they will never meet new people following this rule as their default becomes self-reinforcing. To meet new people one must be open to the fact that everyone begins as a stranger. As a person who has moved quite a bit this basic error needs to be pointed out!
More broadly, what is your problem? People are very interesting; of everyone I have ever met there are very few which I would classify as uninteresting to talk to. Someone and I may not necessarily be fast friends, but not interesting in all aspects is a high bar. Parties in which one knows few attending are all the more fun by getting to meet such a large variety of people. By exiling an entire group of people through a lack of knowledge means that you are yourself exiled from experience. And, given that we will never experience the full range of qualia available to us in our lifetimes, the best we can do is receive news of distant corners through others.
Well, why are you scared? A stranger definitionally has almost zero effect on one’s life. Meeting a person will not integrate them into your life forever. One meets another and decides that the other is not for them. They may be insignificant. It is ridiculous to be apprehensive of others which play no role in your life. In this, there is a surfeit of opportunity in any room filled with strangers; the proper emotion is excitement. If you’ve ever wondered why some become excited at the prospect of networking, this is why.
Furthermore people naturally fall in and out of our lives. This cycle of accumulation and attrition is a function of time and may only be fought through effort, part of which involves meeting new people. If not for this people’s social lives would dwindle over time to zero. This does happen for many and is quite sad to see. Slow decay is the nature of things. This kind of socialization fights entropy.
This kind of asociality displays a dislike for others which I find quite distasteful personally. The ideal personality type in my imaginary world comes a lot closer to Walt Whitman’s pure appreciation (and frankly, eroticism) toward others. Those differences ought to excite! Watching people work; the beautiful variety of jobs and the city; the buzz of people in the streets is so pleasant to watch on its own that any opposition seems near-disordered. We have but one life to live and we ought to show joy toward it.