All We Need is Love Two

by Barry Carozzi in Philosophy, February 11, 2008

In this second article of the series, Barry Carozzi explores the many forms of love.

In the first article in this series, Australian writer Barry Carozzi took a nostalgic look at the mantras of the sixties – in particular, the slogans from two iconic songs of that era: “All you need is love” and “Imagine”.

And he concluded:

Maybe it’s time to revisit the idealism of the sixties. Can it do any harm to ask the question: “Is love ALL we need?”

John Lennon urged us to imagine a world freed from the prejudices, the value systems, and the destructive forces that operated in the past.. He called upon us to imagine the world without religious notions of Heaven and Hell, a world of human – and not super-human experience. Above us, there is only sky. Imagine a world without “countries” – a world in which there was nothing “to live and die for”.

The Greeks distinguished five kinds of love: storge, zinnia, filia, agape and eros. Each of these kinds of love takes different forms. Or to use the view made popular by Star Wars, each has both a light side and a dark side.

Storge: Love of Family, Clan or Tribe

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Even in many modern cultures – such as Chinese, Greek and Italian cultures – the love of family is paramount. Its light side is that it gives the individual a sense of belonging, a stable base from which to live.

But storge has is dark side too. This love of one’s own tribe or family to the exclusion of others can take many forms. Among the many dark forms of this love is cronyism and nepotism. The other dark side of storge is the fear of the other. Racism and homophobia – hatred of the other on the basis of their race or sexual preference are examples of this dark side.

Xenia: The Love of the Stranger

This is the kind of love that Christians celebrate and value in the story of the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan is one who helps a stranger. In this story the stranger is an enemy – a Jew. Xenia refers to the notion of hospitality to strangers and travellers.

The opposite of xenia is hatred of strangers – called xenophobia. Hatred of “the other” or “the stranger” takes many forms. It is evident in racist jokes, but in its most destructive form, it is what lies behind inter-racial violence and genocide.

Agape (pronounced Ar -Garp -Ay): Selfless Love, Unconditional Love, Compassion

Agape is selfless, unconditional love. St Paul’s Letter to the Corinthians outlines the features of this form of love: it is patient and kind; it does not envy, nor boast; it keeps no record of wrong doing; it hopes, protects, trusts, and is not self seeking.

It is the kind of love that prompted Fred Hollows, the legendary Australian optometrist, to devote his life to bringing sight to Outback Australian aborigines who suffered from glaucoma and other debilitating diseases of the eye.