# Universal Love **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 13, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512 "2010-11-13T01:26:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/1 "2010-11-13T01:26:17Z")
Should human beings love all of their fellow human beings or at least the vast majority excepting such people as Hitler or Stalin? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/2 "2010-11-13T01:30:57Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Should human beings love all of their fellow human beings or at least the vast majority excepting such people as Hitler or Stalin? Thereby diluting the word “love” as to make it worthless? I don’t _think_ so. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/3 "2010-11-13T01:31:39Z")
They should at most love those closest to them. I doubt that it is even possible to “love everyone”; love is as much an emotion of exclusion as of inclusion. When you love person X, that means you put them at a higher priority than everyone else. Nor is love especially desirable. It has the virtue that people enjoy it (which puts it well above, say, pain or despair as mental states go), but love isn’t especially admirable or positive in its effects. Love isn’t _bad_…but neither is it good. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/4 "2010-11-13T01:33:36Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Thereby diluting the word “love” as to make it worthless? > I don’t _think_ so. You sound just like Ayn Rand. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/5 "2010-11-13T01:34:13Z")
I think it’s pretty insulting to the people you know and care for to tell them (or imply) that you love them just as much as random strangers in other countries. Further, with your qualifier “everyone but Hitlers and Stalins” it’s physically impossible to know whether a random person is a sociopathic asshole. So you’d be breaking your own rule without realizing it. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/6 "2010-11-13T01:34:55Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > They should at most love those closest to them. I doubt that it is even possible to “love everyone”; love is as much an emotion of exclusion as of inclusion. When you love person X, that means you put them at a higher priority than everyone else. > > Nor is love especially desirable. It has the virtue that people enjoy it (which puts it well above, say, pain or despair as mental states go), but love isn’t especially admirable or positive in its effects. Love isn’t _bad_…but neither is it good. How is it not admirable or positive in its effects? For instance what of people who sacrifice themselves to save the people they love? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/7 "2010-11-13T01:42:09Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > You sound just like Ayn Rand. You are young-experience will bring wisdom. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/8 "2010-11-13T01:42:25Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > How is it not admirable or positive in its effects? Someone who loves a criminal may help them in their crimes, for example. Someone in love may sacrifice, betray or outright attack others to aid their loved one. As for “admirable”; love is notoriously blind. Plenty of people in love overlook the faults of the person they love, sometimes to their own ruin. Love is amoral - neither good nor bad. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/9 "2010-11-13T01:43:11Z")
Define “love”, please. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/10 "2010-11-13T01:44:09Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Someone who loves a criminal may help them in their crimes, for example. Someone in love may sacrifice, betray or outright attack others to aid their loved one. As for “admirable”; love is notoriously blind. Plenty of people in love overlook the faults of the person they love, sometimes to their own ruin. > > Love is amoral - neither good nor bad. If you loved most of humanity you would do something that would benefit the most people. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/11 "2010-11-13T01:46:22Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Define “love”, please. [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/love](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/love) > [@](#): > > An intense feeling of affection and care towards another person. > > A profound and caring attraction towards someone ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/12 "2010-11-13T01:46:31Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > If you loved most of humanity you would do something that would benefit the most people. Like blow up the minority I don’t love so I can give their stuff to the ones that I do? ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/13 "2010-11-13T01:47:50Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > Like blow up the minority I don’t love so I can give their stuff to the ones that I do? I mean if you loved the overwhelming majority of humanity or indeed all of them. Certainly most people would determine an act out of love would not include commiting murder or genocide. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/14 "2010-11-13T01:49:58Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > I mean if you loved the overwhelming majority of humanity or indeed all of them. Certainly most people would determine an act out of love would not include commiting murder or genocide. Nonsense. Plenty of people do terrible things because they love a person or love their country. Again; the more you love something or someone, the less concern you have for everything else. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/15 "2010-11-13T01:50:06Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/love](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/love) Profound and/or intense feelings for and from people I don’t even know and most of whom I will _never_ meet? Have you perchance also looked up “stalking” and “psychotic” in wiktionary? ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/16 "2010-11-13T01:54:53Z")
It’s impossible to love strangers, as such; our brains just aren’t wired that way. However, using a less literal definition of the word, yes, we should love all fellow human beings (even the monsters), in that we should strive for universal empathy and compassion, and at least make a token effort towards universal impartiality (i.e., caring about the well-being of strangers and those most unlike us as much as we care about those who are familiar and/or similar to us). I suspect that our brains aren’t really wired this way, either, however, and that in any event this sort of thing is easier for some people than others. ETA: > [@Der Trihs](#): > > Nonsense. Plenty of people do terrible things because they love a person or love their country. Sure, but he’s advocating for universal love, hence this is a bit of a non sequitur. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/17 "2010-11-13T02:39:01Z")
> [@VarlosZ](#): > > ETA: > > Sure, but he’s advocating for universal love, hence this is a bit of a non sequitur. He was also talking about just the “overwhelming majority”. And, there’s also animals, and potentially aliens or artificial creatures. As for the result of universal love being inflicted on me; I’d probably end up scammed out of everything I own, and quite likely be killed sooner or later since I’d have zero judgment about people. It reminds me of a woman I read about who ended up institutionalized because brain damage caused her to lose all capacity to feel fear toward people. She couldn’t function in society because she was utterly gullible, incapable of judging the merit or trustworthiness of people. ---
**Author:** ![VarlosZ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d78d45/32.png) [@VarlosZ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VarlosZ)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/18 "2010-11-13T02:54:51Z")
“I’m guessing you is more of a ‘glass-half-empty’ kinda guy…” ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/19 "2010-11-13T04:50:41Z")
Didn’t Jesus say “love thy enemy?” So I would think that would INCLUDE the Stalins and Hitlers, **Curtis**. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512/20 "2010-11-13T04:55:11Z")
I think we should strive to cause as little pain possible to even those we only encounter in the shallowest of interactions, such as sharing the same space while out shopping. If you want to say that’s loving them all, knock yourself out. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/universal-love/560512.md?page=2)