So it goes with many homeless and mentally ill. Quite a reminder that our very sanity depends on the kindness and support of the people around us.
Without the kindness and support of the people around us, we all fall apart, sooner or later. Humans evolved as a social species, and if that social component is removed, it has grave effects.
There's a reason solitary confinement is chosen as a particularly brutal punishment[1]. There's a reason people with less social contacts have, in general, a shorter life span[2].
"The willpower to get up and go to work" comes, at least partially, from being embedded in a community.
[1] https://www.nmlegis.gov/handouts/CCJ%20102716%20Item%203%20D...
[2] https://www.nature.com/news/social-isolation-shortens-lifesp...
Or people who are obviously going to die earlier will get less social contacts -- the causation could be in either direction. Perhaps they don't form the social contacts because they don't want to make others who get to know them be the ones to suffer sadness when they die first, or they don't want to burden others with feeling they should look after them when they get sick first. Or perhaps it's the others who don't want to risk the sadness or incur the burden.
Are you suggesting that people with low social interactions either consciously or subconsciously are aware they have a lower lifespan? That seems like a greater leap in faith than people experiencing negative side effects from lack of social interaction.
> people who are obviously going to die earlier...
Your parent was giving examples based on people who are near death. If sick old people know they are near the end, they may be less likely to spend precious time and energy chasing after new friends.
The point is that we don't know the causality. The study is specifically about old people too, so this seems like a plausible explanation.
The sentiment of "the willpower to get up and go to work" is not puritan bullshit. It's a turn of phrase to indicate an adult responsibility of personal agency. Many people are too lazy (and/or afraid) to better their lives - which, put another way, is "putting in the work".
His mental state may have produced a myopic goal/methodolgy that rationalized being trapped in the airport, ie Nasseri refused this on the grounds of wanting to enter the UK as originally intended. Given some effort and an uncertain future of a different vein, he could have left for any number of destinations with panhandled money, year over year.
The statement has nothing to do with community, per se, as the work referenced would be through the greater international community.
I am sorry.