The Post-Love War: Is it all you need?

I can't say I'm terribly more qualified than the average reader in this domain. Maybe you didn't notice but seventeen years of school ties around one's neck isn't much different to a stripy noose. Even so, I can speak from personal experience but don't expect it to be decorated with billion dollar castles and dashing princes on white horses leaping out of fairy tales.

There are abundant slick little phrases that describe love, billions of books so eloquent, from Romeo and Juliet to Jane Eyre. As the tales commonly begin, I wasn't interrogating every testosterone-ridden teenage male in a five mile radius for my other half. To be honest, I can't imagine many people that would carry out such an effort. As the story usually starts, we were friends first of all. I could go as far as to argue that there were sparks immediately, perhaps in a way I had yet to fully comprehend. I need not to wander into the depths of detail and I can inform you that things soured too quickly for anyone to notice it was out of date.

Two years have shed and life is a very shaken-but-not-stirred kind of paradise. So what is this bizarre thing we dedicate so much of our limited and precious time to? Religious leaders have sworn it is the mark of Gods, mothers said it was in their smiles when they first held their babies in their arms. For decades, the great philosophers have bickered that it could be all just an illusion of the complex mind. Nowadays, animal rights activists will protest that other species are born with it too. Scientists spew out five thousand word dissertations on chemicals in the human brain in their sleep and psychologists will each individually define nature over nurture and past experiences as "the key". How can we possibly answer this question?

A different viewpoint is needed. Average out human life events. Birth, early years, school, next stage in school, university/college, work, marriage, children, more work, retirement, hobbies, grandchildren, illness and finally death. A grim description of a very normal eighty or so years. However, let's cut out the generic gooey "fall-in-love" stage.
After some careful thought, I believe our desire to love and be loved by others is our intrinsic horror of our own individuality among a pack of over seven billion, the harsh realisation of our contained impact on the globe that dies with us upon becoming an octogenarian and a defense barrier to protect us from the poisonous negativity and bitter hate that thrives within a corruptible doubtful species such as our own. And to the scientists, I must tell you that I don't quite have the same emotions munching on a chocolate bar as kissing my beloved goodbye. Chemistry isn't everything, is it, Mister Potter?

The consequences of rejecting the joy-inducing Beatles song seem rather severe. However, I think we can use our logic to say shelter and food would remain our main sustenance - unless you are a vicious love-gobbling monster going under the alias of Ian Duncan Smith. Why do we need it? Is it essential? Well yes and no. To some degree, love is a necessary ingredient for the cake of a human life to rise to proper maturity and sophistication. There are thousands of studies that state in order for your little mini-you to become the doctor/lawyer/engineer/dancer that you so hope them to be, you must love your child and show this affection on a daily basis - sounds tedious. Scum that neglect their offspring can inspire terrible events in which can land that particular kid in care, living with other family members, being bullied, assaulted, turning violent, aggressive, in trouble with the police, lonely, with mental health problems, a drug dependency or onto the streets to live or make their wage out of desperation. The list composes itself. And so, since it is essential to enable babies, infants and children to form bonds with family and others, is love so important after these developmental stages? Does it still shape us as a person during adulthood?

Again, the answer is interchangeable. We have grown up with a good childhood, minimal issues, healthy relationships with family and friends. Now what do we do? Do we still need the elixir of love? I would argue, yes. This is because in order to maintain that healthy mind and personality we require a dose every so often. And the tearful reality is that many do not reach the developmental stages with full love and support. Plenty of adults will speak of neglect and abuse present in their younger years. But now more questions have been raised than answered; What happens when we reject offerings of love?

I name this my "Post-Love" era. To the ear it sings a depressing tune but I personally find peace. Perhaps humanity has become severely dependent upon receiving lashings of love and we have detached from the selfless endurance that is caring for one without expecting a form of "payment". Suffering through rejection with an open heart is the most eye-opening glimpse of reality one could ever dream of. You might be curiously confused yet I have discovered the experience somewhat liberating. This enables you to empathise in the shoes of another, to logically piece together their situation and to apply compassion as a strong shield of armour around them. Without pain we are not "human". As an artist, I can appreciate the quaint beauty that twists through everything.
Although, I have been informed by several friends that denying love and affection is self-neglect of the mind, soul and heart and I am merely cutting off a metaphorical poisoned limb to ease the burning loneliness if I convince myself I am a better person without it. Understanding their opinion is different from accepting it. They make a fair point - to deny others is to deny our own essence and being. But I am not doing this out of spite. I think it more of a respite from constant chasing of whimsical things that are unlikely to exist and by that I mean the pursuit of one's true love. It would be very difficult as a human to not desire to believe in such a fantasy but it is in no way logical. Love exists but no two people are perfect for each other.

My motivation? Constant rejection. Loneliness. Watching marriages crumble, divorce papers flying in with the wind, rebuffed children, families separated by continents, murder, abuse of babies and infants, kids dumped in care. Surely we need to address other people's happiness instead of diving into the pool without thought to grab ours first. It's not a path I wish to jog down because it is a wasteful hateful way that will lead straight to unfulfilled dreams gathering dust on a wonky shelf. We forget we have the ability to love without being tied into a give-and-take contract.

Rejecting the common love-and-be-loved ideal does not mean you can't hum along to that catchy Beatles tune. When it's over, you should visualise all the billions of minds inspired by those words, empty hearts that found kindness in those notes, pain healed by the dedication rather than the band watching the clock spin while playing tonsil-tennis with their beloveds. Because that would be all we needed.

The Old Lie - Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori

The truth has a way of leaching out from under the cold steel boot of oppressors. Modern-day Britain is an inherent disgrace to all freedom fighters of the French and Russian revolutions and those shining leaders of equality such as Malala Yousafzai. We must be rendered repulsive to the eyes of others and hopefully, to our own. I stumbled, very gladly, upon a wondrously truthful article written on an idealistic British revolution of which I am a big dreamer. Kevin McKenna, I salute you Sir!

Some of us are asking the same questions of ourselves in 2013: why, in the face of so much inequality, corporate dishonesty, police brutality and political corruption, do we simply grumble and stage good-natured and orderly marches, with multigrain sandwiches and infants in prams? Why do we continue to be bought off with endless royal jubilees, worthless Olympiads and the creeping militarisation of a country whose soldiers are treated like heroes for fighting wars against developing world nations?

This is a very important revelation. Why have we not rid ourselves of oppression and corrupt governments? We, the people, are the cogs of our country, it is our pockets that should dictate the economy that we found ruined by green-finger bankers and scheming politicians. I share with Mr McKenna the disdain for purposeless Royal occasions that glamourise the wealth of a sole ruling family, an extremely outdated idealism that the British people should view as totally superfluous. How is it that deep-pocketed Cameron, in his whimsical delusions, believes sporting events with the world's athletes bring England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales together? Meanwhile, this Tory git will have us brainwashed into leaving the EU?! Wake up people! To have a proper Union means equality, not a dictatorship by English government draining all resources from it's neighbours and belittling it's own citizens! We pat our children shoulders when they are off to war yet we do not stop to think they are murdering innocent human beings in another country or even still, fighting groups such as the Taliban, but it is not our war to fight. Yes, we MUST help those people. Yes, we cannot sit still twiddling our thumbs. However, we are an intelligent people lucky enough to have the resources so readily available in the West. We have the ability to treat the wounded, send aid and money, find compromises, form treaties. We abuse our power like America and allow them to lead us to slaughter like the pied piper removing the vulnerable children from their hometown. Who says that other countries cannot have weapons? If we have them, which we should not, why should they not be allowed the "protection" we deem necessary for ourselves? The hypocrisy is rife!

And again, Cameron would wish us to isolate ourselves from the EU, to abandon our allies. This is a petty move of an inexperienced leader.

While Vodafone, Google, Rangers FC and hundreds of other major companies have been allowed to deprive the exchequer of billions in tax revenues, the Westminster government remains focused on doing what the Conservatives have been doing for hundreds of years: penalising the poor.

The Conservatives are only interested in the coins in their hands and the notes in their obese wallets. Find a redeeming quality of this outdated party and I will diligently eat Bart Simpson's shorts! The problem in Britain today is the lack of parties for the people, by the people. Labour have withered away with Ed Milliband's incoherent speeches anesthetizing the electorate and the influx of posh Eaton schoolboys humming and hawing and copying the Conservatives. Meanwhile the Libdems scored several damning own-goals almost, it seems, deliberately under Whats-His-Face's order. Ah yes, Nick Clegg. I'd forgotten his name for a while... It's a pity because I had decent respect for Libdem policies until they got into bed with Cameron avec cronies and came up with fleas (or Gonorrhea). As a sufferer of depression, when asked my mood on a scale of one to ten, I feel pictures pre- and post-election of Mr Clegg's face sum it up nicely. Need I even bother mentioning the scum of BNP/UKIP a.k.a borderline-Nazi racists? I am not a supporter of Scottish Independence personally, however I can see the glittering nation in the horizon as easily as the next Nationalist and it sure beats the pathetic spineless crowd of tight-upper lipped buffoons squabbling over who has more money, that are running the UK at the moment. My only hope seems the Green Party and even their efforts are, at best, weak and ignored easily. Perhaps some young revolutionists would like to step up and campaign? They have my vote already.

Many of those who are seeking their battered tins of spaghetti hoops or bashed packets of pasta are not the feckless drug- and alcohol-addicted workshy of popular rightwing myth. According to one charity organiser in Glasgow's East End I talked to last week, these are people who often have to accept scandalously low-paid work simply because they don't want to take benefits. In the winter, they will be penalised again when the cartelism of the energy companies kicks in and they can only afford to heat one room in their home.

I think some of you may have forgotten the times before pensions and decent human rights. The government believed the poor were poor because they were lazy. This is the exact level of mind control the Tories are polluting us with today! Benefits are not for the lazy - they are for the poor, the sick, the single parents, those who are desperate for a job to feed their family. We work just as hard as the billionaires, perhaps even more! Those who strike are not time-wasters, they are utilising a right that more of us should exercise. You'll sit there and compliment the cinematography of Les Mis yet you are blind to the message; you feel sorry for the characters in the movie? Then plug in your brain, see what is happening on your own turf.

Not long ago, these people would have been able to turn to the Labour party and the trade unions to fight their corner, but those days are long gone. These days, strike action is confined to boutique one-day stoppages. If people begin to make rude messages with their fingers or snarl at the police who will outnumber them two to one, then they will be kettled and jostled by our state-licensed knuckle-draggers.

The Labour party, meanwhile, has been kidnapped by a shower of unprincipled Oxbridge careerists and their utterly useless Scottish concubines.

The real wonder of the 2011 riots in England and Wales isn't that they happened at all but that there weren't more of them, that they didn't last longer and that there was so little violence. A British revolution is long, long overdue … but perhaps we simply don't deserve one.

We must fight for our own rights because these snobs we name politicians will only fight for their own. I was baffled by the opinions of ignorant twats that claimed the riots were "evil". Yes, I understand that complaint from a parent that lost their son or daughter in the violence but not ordinary citizens. Am I missing something? Has everyone gone mad? The old lie -  Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori - what is the point when you fight for a country that does not fight for you?

[http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jun/16/britain-needs-a-revolution]