On Conquering Love

(Pardon me, but I just realized that I really liked this line from my previous post: “Perhaps subconsciously, I've been dreaming to be the man who will conquer love, as they always say love conquers all.”)

It has eluded comprehensive definition, despite its universality. It has changed courses of history despite its intangibility. It has defied laws of men and nature, despite its ambiguity. Indeed, it has been more than proverbial that love does conquer all. And no fool has ever dared to ask the question: Can love be conquered at all?

I have always been cynical about love. Not that I am deprived of it but my stubborn personality has always reacted unenthusiastically to the whole idea of love, especially the romantic kind. I do recognize that love is one healthy part of human life, but, when we talk about all the passion and romances, my mind shuts convulsively. When they speak of eternal love, love that can move mountains, love, love and love, my mind can’t just bear the sheer impracticality and unfeasibility. It is just a feeling, a work of the human mind. Logically, it can be put down, too, as any other feeling can be extinguished. Yet, many succumb to it, saying that love drives their lives and keeps their world turning. Attested by the greatest of men, love, they say, is essential to life.

Now, we can see that it would take perhaps a million steps to mount an offensive battle against this incorporeal hegemonic demigod. Conquering love would be waging war to something that resides in and rules everyone’s mind. One will not simply anaesthetize love like numbing pain. It would be a complete revamp of the human system. After all, again, they claim that love is essential.

But, is it really essential? It is very true that the complex human nature requires more than just food, shelter and clothing to survive. Our being more than just animals makes our necessities go beyond the physiological ones, thus include the needs for belongingness, esteem, and of course, love. However, let us say that when man evolved, he never learned about love, at least perhaps romantic love. Or, by some marvelous way, we will have a total overhaul of reality such that love would be extinct. Then our world today would be a similar version of the world in George Orwell’s 1984 or in the movie Equilibrium starring Christian Bale. In the latter, people just take this certain drug, then all emotions fail and love ceases to exist. Everything becomes neutral, hence peaceful.

When love is wiped out, many things would also be gone forever. First and foremost, wars would be no more. Throughout history, men, driven by love out of their wits, have waged wars, crusades, and genocides. Love for wealth, power and God has been the prime mover of men to slaughter fellow men in the millions. Egotism, lust and greed have always been man’s weapon in slaying brothers, overpowering men and subduing nations. Love may have forged ties between men; it has also stained these ties with blood. Thus, when love has been erased from reality, life would definitely be less chaotic.

Love, abstract as the enormity of cosmos, is also found in the simplest of things. Love steers all, from the grandest of kings to the most lowly of peasants. Therefore, aside from all the bloodshed and mayhem, there would be a lot more things that would vanish along with love. When love would be dissolved into nothingness, then we would not be seeing a mother’s hand caressing her baby as she sings her lullaby. Along with love’s death would be the death of children’s laughter while playing under the summer sun. Gone would be the days when two lovers would declare before their God and the people their undying love. The beauty of songs and enigma of poems would be history, and life would cease to be beautiful at every sense. The chirping of birds, the scent of flowers or the bear hug from fathers would be devoid of meaning. There would be no more friends, no more families, and no more life as we know it today. As I’ve said, everything would be neutral, nothing more, nothing less.

Clearly, conquering love would mean conquering humanity. Man created love but in essence, it is love that creates man. Ending love would mean us stopping to be humans. And if we shed all traces of love, when we finally conquered love and ended this battle, we would be like dinosaurs, creatures ruling the world. And I must admit that that would not be a very nice victory. Therefore, all my mental faculties surrender to the fact that in the face of love, despite all distrust and disenchantment, we are left with no other choice.

I simply just can’t stop being a fool.