The Awesome Power of Love

Ok, I had to do it. I had to have one really good post advocating the awesome power of love, because although I find myself agreeing with everything Hobbes says, I still believe in the supremacy of love, because I have been utterly devastated by it and it has shaped my life and who I am to this day.

If we analyze the world around us logically, break it down like Hobbes does, then there's no denying the model which Hobbes presents. At a fundamental level we all are driven by self-preservation, the need to survive. Everything else just follows so naturally and logically; there's no arguing with Hobbes' premises or conclusions. Logically, Hobbes is absolutely correct.

But you know what, we don't always follow logic and reason. Whoever said "man is a rational being" was WRONG. Man is utterly enslaved by his emotions; it's only his ability of rational thought that prevents complete insanity and chaos. Of course it's not enough to say that we are often driven by our emotions, because Hobbes acknowledges this. He is fully aware that different people have different appetites and aversions which guide their behaviour. What is so essential, which Hobbes misses, is the fact that time and time again people are willing to give up their very lives in sacrifice for love, for others. To sacrifice one's own life for another entails a purely selfless act. Any other act of love shown to another can be reduced to a selfish act, for the mere pleasure or "good feeling" one obtains deep down inside. But to give up one's own life willingly in sacrifice for another cannot in any way be for oneself, because one won't exist thereafter. Hobbes argues that we all share a common desire: the desire for self preservation. However, in sacrificing your own existence for another, you are subverting the desire for self preservation to an even more important desire: the desire for the other's preservation and/or happiness. Sorry Hobbes, guess you didn't think about that one.

There is a power embodied within sacrifice, the only purely selfless act, which has been captured by Milton in Paradise Lost (and Christianity as a religion for that matter). In his justification of God's ways to mankind, Milton lays down a set of events in which evil (Satan) is only able to persist and corrupt man so that God can show love to mankind. Since God is omniscient, He knew Satan would rebell and eventually corrupt mankind. He could have prevented this without violating the freedom of choice He had given to Satan by simply not allowing Satan to leave Hell (cuz Satan had already made his decision at that point). But God allows Satan to corrupt man so that God the Son can save mankind by offering himself as a sacrifice: a purely selfless act. It is through sacrifice that love is revealed to mankind, and it is through sacrifice that love remains the fundamental desire embedded within all of us--not simply (and frigidly) the desire for self preservation as Hobbes would have us believe.

So although I've criticized "the awesome power of love" in the past, and although when we analyze the world using logic and reason there doesn't seem to be a place for love, there's no denying the proof of past sacrifices. The problem here is that logic and emotion have an uneasy balance in the world. If we attempt to limit ourselves to logic then love becomes neglected, and if we focus solely on love then the importance of power dissolves altogether. Look at some of the quotes from the previous post. "There isn't any formula or method" to love (Aldous Huxley). "Love knows no reason..."--I'm sure we've all heard that one before. "Love needs no logic for its mission" (Charles Lindbergh). Quite simply, love and reason don't mix. And yet they coexist within each of us--how wonderful is that.