Love is a many splendored thing, but is it positive. Love is primarily selfish. Although we disguise it with the claim that love is focused on the aim of our affections rather than on ourselves, the truth is quite the opposite. The reason, primarily, that we focus at al on the object of our affections is the feeling and results created within ourselves. Thus, love is focussed not on another person, but on ourselves. Love is essentially selfish. The purpose, the doings and the end goals are focussed upon the person who is loving rather than the person being loved.
Hate, however, is selfless. One who hates thinks first about the person he is hating rather than himself. He is willing to go to extraordinary lengths, even to his own detriment to diminish the object of his hatred. The end goal is not an improvement or change in himself, but simply destruction of the one he hates. Hatred, thus, is consumed entirely with the person being hated and not the person who is hating.
Machiavelli said it is better to be feared than loved. In truth, one is most selfless if one hates, not if one loves.
This is not inconsistent with a religious outlook. G-D is well aware of this truth in Man. Think you not it strange that there are more negative injunctions in the Bible than positive commandments.
Praise Him daily and He will bless you abundantly. G-D bless.
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8 comments:
I'm pretty sure you aren't actually talking about Love here, but a quite dissimilar meaning that uses (very unfortunately) the same English word.
I believe a better term for what you are explaining is: infatuation, desire, or attraction.
Love, however, is not these - but a logical decision one makes to give up oneself for another. Love is a clear statement of equality with another which leads to complete acceptance of the other. Love is a passion that drives one to desire the pleasure of another over the pleasure of oneself. This is Love - exhausting and selfless to the end.
Rali, you of all people should hesitate before making use of a cliche that has weasled itself into a popular excuse for a definition.
Let's deconstruct your statement Socratically.
You state that love is, "a logical decision one makes to give up oneself for another." Please answer why one makes such a "logical" decision?
I believe where this discussion is going is simply the difference between altuism and egotism.
One can logically make a decision based on either principle. The dicussion really is which one finds of more value in the grander scheme of things.
Sorry, but you've missed the mark on this one Mr. Laughing Lawyer! How can you flibantly claim that Hate effects only the one to whom it is directed.
Hate come out of anger. Anger within oneself creates bitterness. The person most effected by the hatred is the person allowing the slow fire of bitterness to burn within them.
Love makes you feel good, because it allows peace to fill your soul.
Did you miss the part of the Bible that declares: G/d is Love! Are you saying then that G/d is a selfish, egotist. I should hope not!
thbt thbt thbt thbbbbbt!!!!!!!
But I digress
Booyah! We (and Love) win.
Rali, you sound a little too much like Mickey at the end of Fantasmic. And my love of Fantasmic is a love which is based upon how I feel when I watch it.
But, I was not talking about the value of Love or which is better. I was also not talking about the secondary or tertiary effects of either. Neither was I in any way stating that Hate is good or Love is not. I simply comment that the cliched definition of love, which you pointed out, is just that, a cliche. In truth, one who decides to love is doing so for the direct and primary consequence of personal gain. One who decides to hate is doing so for the direct and primary consequence of decreasing the happines of he who is hated.
Again, that is not true. The real goal of hate is really just a personal satisfaction. One desires the destruction of another to only serve the purpose of making oneself more satisfied and complete.
Thus, you are the one talking about the cliched defition of hate, or at least the shallow one.
Also, love is self-destructive. I'm not sure how that makes me a happier person in the end. It really just leaves me with nothing.
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