Western society typically portrays love as being overly-religious, overly-romantic, or overly-idealistic, but this is a failing of Western politics, not of the concept of love.
Much of this post is based off of Mahatma Gandhi’s work on how love is one of the most important and powerful tools in the toolkit of a social disruptor.
In a previous post I talked about how when we get angry, we should be angry at the social situation, not at the person who represents that situation; today I want to explore Gandhi’s idea that LASTING social change comes from love, not anger.
If you know anything about Christian culture, you have probably heard “love your enemy” before – a trite statement that most people say without ever putting into practice.
There is actually inordinate power in this statement – to love your enemy is to change the entire reason WHY you are engaging with them.
If you love the person who disagrees with you or seems to be your enemy, that means that you are not trying to defeat them or overcome them, you are actually trying to help them.
Consider climate action protests – are these protests motivated by a desire to manipulate people in power into capitulation or by a desire to help them?
How much more powerful would social action be if it was motivated by a genuine desire to help the opposing side rather than to defeat them?
Violence and anger can lead to social change, but violence begets violence; those who live by the sword, die by the sword.
The entire point of starting from a place of love is that it changes the dynamic; peace should be our goal, not conflict, and anger leads to conflict while love leads to peace.
In my next post I will examine the popular phrase “the ends justify the means” and why we should consider an alternative phrase.