Why did the Slovenian Philosopher Slavoj Zizek say love is evil?
It’s been a while since I published a write-up on my Medium account. I am compelled to write about Zizek’s love-is-evil conclusion in a video clip uploaded on Youtube.
The philosopher claimed that there occurred an imbalance in the universe, a sort of an error, which led to the creation of our planet. It was a grave mistake that in order to make it right, there is a remedy coined for it — love. Love is done by assuming the mistake committed and proceeding to the end to cover the mistake up as a form of relief. It is some sort of a consolation, which, when pondered upon, makes it necessarily evil.
In order to support life on this planet, God created those essentials such as air, water, and so on. Then came the human. Some say, God needed an object of His love, a recipient of it. Thus, our very existence. Out of God’s frustration, perhaps, which made His love unbearable for Himself, He thought of creating humans. It is a sort of a selfish act.
Now, here comes the beauty of this analysis.
Cultural critics have been writing that our age is returning to the pre-romantic period. Zizek is well-versed in this as I develop his thoughts in my mind. In our time, we understand how ugly life becomes when we fail to secure a degree from university, end up jobless, and so on and so on. The pre-romantics understood that we cannot self-actualize ourselves if we are of inferior birth which makes our prospects in life rather dimmed. Marriage, to the pre-romantics, is founded on reason: wealth, estate, education, good breeding, etc.
Since the introduction of romanticism, people began marrying whoever they want as long as they feel in their senses with certainty that they are indeed bewitched by love. The start of it is such an ecstasy. But as years pass by, after forming a family, having children, and so on, a series of horrors will occur. The child will go uneducated, if not food deprived. If educated, the education is earned from a school that has a mediocre set of standards. Food is limited, the house has its issues and flaws, and all horrors impede the self-actualization of a child. Then everyone in that family suffers and dies. And in order to resolve the issues of the family, everyone must put their heads together and assume the mistake done by the stupidly unthinking parents and begin to love each other.
But the damage has been done.
Over the generations, people failed to think of this. They live, they give birth, give birth, and give birth, until someone in that lineage wakes up from the nightmare and stands up to correct the mistakes.
All of these were because of romanticism which rejected reason.
In a sense, Zizek was right. Love is evil.
