Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet came out in the 16th century. Blockbuster.
People started worshiping love as a religion. They saw potential in love. From felony to virtue. From sin to fashion. Suddenly, a tabooed subject became a moral compass.
But it kills me that as much as love forms the basis of every blood relation, unthinking conformists have eradicated love's existence degrading it for the weak and disrespectful. Weak? because they dared to voice their beliefs and fight the socio-economic shackles that clasped their family's social status or because they were weak in giving away their family's dignity and honor to an unwanted bride and met their untimely death?
Blood relations are important. It's god's plan of assuring that you are taken care of. In fact, love is so powerful that it unites you with god. You can't believe in God unless you love him. Fundamentally, love makes humans a social animal. Love is what nourishes relations, my genes don't. Love is what builds trust, genes don't. I care about my family because I love them and not because we have the same blood running in our veins. Love forms the cornerstone of every association. It's an inexplicable attachment. So why exterminate something that connects us or even confirms our allegiance to our family?
There's still a debate though. Is it a virtue embodying kindness and empathy or a vice exemplifying a moral flaw and vulnerability? Is it akin to vanity or is it just the unselfish faithful and benevolent concern for the good of another? Is it just affection or is it a form of codependency that drives obsessiveness?
Love makes us weak which is why we nudge our head and acknowledge it in our hearts, but we never voluntarily confess it. Confession is for the brave - it's about who chooses to ditch their egos and present themselves in an inferior or subservient status. That is where the flaw lies.
Love as a concept has been exploited. Mother's day, Father's day, Daughter's day and then the master of it all - Valentine's day. Commercialized accounts and sentiments of love are created to present a monetary form of manifesting feelings. That is never what it was. Socially tampered form of love are found at every nook and corner of the world where one cash-rich and prosperous family showcase themselves as a perfect and functional family. The entertainment industry is by far the biggest criminal in changing what love really is - happily ever after? oh, wait, a sequel. oh no another guy. happily ever after again?
Evolution in the perception of love is inevitable. But everything that love was meant to be cannot be changing. A mother deserted her daughters. A husband abandoning his wife. Love was supposed to be the deepest interpersonal affection but it's swaying the people like its some fashion trend. It changes every season - spring is the fling, summer is the passion, autumn is the melancholic and the break and winter is the cuddling. It's almost like I got the titles from H&M's monthly editions. Youngsters think love is dispensable and disposable. But now they are just confusing love with plastic plates and to be honest, either way, it's toxic for the world.
Firstly, love isn't a religion. Love is what makes you believe in religion. Love is a mental state and you know how people say "love makes you crazy", it is actually true. When our body starts secreting adrenaline, dopamine, and serotonin (that's the scientific name for love btw), we basically make impulsive decisions, decisions that pump right out of our gut. That makes us more human than ever. That is instinct. Animals do it all the time. They don't spend hours planning what they are going to eat or do - they just do it. Animals are hormone-driven, they don't think as humans do. We never complain about how an animal behaves because we know it is motivated by hormones. Whatever they do is right. So when we as humans are motivated by hormones, that makes us right too. So why is that wrong. Love is exactly that. It is that state where we let our guts think for us. We can't exactly reason everything out, but there's an ambiguity in everything and excitement in not knowing the purpose but feeling it.
We need to change the way we see and perceive love because it's .the only door that solves our issues now. Mental health. Climate Change. Poverty. Global pandemics. Ecological collapse. Nuclear holocaust.
Yes, big issues can be solved.
Face it - You never practiced love like the way it was meant to be so you have no idea what impact love has on the autonomy of both the lover and the beloved.