We often talk as though we live in a classist world, as if this is a natural outcome of how the world works. As if the pecking order is good enough, as if conflict is war and there is only one right way to do things.
If there is one thing we cannot live without (besides food), it's love and when we use that word we are accused of making the being intellectually lazy. We've got names for stars and planets in the universe and germs and DNA but love is either dismissed or unprovable, so when a parent punishes a child while the tears are flowing from her clouded eyes, he explains this is because I love you.
Or a jealous husband beats his wife to death, it's because he loved her. Or a ruler sacrifices some of his chattels, it's because he loves them. Or a chancellor rounds up millions of citizens who have been labelled as other, its because he loves his country and puts all his future into murdering those he doesn't like.
Great arguments and speeches are recorded from the mouths of powerful leaders, because they are loved by those they rule.
Love has been used to gloss over the unexplainable. The word used to control the masses, or to excuse punishment, to sell questionable things like chocolate made of beans picked by child slaves in Africa, or to mine gems for engagements rings, to grow, pick and ship flowers to say I love you Mom and sorry that I didn't clean my bedroom or help you with the dishes when you wept with exhaustion.
I convinced myself that I had to become a famous movie star to pay back my mother for suffering because I was born. To do that, without any encouragement from family or teachers, without anyone saying I had talent, I decided I had to win every argument, be right 100% of the time and be dedicated to my appearance.
Narcissists are not alone. They struggle, fight and worry, to be better than everyone else. Then wonder why they have no friends. Wonder why all our fairy tales have a princess that everyone adores but not her. She has failed.
But what has she failed? What if she becomes a movie star who is adored on screen but her manager rapes and abuses her. Is she a success for becoming so fabulous to look at, sing and perform, or is she a failure because she was abused.
Who do we love so much, so faithfully that we protect them from the cuts and bruises of the world?
Violence and power is loved more than all the living things on our planet homes. Capitalism in an age of corporate hegemony emotionally tortures its CEO's so they believe the only thing that matters is the money (power) they possess.
Where is love in this manufactured world? Where is love when victims are blamed? Where is love in a boardroom of men who were bullied as children to the extent they dissociate from their emotions and silently become zombies for the ruling cause. Where is love when every relationship is a contest to win and the prize never guarantees happiness or even contentment?
Where is the money that is grateful for the destruction of the entire planet to show how obedient and faithful its servants are to the brutal dictator, whose fame is based on how much death and destruction it survived?
Where is the media that writes about all this when it tells us we need them more than they need us.
Where is the will to bring the conversation back to life? Where are the feelings of those who struggle to survive, those who wish to protect the vulnerable. Why does 'the economy' not have a column to represent that thing which the wise use to protect a culture of celebration, faith, friendship and love.
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