Personal Failure? Public Failure? Not even a Failure?

The following article really got me thinking.

Police called to a Long Island man's house discovered the mummified
remains of the resident, dead for more than a year, sitting in front of a
blaring television set. The 70-year-old Hampton Bays, New York, resident,
identified as Vincenzo Ricardo, appeared to have died of natural causes. Police
said on Saturday his body was discovered on Thursday when they were called to
the house over a burst water pipe.


"You could see
his face. He still had hair on his head," Newsday quoted morgue assistant Jeff
Bacchus as saying. The home's low humidity had preserved the body. Officials
could not explain why the electricity had not been turned off, considering
Ricardo had not been heard from since December 2005. Neighbors said when they
had not seen Ricardo, who was diabetic and had been blind for years, they
assumed he was in the hospital or a long-term care facility.

On one hand, we have the possibility that the problem is with the man. Blame him for not making any friends (I'm assuming there is no family). On the other hand, what does this say about our society? How could his neighbors just assume he was gone and not bother checking? And what about the blaring television? Was everyone just too wrapped up in their own life to worry about it?

But we do have a third hand, an anomaly. Perhaps the circumstances surrounding this man's death do not indicate a failure at all. What if this is how he wanted it? A solitary figure who felt no need of friends, who disconnected from family, and had no craving for human interaction. We assume that people who are happy being alone suffer from some sort of mental defect. We have been trained to believe that social interaction is a necessity, but is it?