Greek manners and Gothic morals

Is love blind?

One could equally well make the opposite case: Love, far from being blind, is the very emotion that allows us to see. It is the only state of mind in one is entirely and uncompromisingly open to another person.

That's the case that Cristina Nehring wants to make. And that is pretty much the case that you have to make if you are going to defend love. And we all want to defend love right?

Love is not, however, particularly clear eyed about the hard facts. It's a lot like optimism in that regard. Pessimists make better editors than optimists.

Of course we might also say that hard facts are not the only kind of facts there are. Optimists are happier, live longer and have better marriages than pessimists. You can do a lot of important work with soft facts. On the other hand, the harder a fact is the less real work it can be made to do. Hard facts don't engage much with the world.

To digress a moment, there is no clearer example of this than the philosopher who sits down and decides to make a list of things that he knows for certain. Oooh, we all sigh in gratitude, what a relief to know that statements that contradict themselves cannot be true. Or, what a powerful reassurance it is to know that you cannot doubt your own existence.

But the fact remains, love does a pretty darn good job of mimicking mental failure. People in love can look like they are crazy from the outside and they often do crazy things. And where does the line get drawn between the sort of obsession we call love and the sort of obsession that leads people to murder their own children?

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