‘To analyze the nature of love is to discover its general absence today and to criticize the social conditions which are responsible for this absence’.
-Marxist psycho-analysist, Erich Fromm.
Romantic love like any other forms of affection could be thought subjective in nature, people might have different ways to realize the same but what remains unchanged is the fact that love is fundamentally political. It is not fair to reduce love to an exclusively personal and isolated emotion. Romance and Revolution are two sides of the same coin. The deep emotional attachment we have to our romantic life makes it natural to assess it morally within a society. It also makes us vulnerable, since it speaks to our most intimate emotions, our pride and our position in said society.
I recently had this conversation with one of my acquaintances where she was reluctant to believe Love is Political. The most lame thing about so-called ‘apolitical’ people is that they think politics is something which is a concern for only people in power. They will go around in ways to find their love, infused with conditions about what they want from their partner while claiming that their love is unconditional. That is what a liberal’s petty privilege looks like! The tendency of being attracted to people from his/her own established stereotypical, normative categories and passing it on as ‘that’s my type’, speaks volume how one’s choices are not so personal. The outlook that views love as a private matter, limited to two individuals is problematic. It is a social matter. When we understand that the effect of our choices are not isolated from the larger social structure, emotions like love automatically acquire a political character.
Revolution or Kranti as a concept has been portrayed in a nefarious light, thanks to not so independent mainstream media. Love is the most prominent form of protest that can shake the core of a fascist. And Revolution is nothing but a call for the collective to develop mutual respect and affection against hate and fascism. Today’s Western neoliberal societies actively portray love as something magical and apolitical. That is far from the truth. Love is in fact a radical force for social change that must be actualized by all in a society.
Since love is in the air, I thought of writing this. Politics is beyond the government or the political parties, it determines the life we lead, and the choices we make. From art, the way we look at the world, our visuals, our senses, emotions we feel like Love, everything is political.Purpose of writing this is that with so much hate around us, with so much polarization, so much pain to hold on to, love is the only remedy. Politics operate on the principle of ‘us’ vs ‘them’, dehumanizing the other, love and revolution is the vehicle for uniting people of the society. Love is radical and a revolutionary force that challenges the norms of the society that divide and oppress people. One must need to love and respect everyone in the society, irrespective of his/her religion, caste, creed, gender and other socially constructed categories. Rejecting standard notions and making an effort to love beyond the imagined categories, is what love is all about.