Understanding Love
Progressing toward a more socialist society, that is, one that seeks to meet the needs of citizens and others, means that there will be a push to redefine love and what is love’s
role within a socialist society.
Socialism is a practical system so love will be practicalized. We should understand the most practical definition of love comes from bell hooks and that is ‘to will the good of
another’. This is really quite simple and beautiful while being structed with natural boundaries.
If one is not seeking to will the good of another (and ‘another’ is not ego-trippin’ at the gates of hell) then one is not being loving.
We can practically apply love to our politics in questions like: are the policies allowing citizens and others to be themselves to the fullest while appropriately protecting others.
Before this, we need to apply this to our existence, meaning are we realling loving ourself? Not our ego, we have no choice but to love our ego, but our soul, that is what is meant by self, are we loving our soul, meaning, are we willing the good of our self?
These are questions we much ponder within ourself so we begin to act in more loving ways to our self and those we spending most of our time with.
What would change about our life if we worked to will the good of others in our life? There are some people who already do this this and rarely this gets reciprocated and
this is where the work need to be done by everyone because, as the system goes, when everybody is honest about their needs within our society then our society
functions for the benefit of the people.
This concept is foreign to many of us because it has been suppressed out of us and we have come to internalize that voicing our needs is a sign of weakness and, therefore,
we are probably worth less.
In a society rooted in love and care, people are free to ask for help without consequence until something needs to be addressed.
In a society that practices love, conflict is normal and overcoming conflict is the desired outcome.
To practice seeking resolution is to prioritize love.
It takes a lot to be loving and the socialist view of love is to find ways to practice mutuality and not domination.