Friday, May 9, 2008

The Conspiracy of Love

Love is a conspiracy.

A man made construct perpetuated by the mass media: song, TV, movies, religion, books, and any other venue that reaches our minds.

There is no biological foundation for love. It is not necessary to continue any species. In fact, the reasons to obliterate love from our consciousness and the culture that creates this mindset never end. Pain, loneliness, rape, murder. Love is used to commercialize our psyches, to bring war, to objectify gender.

The projection of love plagues us still after thousands of years. We project it onto
our pets, cars; animate and inanimate objects fail to respond or respond in a way
that fails acceptance.

We remove hope, children, ethnicities; ruin companies, reputations, families. "That is mine." "I love it." "I sacrificed my life for that."

It is not simply a matter of definition as some people would rationalize. Of course, you don't love a ham sandwich the same way you love your mother. Yet, do we really "love" the work we do? People love the rain or Frank Sinatra or last year's Super Bowl.

What we call love might better be termed self-satisfaction, self-indulgence, self-actualization from knowing that that THING, living or not, somehow fulfills a need
manufactured by the culture that surrounds us. A shot glass printed with the logo of our alma mater can no more offer love than a laptop computer, yet individuals willingly suspend honesty to pronounce a feeling of shot glass love.

If love failed to exist, would we survive? What would people sing about? What would countrymen die for? You could no longer love the Land and sacrifice whole families for the sake of one square mile. Does love then stop being an excuse for not respecting another's religion? Judaism or Christianity or Islam loses its potential for deadliness. I don't have to destroy any religion because I love mine more.

All you need is ... ?