The politics of friendship can be purely a reminder of methods of cooperation and coexistence, ultimately going beyond the realm of interpersonal relations to include every human being and help us all transform through connecting deeply with our emotions.

Friendship essentially involves a distinctive concern which might be understood as a kind of love. Philosophers from the ancient Greeks have traditionally distinguished three notions that can properly be called love: agape, eros, and philia. Agape is a kind of love that does not respond to the antecedent value of its object but instead is thought to create value in the beloved and our love for humankind in general.

By observing the macro-cosmos of present human relations, one may think that the societal impact of friendship has been generally diminished through ages. Surprisingly, there has not been a broad political discourse on the topic of one of the most prominent relationship dynamics in our daily lives and its ecology.

How did it happen that –especially in comparison with ancient times when friendship was a lively subject of interest for philosophers, educators and moralists– it has been devalued during almost the whole period of modernity? There is an over-investment in romantic love, instead of pure coexistence.

The human condition in late modernity is afflicted, among other things –or perhaps above all– because of the domination of two basic forms of communal life: the family and the nation. These, enhanced by the pandemic, do not create a real counterbalance to the systemic competition, to the culture of egoism and exploitation. As long as amoral familism and national governance triumphs, the foundations of the prevailing order are not threatened. Therefore, a question arises: can new forms of living or being together become a political tool enacting real change?

Rituals transform life energy and libido. They are a cultivation of connection, an immersion in the here and now, turning our energy inward. They give us a sense of meaning in life. Through a ritual we process reality, providing a sense of security and self-acceptance, bringing peace and order. They help us deal with tasks that we subconsciously judge to be beyond our strengths, like the undeniable fact of being physically disconnected which takes an emotional toll on everybody involved. Regardless of the parting decision, this problem is prevalent in the modern society, whether it comes to the global pandemic, climate change or economical reasons.

Friendship is a community, one sustained by care. Care as humanism presents a holistic approach: one that not only includes the physical and the psychic aspects of care, but also the social and environmental. Such complete ecology of care is relevant in the context of the Ritual of Longing and its healing mechanisms, being friendship itself a highly needed tool of social care in the current paradigm we inhabit.