The Love Trump

"Lust is stronger than love." That's the quote, and - try as I might- I can't disprove it.

I thought about not coming back to this at all. It won't make me popular and I feel a million ugly glares pointed my way just thinking about it. Unfortunately, none of your sappiness will make that five-word statement any less true.

We're not just talking about sex, here. Lust takes many forms. And every form it might take - explicit, subtle, surreptitious - trumps love.

Doubt me, do you? Think about this, then: is it love that keeps you from acting on your lust? And don't tell me you don't feel it, because you do. Sometimes it feels like greed, sometimes it feels like hunger, sometimes it feels like covetousness, often it is violent, and sometimes it just feels like good old-fashioned horniness, and you feel it every day. Is it love for your significant other that stops you from taking the meaningful eye contact with the dark-eyed stranger in the coffee shop as far as you know it will go? No. It's social paranoia. You don't want to get caught - by anyone! - doing a thing you promised someone you'd never do. Doesn't matter how unreasonable that promise was or is, the only thing that matters is that you won't slake your lust in all manner of hedonistic pleasures because you fear being caught doing it. Giving in to lust is the equivalent of social suicide, tantamount to moral seppuku.

You fear being judged.

Oh, and here's the funny part: you fear being judged by people who are just as lustful as you are. You fear judgment from people who are pulling their hair out trying to keep you from knowing what lustful desire they gave in to today, what bridge they themselves burned as the object of their lust waved them merrily forward. Is it love that fuels their judgment? Of course not. They want your social circle - however big or small it may be - to focus on your percieved shortcomings so theirs remain undiscovered. The politics of lust are the most sinister known to man. Just ask former President Clinton.

It's fear that stops you, not love. Do you love your loved ones less when you give in to lust? Absolutely not. Does indulging in a particular craving mean that your love has somehow become less than it was? Never. Love is love is Love. But lust is stronger, oh yes it is. It's lust that people lie for, die for, kill for - not love.

And if the fear of reprisal is overcome, there's no stopping it.