All You Need Is Love...?

"She walked down the blank streets of the once beautiful metropolitan city. A burden buried beneath her armor for protection from judgement and "hate" kept her from walking any faster. And every time she saw someone begging, a little girl crying, or a homeless person sleeping on the bench, this burden got heavier and heavier; every tear drop of that little girl seemed to elongate her gait, and sink her spirits even more. She looked around the barren walls and lifeless streets, the people walking all by themselves. She thought that living like this was not living at all. Right then, a black unicorn sprouting fire turned around the corner of the street as silence and the un-image of love splattered around the city sunk into the dark night which never seemed to come to an end."

Above is a simple description of a twisted, dark utopia; the possible outcome of the ideas of some "bright" scientists

In the article, The Myth of Universal Love, social theorist Jeremy Rifkin's idea of making the world a better place by making everyone love each other equally is stated and analyzed. The description above is how life in a world where "everyone loved each other equally" and everyone cared equally about anyone else. This idea of equal, universal love seems to be pirated from the scripts of Teletubbies or The Smurfs, and its application will create nothing more than a twisted, dark utopia.

First of all, as it is also stated in the article, if we loved everyone around us equally, that would mean that we would care for everyone equally, which would, in a short period of time, cause our mental state to decline and our minds to malfunction. We just can't produce that much of "oxytocin and opioids". This equal care for everyone would either mean that no one cared about what anyone else was doing, and everyone could do what ever they wanted to, because, who cares, or that everyone cared immensely about what other people-people they've never met or feel no special affection towards- do, and make it their business to keep them happy-all the while hot-wiring their emotional circuits to an irreparable stage.

Also, in this twisted utopia of ours, "love" wouldn't be "love" anymore. Love is a special feeling that is provided by specific things-personal things- and is not standardized like donuts so that you can pass it out and yell "free love for everyone!".

Many pieces of art were created in the name of love. Artists throughout time have shined their love for someone onto their art, and this helped us get where we are right now. The music you hear in elevators, the "Fur Elise", was written by a half-deaf, sloppy man terribly in love with a girl called Elise. Schumann dedicated symphonies which are some of the best pieces of classical music ever written to his true love, Clara Wieck. You don't need to go 300 years back in time to see the effect of love on art: just pick a popular song playing on the radio and there is a great chance that it is written after a heartbreak or a new-found love. The "artwork" we see around the street may bother some people, but the graffiti with love dripping down its sides, the "Jenny ♥ John"s written in clumsy letters, are what remind the denizens of the metropolitan that not everything is about money, power or models created by social theorists.

So love is not something at the social theorist's expense to dole out. Sometimes, yes, love is all you need, but equal, universal love and equal care will bring nothing more than suicidal members of society and black, hideous unicorns.