What is romantic love? Romantic love has evolved into a system whereby women are allowed to choose their partners based on how they feel about them. This contrasts to earlier times in the courts of the nobility in France and England where the ideal romantic love situation that poets and troubadours went on about involved the beloved object of one's desire be a married individual. So it was a bit of a mindf***k from day one, and it has been one ever since. Today, romantic love heavily favors attractive young and youngish women who have their sh*t half together over the old, the homely, or the weak of mind. In my own background, marrying young and starting a family early in adulthood is generally frowned upon, because it can be so hard to get right.
Romantic love has also evolved into a de facto religion for perhaps tens of millions of misguided souls in developed and developing countries. The main medium where romantic love as a religion is disseminated are in popular songs, (The Beatle's "Hey Jude", Bob Marley's "Could You Be Loved," and Johnny Cash's "Walk the Line" are but three popular examples of what must be hundred's of thousands of published songs over the years). Romantic Comedies that present difficult, adversarial protagonists and situations in a redemptive story arc are also very popular. As are romance novels and on and on.
This evolution into a religion, particularly among secular, middle-class, liberal or progressive types comes with a problematic set of dogmas and doctrines. But one example is that proposed by famed 20th Century expert on world mythologies Joseph Campell; that when one is truly in love, one "just knows." Bulls**t. I only have to look no further that my own History of Cruel Example to debunk this absurd notion. I mean, a avowed atheist proposing a faith-based belief that one will "just know" when it happens reveals that he is no atheist, sirs and madams, but that his true religion is romantic love.
My own History of Cruel Example to the Contrary is riddled with tales of how this one was "the one", of how I "just knew," only to come up empty handed time and time again. Why, one need to look no further than my own self-published Richy Vegas Comics, "The Villainess Veronica Ortega parts one and two," or the more recent Richy Vegas Comics, "The Consequences of Bringing LIght, parts one and two, (with four more on the way)," to witness this absurd will-to-believe in action.
If I ever encounter a situation where a romantic love arrangement appears in the offing-which happens to some degree or other oh, three or four times a year nowadays- I begin a rigorous regimen of Skeptical Inquiry. Science, yes the scientific method, in answer to modern America's half-baked, de facto religion.
I read the following in the Skeptic column of Scientific American once: The author did not mention romantic love specifically, just any phenomena in need of observation, measurement, and evaluation. Skeptical Inquiry involves the investigation of a phenomenon, and through the elimination of all other possibilities, concludes that only one possibility remains. To just know it's love for someone who has never experienced love is a faith-based assumption not unlike a male virgin declaring that he just knows what it feels like to be inside of a woman through the experience his fantasy life.
The last time a woman got a significant amount of my attention began in September of last year and concluded in mid-January of this year. That is because she was a player who'd targeted me for conquest. LIke i said, I can count on that kind of attention several times a year to a lesser or greater degree. That time to a decidedly greater degree. It's been a while since of of those has come along. As I said in a post from earlier this year, I resolved that situation to my complete satisfaction. I can't have those months of my life back, but hey, as far as romantic love goes, it was her world, and I was just living in it.
Romantic love has also evolved into a de facto religion for perhaps tens of millions of misguided souls in developed and developing countries. The main medium where romantic love as a religion is disseminated are in popular songs, (The Beatle's "Hey Jude", Bob Marley's "Could You Be Loved," and Johnny Cash's "Walk the Line" are but three popular examples of what must be hundred's of thousands of published songs over the years). Romantic Comedies that present difficult, adversarial protagonists and situations in a redemptive story arc are also very popular. As are romance novels and on and on.
This evolution into a religion, particularly among secular, middle-class, liberal or progressive types comes with a problematic set of dogmas and doctrines. But one example is that proposed by famed 20th Century expert on world mythologies Joseph Campell; that when one is truly in love, one "just knows." Bulls**t. I only have to look no further that my own History of Cruel Example to debunk this absurd notion. I mean, a avowed atheist proposing a faith-based belief that one will "just know" when it happens reveals that he is no atheist, sirs and madams, but that his true religion is romantic love.
My own History of Cruel Example to the Contrary is riddled with tales of how this one was "the one", of how I "just knew," only to come up empty handed time and time again. Why, one need to look no further than my own self-published Richy Vegas Comics, "The Villainess Veronica Ortega parts one and two," or the more recent Richy Vegas Comics, "The Consequences of Bringing LIght, parts one and two, (with four more on the way)," to witness this absurd will-to-believe in action.
If I ever encounter a situation where a romantic love arrangement appears in the offing-which happens to some degree or other oh, three or four times a year nowadays- I begin a rigorous regimen of Skeptical Inquiry. Science, yes the scientific method, in answer to modern America's half-baked, de facto religion.
I read the following in the Skeptic column of Scientific American once: The author did not mention romantic love specifically, just any phenomena in need of observation, measurement, and evaluation. Skeptical Inquiry involves the investigation of a phenomenon, and through the elimination of all other possibilities, concludes that only one possibility remains. To just know it's love for someone who has never experienced love is a faith-based assumption not unlike a male virgin declaring that he just knows what it feels like to be inside of a woman through the experience his fantasy life.
The last time a woman got a significant amount of my attention began in September of last year and concluded in mid-January of this year. That is because she was a player who'd targeted me for conquest. LIke i said, I can count on that kind of attention several times a year to a lesser or greater degree. That time to a decidedly greater degree. It's been a while since of of those has come along. As I said in a post from earlier this year, I resolved that situation to my complete satisfaction. I can't have those months of my life back, but hey, as far as romantic love goes, it was her world, and I was just living in it.
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