Love & Freedom

"Truly the wise proclaim that love is the only path, love is the only God, and love is the only scripture..." (Swami Kripalu)

A lot of people apparently think that a civilization (namely in government and politics) based on love rather than greed and other pathology would mean everyone walking around grinning in a drug-like zombie stupor while wishing everyone they see on the street plentiful warm fuzzies and hugging them. Or that obvious exaggeration conveys well enough the basic irrational-unsubstantiated fear. While there's nothing wrong with those who are more demonstrably loving than others, for the vast majority of us, the warm sentiment or actual feeling of love is reserved only for family, significant others and close friends. That's just the typically-by-far human way and always will be.

Love in the (at least hypothetically) greater sociopolitical sense simply means having enough respect, empathy, and common, most basic decency toward others. The Golden Rule ("Do unto others..." that was first taught by the Buddha) isn't just gold, it's diamond, and all the most precious, exquisite minerals or substances in the universe. A paradigm based on love must begin with enough truth and justice; therefore real transparency in those we elect to leadership positions. That's true freedom; to the extent the concept of government in general is necessary among a sufficiently civilized people.

Freedom best defined, as I see it, is the absence of all de facto and actual slavery. It's the absence of pathocracy. It's the absence of political and religious lies, deceptions, illusions. Peace, love, truth, justice and the like are real freedom.

Democracy, not to be confused with the secrecy-based corrupt insanity that's referred to as democracy in this paradigm, is all that is civilized. Nothing else, no type of royalty or anything resembling it, will do for an enlightened enough people. Real democracy/transparency is how love will, for the first time ever, have significant influence among humanity... if it can.