Is there anything more powerful on earth than the power of love?
During the tragic floods we are experiencing in Nashivlle, i have observed people of all races come together to help each other. why can’t this feeling for one another exist, without having to have a disaster? i have wondered this for 44 of my 66 years. total strangers rescuing people from housetops and dragging people out of the river to safety.Question: is the power of love so strong that it makes us forget our own personalities, in order to help our fellow man? have you had a power of love experience?
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You are assigning ‘the power of love’ to a totally different “power”.
I think it may be more compassion than it is love. I always wondered why we can come together so quickly in a crisis and then just as quickly go back to the hate we often see (like after 9/11 and hurricane Katrina).
I think some of it is also just the natural “fight or flight” defense mechanism we have. When our adrenaline is pumping, normal thought isn’t always present and instead it’s about survival (for ourselves and those around us in a crisis).
There’s the power of hate, which makes people do some pretty horrific things. Then there’s the power of indifference, that makes people not care about the former.
@lillycoyote When you present a story of people helping other people, you are reciting the old “it takes a village” story, co-operation of like-minded people. This has absolutely nothing to do with the power of love.
@YARNLADY So it has to do with the power of what then?
That would be altruism the selfless concern for others
I really don’t think there is.
@YARNLADY I would argue that altruism is a form of love as love involves putting the needs of someone else above your own. Love of one’s fellow man.
@YARNLADY I don’t need wikipedia to define what altruism is. It is a complicated and nuanced enough concept that we can have our own view of what the motivation behind it is. And the motivation may vary from person to person
@YARNLADY @lillycoyote Maybe a discussion of the different types of love would be helpful here? I mean, fraternal love is different from romantic love.
On another note… What do you mean, “more powerful”? Do you mean “more inspirational”? I was tempted to respond sarcastically and say, “Gravity.” Real power is in physics. Can love be more powerful than the forces of nature? Or is love just another force of nature?
Considering love is just a reaction from hormones with the sole purpose to find a mate and reproduce, yes.
@shadling21 Yes, that goes along with my frequent answer – the definition of love defies us
@XOIIO That’s not all that love is for, even from an evolutionary point of view. It also bonds us to our children so we will care for them even when they throw up on us and take up all our time and are bad and aggravating, and because humans are social animals, love bonds us to one another.
@lillycoyote True, it is more complicated, I just chose the main thing that seemed not as obvious as social bonding.
Yea, I think it is more powerful.
Why? Because people won’t stop at nothing for it.
And because it’s love.
What you describe is not love – it is empathy and social sharing of responsibility. Love in its trues sense is probably the strongest of all emotions, but they are two different things. Only preachers and those who pretend to new age unsophistication will call it love. I have often helped someone without feeling any sense of love, just sympathy or empathy. Kindness would be a more accurate descriptor.
conscience…..it’s easier for most people to whip out their pocketbook than risk their lives to save someone. I know this is all touchy-feely sunny, but how many people would actually want to go to Haiti, or Indonesia to risk in order to help, or go out of their way?
To save their conscience they whip out that 10 or 20 to Red Cross and that is all they do.
All they feel justified.
So I will call it empathy…..really put yourself in their shoes. Who would really live with watching someone die??
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I think it’s the natural instinct of survival
No, there is no power greater then love. Just look back through time at what people have done because of love.
Because it is just another energy transformation process. There is the bang, state of motion (inertia) and then dissipation (conservation of energy).
It is just physics.
Fear, humiliation and broken trust.
@Neizvestnaya That’s kind of sad, that your experience has been that fear, humiliation and broken trust have been more powerful in your life than the force of love. Even in those moments in my life where fear, humiliation and broken trust have been almost overwhelming, I have been able to summon up enough love to get me through it. Isn’t there somewhere you can find enough love to get you through it?
@lillycoyote
Self love, I suppose that’s how I learned it really does exist.
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