I recommend everyone watch the series Lodge 49. It's free to watch with ads now.
Not only is a great show that touches on relationships and loneliness and modern alienation with a touch of magical realism and esoterica and alchemy but it focuses on a fraternal (in name only, women are members) order that your grandfather might have been a member of but have disappeared due to rising individualism, rising rents and displacement.
But there's no reason we couldn't start building them again. Not high end exclusive clubs like Soho House but just a place with books and a reasonable membership fee and a bar with cheap drinks for added revenue and occasional "open to the public" events.
There could be ones for software devs, ones focused on philosophy or great literature, ones for musicians or artists.
I've run the back-of-a-napkin numbers and even in expensive cities it doesn't seem impossible if your goal is to just break even and foster a community.
Think the main reason is because real estate is incredibly expensive now. To run some kind of social space and make it financially viable you need to be collecting a significant amount to pay rent and wages.
Only way I can see it working is if the government pays for social spaces. An extension of the library system but more focused on events and socialising rather than being a quiet space for reading.
>Only way I can see it working is if the government pays for social spaces.
The government effectively does financially support social clubs by exempting them from taxes: https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/other-non-profits/...
Actively providing money to clubs would be a tough sell. Grant writing is hard, grant reviewing and auditing is expensive, and there could be a PR nightmare if the government provided money to an "immoral" club or didn't provide money to certain classes of clubs.
I don’t think it would be terribly controversial for councils and local government to just have a building somewhat like a community hall and just let people rent it out for very cheap for whatever social or club events they want.
Freemasonry is hit or miss depending on who you meet and who you hangout with. Liberal freemasonry is even better IMHO because you actively work on yourself. You can choose to stay with men, be in a mixed group, and there are female only Lodges for the women who don't want to be with us stupid men.
I live in a big city where every member ends up knowing other member (male or female) even if your own Lodge is restricted to one sex. It's a lot of fun and I do believe it could be beneficial for a lot of incels.
There’s even an episode with a shout-out to Huell Howser! Can recommend.
Also, do check out the interactive map at the Huell Howser Archive, if you haven’t seen it [^0].
I loved lodge 49. It inspired me to attend a welcome dinner at my local freemason lodge.
Sadly I discovered first hand why membership is declining (this lodge was a magnet for socially inept conspiracy theorists).
Soho House is pretty much the opposite of a high end exclusive club these days.
$3000 a year and expensive menu items is too much for most Americans. Those are not the price points that can address social alienation.