At times, our culture seems to worship alienation. Our heroes are the “outsiders” of this world, those without a “place to belong.” Beginning with the existential loners who have dominated Western literature from Camus and Kerouac, through our fascination with “knights” who hide behind masks and darkness in a cave full of gadgets, or “space pirates” with no allegiance to anyone but themselves, we revel in a sense of being solitary and different.
