Socrates and Cupid: A Dialogue (Part Four)
Cupid: Tehe. And suppose we were to ask Socrates? What is love?
Socrates: How astute! I was just getting there, but you have beaten me to it. Well, I suppose Socrates would say the following: Love is all those things, and more. Love is the force that brings a bored, rich man to his many young wives; it is the drug that intoxicates the youth, and enlivens the old; love is the deception that persuades mankind to prolong their race; and love is the drug that will change the way a person acts, no matter how strong their prior convictions. But above all, love is a mystery; it is life’s most esoteric dare, for it shall end invariably in either triumph or disaster, or some poetic combination of the two.
Cupid: That is why it is such a rush!
Cupid injected himself with another arrow, and floated immediately upwards, screaming “Woo hoo!” as he dropped back down.
Socrates: Which leads me to a troubling point, which I would like to bring to your attention: I fear that you have been a tad too overzealous with your arrows, a bit quick to pull the trigger, if you will. And I would hate to think that you have caused more destruction than is truly necessary that love should bring.
Cupid: Tehe, fuck you, Socrates, tehehe! Everyone deserves to feel the power of love; everyone deserves to get lifted!
Socrates: You are right, and this I am not arguing. We should all be so fortunate as to love wholly, and without condition. What I merely mean to direct your attention to is who or what you are provoking people to love. For, as we have already determined, love is abundantly powerful and, if directed in the wrong spot, can bring about a great deal of destruction. For instance, if you were to direct a cunning and ambitious man into a love for power, will he not rise to become dictator? And now, in one of your episodes of getting very very lifted, if you were to shoot each of the man’s subjects with your arrows, thus directing their unwavering love for their dictator, who only loves power, does not this dictator now have the necessary tools and manpower to bring great destruction to the civilized world? Indeed, I should say that this misplaced love quite probably will put an end to civilization as we know it.
Cupid: Oh, I see what you mean! Or like the time I got really lifted and I shot that hunter with an arrow and he immediately fell in love with the bear he was previously trying to kill. That did not end well, tehehe.
Socrates: That is a very clear example of the point I am describing. But even right now, I see an example that is far subtler, but perhaps equally destructive.
Socrates: Look down to the park once more, Cupid, and take notice to that young couple, ripe with energy, who are entering forth into that pub across the street. The woman is extraordinarily beautiful and has a smile that could light up the winter skies. But her man, he is tugging her and insulting her and causing her despair, despite the love she undoubtedly feels for him.
Cupid: I see them! I remember when I hit them with my arrows; he was her political science professor and I was so lifted! There is no separating them now; they are in love! Woo hoo!
Socrates: And here is where our points of view go their separate ways. I do presume that they could be separated, if only I were to have a brief conversation with the two, and ask her questions. If my presumption is correct, my questions will help her to see that in this particular instance, love is destructive and that she should withdraw your arrow from her back and continue her search for a love that is mutually beneficial, to both parties.
Cupid: But you have no chance! Just because my arrows have had no affect on you, Socrates, does not mean that you have the power to withdraw love from another. She is paralyzed in her love, tehehe!
Socrates: O but it will not be me who convinces her to put an end to her love—it will be her! I will merely ask questions, and she will answer these questions by her own judgment and her own rationality, and this, I believe, will be enough to put an end to the destruction that is her misplaced love. For, I tell you now, ‘why’ is the strongest question one can ask. And, in certain circumstances, it can infiltrate even the most blinding power of love.
Cupid: Tehe! That sounds like a challenge! Go, then! Go talk to her! You will see that your questions have no power over my drug! Tehehe.
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