Love, Hatred and Indifference

Efterosom det nu är Alla Hjärtans Dag så bjuder jag här på en reflektion över kärleken, signerad Slavoj Zizek: (en reflektion som kanske egentligen skall läsas i sitt större sammanhang, rörande etik, moral, politik och ett anti-Levinasianskt förhållande till den Andre, men det kan man kanske bortse från en dag som denna)

To properly grasp the triangle of love, hatred and indifference, one must rely on the logic of the universal and its constitutive exception which only introduces existence. The truth of the universal proposition "Humans are mortal" does not imply the existence of even one human, while the "less strong" proposition "There is at least one human who exists (i.e. some humans exist)" implies their existence. Lacan draws from this the conclusion that we pass from universal proposition (which defines the content of a notion) to existence only through a proposition stating the existence of - not the at least one element of the universal genus which exists, but - at least one which is an exception to the universality in question. What this means with regard to love is that the universal proposition "I love you all" acquires the level of actual existence only if "there is at least one whom I hate" - a thesis abundantly confirmed by the fact that universal love for humanity always led to the brutal hatred of the (actually existing) exception, of the enemies of humanity. This hatred of the exception is the "truth" of universal love, in contrast to true love which can emerge only against the background - not of universal hatred, but - of universal indifference: I am indifferent toward All, the totality of the universe, and as such, I actually love you, the unique individual who stands/sticks out of this indifferent background. Love and hatred are thus not symmetrical: love emerges out of universal indifference, while hatred emerges out of universal love. In short, we are dealing here again with the formulas of sexuation: "I do not love you all" is the only foundation of "there is nobody that I do not love," while "I love you all" necessarily relies on "I really hate some of you." "But I love you all!" - this is how Erich Mielke, the boss of the East German secret police, defended himself. His universal love was obviously grounded in its constitutive exception, the hatred of the enemies of socialism. (Neighbors and other Monsters, s. 182f.)

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