Poll: Most interesting emotion: Fear vs love

[Ieyke]

"You know nothing about love". I'm not that experienced, but I have felt it. I consider it...inconvenient to feel again. In my experience, people glorifying lust=love. There may be more elements to a relationship, but lust is the centre. No lust, no love. No one ever f***ed anyone for sense of humour.in.

No.
Simply and utterly, no.

Lust has nothing to do with love.

I have loved two people in my life. The first one I loved fiercely, and yet there was no lust involved at all. I myself found it incredibly confusing at the time because I made a lot of the same horribly wrong assumptions you're making now.
Indeed, before her, I used to have a lot of assumptions of what love was. I thought I knew. I thought I loved my family, but after her I realized I actually don't (not to sound callous, I just...don't...). I'm comfortable with them, I respect them, I like them, I'm loyal to them, I trust them. In a lot of ways, that's similar to love, but where my family was concerned it's based on a learned behavior and was pieced together bit by bit. Love takes all that, cranks it up to 11, makes it absolute, and instead of being just something you feel and learned, it makes it a dead certainty that you simply KNOW. That's PART of what love is.

Love is the true realization that someone else exists and that they matter more to you than you matter to yourself.


The second one I love (almost impossibly) more than the first, but there is also (intense)lust.

Love and lust may often occur together, but they are not remotely the same thing.

 

[Guardian of Nekops]

Most things people are afraid of really aren't interesting. Being afraid of heights or spiders has limited application, and doesn't tell you much about a person other than what will happen when you put them on top of a mountain and surround them with spiders. Amusing to watch, perhaps, but hardly interesting or complex.

There are some subtler flavors to fear, though... fear of rejection. Fear of failure. Fear of opening up again, lest someone destroy you like they did before. These fears can rule a person's whole being, and oddly enough often spring from love... when love goes wrong, when it sours or when it is betrayed.

Then again, without that need from the other side of the spectrum, without that siren's call that lures you to the rocks time and time again, or that makes you hate yourself when you lack the nerve to go... would fear really be that interesting? Call it something other than love if you want, but there's certainly a need there even without a current object of affection... a need that goes FAR beyond the physicality of lust.

I don't know anyone who feels lust and isn't perfectly capable of *cough* taking care of that situation, yet most people get into relationships when such makes sense... there's something about being with another person, about having them know you and accept you that makes it worth the risk. When we're healthy, anyway... no small portion of the population is NOT healthy at any given moment, largely due to love gone wrong as I mentioned previously. Some of us can't handle it, myself included.

So which is more interesting, at the end of the day? I'm going to go ahead and be pretentious and submit a third option:

Forces are boring in isolation.

 

[Doclector]

Nothing is more complex than the workings of true fear. Pulling the strings, pushing someone's personal emotional panic buttons, it's fascinating.

......Be honest, man...

You're the Scarecrow, aren't you?
No? Perhaps Dr. Caulder?
No? ........H.P. Lovecraft's reincarnation? Steven freakin king? Alan Wake? ......A yellow lantern Maybe?

Because that statement is really freakin creepy. Like, INCREDIBLY CREEPY. 0_0

Glad not to make an impression. It's funny, people have said that I look a bit like stephen king, and I am hoping to become a horror director/writer. Personally, I think anyone who chooses such a profession may not be right in the head. Who chooses a job where you get paid to cause people temporary mental trauma? Aside from perhaps dentists.

Me? I gotta admit, it's an addiction. I'm addicted to getting such an involuntary reaction out of people. Maybe it's power, maybe it's revenge for things that happened in the past. I'm not sure.

 

[Jedoro]

Love

Positive: it can be one of the strongest, best feelings in the world that inspires people to perform superhuman feats for the sake of love and the object of it. Fighting for is so much stronger than fighting against.

Negative: take what someone loves, wait until they love it to the point where they wouldn't want to live without it, and then take it away. Destroy the good inside them, leave a gaping hole for the fear to rush in, and watch as they waste away. Can't fill a hole without making one first.

 

[Smagmuck_]

Love conquers fear, fear creates love... It's plain and simple.

I've been dating a girl for over a year now, and I'd gladly take a knife/bullet/club for her. Now, if you personally knew me, I am the biggest wimp and the most paranoid ************ in the Imperial Valley. Hell, I practically shit my pants if I hear a owl hoot. However, if when I'm around her, and I feel she's being threatened, I swallow my fear, and step up to the plate. Regardless of who or what it is.

Now maybe it's just raging primal hormones driving me to protect a potential mate from foreign threats that threaten the probable existence of my future children, but I like to think otherwise.

Fear, fear is an interesting subject. When you see someone in fear, you see their true character; all of their weakness are up front and their facade is corroded away. It has the potent potential to turn even the hardest of men into crying, cowering, infants. Fear is the chemical reaction in our brains the triggers the Fight-or-Flight response. We all have it, regardless of those who say they fear no physical, emotional, mental thing. It can make the difference of capturing Mt. Surabachi from the IJA, or causing the crushing defeat of the US in the Pacific. You will ALWAYS feel the cold presence of fear in any instant where you're, or someone you hold dear is in jeopardy. But, you have the choice to ignore that fear and defend yourself or others. The drive to ignore your fear is almost always powered by your love for others. Weather it is family love, brotherly love, or partner-driven love, it can and will drive of fear.

For example, during the Botched Operation Just CauseThe Operation where the Black Hawk Down Incident occurred., First Sergeant <link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Shughart>Randy Shughart and a fellow Delta Force Operator Gary Gordon, repeatedly requested that they be dropped off near the crash site of Michael Durant's crashed UH-60 "Black Hawk" Helicopter; Super 6-4. After being repeatedly having their request turned down, JOC gave them the green light. Wherein which both Gordon and Shughart made a B-Line for Super 6-4, not knowing if any one was alive. Originally, they went in to protect the bodies of fallen brothers and only the bodies. There, he and Gordon stood, drawing a line in the Somali sand, vowing not to give an inch of dirt in order to protect the surviving pilot and the bodies of the crew. They fended off hundreds of Somali Militia and killed 28 using only Durant's on board MP5, a CAR-15, and M-14 and their sidearms before they were both finally killed. Both of these men went into a suicide mission knowing full well that they probably weren't going to make it back, their fear must have been beyond human comprehension. Yet, there they stood on October 3, 1993. Using only their issued weapons and their mutual love for fellow service men as a defense.

Now if that isn't a text book example of love for someone who's only relation to you is an occupation...

Then I don't know what 'Love' is.

 

[EternalFacepalm]

Got to say that love is not real so I would have to go with fear on that one. That emotion keeeps you safe, or turns you into a super hero to get out of a jam. You can instill it in other people and it can remind you to stay away from certain things. In defense of the whole love thing, its just a word humans made up so they could give us Valentines day and all that other crap.

... I find this strangely funny.

Love was not an emotion "created" (in lack of a better term) by humans to have Valentine's Day, Valentine's Day is the product of retailers wanting to raise their chocolate prices for a day, yet people will still buy it. The same goes for all other holidays focusing on love, really.

OT: I voted fear, simply because I like fear. Fear is awesome.

 

[shadow_Fox81]

i think they are both interesting but fear is not as laberynthine a concept as love is.

fear is very simple, at least from an artistic perspective.

but then again i believe most people would overcome any fear for love, loves ability to trump fear makes it both more powerful and interesting because of all the why's involved.

but then again i'd rather have both, they are a beautiful pair.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I say love since I have seen my mates becoming lovy dovy (infatuated by it) and then sometime later becoming very bitter and negative (by all mean I take no pleasure in this, it just seen love can be a powerfil emotion).

Also in my view I see love more as a positive (but it can be negative) thing while fear is just plain negative.

 

[Phasmal]

However, they said that about love, but I disagree. If someone loves blondes, why would that tell me anything about them. Love is incredibly simple to me. Someone wants to sleep with someone else, if the feeling's mutual, they stay together until one of them wants to sleep with someone else, then that person will leave.

And what can you do to a man once you find out what they love? Remove it from their life? Fear's more direct. You can break a man simply by talking too much about what they're truly afraid of.

I am a bit confused as to why you are only considering sexual love when you consider love.
Lust is not the centre of love.
I love my little brother, I loved my cat, I love my parents.
I think love is more interesting because of the things that people do for people that they love.
Sort of example; When I was 15 my brother was 3, we were at a rocky beach with my mother walking the dog. And my brother wandered off to the edge of a moderately steep slope with rocks all down it. When he started to slip it was obvious he was going to fall. Without even thinking I grab him and we both fall down, but I sheild him from it. That all happened within a split-second, because I dont want any harm to come to my brother, I didnt even think about it.
Also, with fear, its scary, yeah. I'm terrified of spiders but I would wade through a room waist-deep with spiders to avoid someone I love being hurt.

 

[Insanum]

I'd say neither are windows into people's personality. I fear geese, but only in certain circumstances, but that doesn't say anything other than 'I don't like geese'.

You've mixed up Love with Lust & Infatuation, a common mistake. Ive never felt real love, only Infatuation so I cant speak about love either.

...Overall i'd say if you really want to learn about someone's personality, you need the whole range of feelings and emotions, be that anger, happiness, sadness, etc - they all are relevant.

 

[crudus]

Emotions don't really interest me. Sex does. Hook up an electrode to a mouse's orgasm center of their brain, hook that electrode up to a button, and that mouse will press that button until it starves. Now that is interesting.

Someone wants to sleep with someone else, if the feeling's mutual, they stay together until one of them wants to sleep with someone else, then that person will leave.

...

There may be more elements to a relationship, but lust is the centre. No lust, no love.

That is lust. Granted lust is part of a relationship, it isn't the only thing. If that were all there was to a relationship, friends with benefits would work out 100 percent of the time. As a good example is find someone you really can't stand, but you are sexually attracted to. Imagine what a relationship would be like. It would suck. Hell, I can't even bring myself to nail someone I really dislike.

Spoiler: This is probably an oversimplification, but it works quite nicely to get an idea of the l-word

Spoiler: or if you are a cynic

"Fear is simple/animals feel fear". Not real fear. Not psychological fear that doesn't go for your instinctive fear of say, sharp objects, but goes for your biggest psychological weak spots.

Here is were these arguments break down. People can't agree on the definition of terms. The problem is that love and fear aren't objectively quantifiable things. The most you can do is say "well I rated this an 8, and you rated this an 8. We must fear those objects the same".

 

[Fishyash]

Meh, both are kind of on the opposite ends of the emotional spectrum but when you feel one it may lead to feeling the other.

However, fear fascinates me more than love. I think what you consider the more interesting emotion is definately a matter of opinion although discussing the matter is a great way to enlighten people's opinions on such a thing.

 

[smithy_2045]

Fear is born out of the belief that something will harm you, therefore making it logical, therefore making it less interesting.

 

[Meta 99]

Fear is a basic biological response to danger, which can be explained though analysis of the hypothalamus and amigdila, love however has no reason to exist. It makes us do irrational things, it makes us feel such potent joy, and it helps us recover, but it can't be so simply explained. That's why it interests me.

 

[tobi the good boy]

The most interesting emotion is curiosity...

 

[Blobpie]

Fear is easy to explain: It's a survival instinct, it's your body telling you that you are in danger.

Love is... well harder to explain: Is it attachment? If so what kind of attachment? Can you prove that you actually were in love? etc, etc.