Love without Discrimination is Meaningless

Love, in its most basic form, is a shared sense of identity. It is not limited to the ideal romantic narratives we learn from Hollywood and society’s other public storytellers. You love an object because it enables you to express who you are. It complements your sense of identity. You love a famous person because you see parts of them in yourself, or at least parts of them you wish were in yourself. You love another person in a deep and personal way because you are capable of empathizing with them as though you were living the same life.

The strongest romantic pair bonds embody this identification on a practical level by living a shared existence for the remainder of life. All healthy people have a primordial instinct to put the needs of their young children above their own. Such extreme identification as parental love is essential for the survival of our species.

Love then, without discrimination, becomes completely meaningless. To love all thing is to identify with each the same way and to the same degree. It means you do not know what you are and what you are not. A claim of universal or unconditional love is an admission of low self-knowledge. It is impotent love without preference or prioritization. It means you do not know what you stand for out of all the possibilities that come with the human experience.

The ability to choose what you prefer (to discriminate) in any domain is where the potential for all momentum originates. Every major action a man can ever take stems from his preference or non-preference for what he experiences. He is either actively pursuing or actively avoiding what he knows of reality. Therefore, the greatest possible actions are only open to those who know the most about reality and their person discrimination over it.

What would you fight for? Who would you live and die for? These are terrifying questions to ordinary people who do not know their own potential for suffering or pleasure. To choose what you want with authentic desire is the most powerful of human acts in the world. All other action stems from the inciting incident of choice.

Choice is what will unlock your ability to accomplish your most heroic deeds. Discrimination is what will unlock the path you will follow and the battles you will fight. Choose wisely.

Save as PDFPrint

Written by 

Gregory Diehl left California at 18 to explore our world and find himself. He has lived and worked in 45 countries so far, offering straightforward solutions to seekers of honest advice and compassionate support in the development of their identities. His first book, Brand Identity Breakthrough, is an Amazon business bestseller. His new book, Travel As Transformation, chronicles the personal evolution worldwide exploration has brought to him and others. Find him at: http://gregorydiehl.net/