FREE LOVE

Every religion is based on a God of Love.

The saying of Moses in the old testament, “Love thy neighbor as thyself,” and what Hillel in the Talmud said, “What is hateful to you do not to your neighbor,” and that which is proclaimed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and the one by Confucius, “Do not to another what you would not desire that he do unto you”—each of these sayings is called the Golden Rule, and they are accepted as a religious principle by a large following. Combined they cover the religion of the world. Why then do not the religious people religiously love? Why does wisdom then fail?

It is not for me to assume the guidance of the good and the wondrous wise; yet, may I not wonder whether the failure of practice to conform to precept may not be a misconception of love by the wise?

Suppose I had been experimenting with a coloring herb for years and had failed to get results. The very first to say that my formula is wrong would be the wise. They would insist that some one else should have the opportunity to try his recipe. I wonder what is wrong with that Love scheme of the wise. Everybody seems to want it. It is talked about by all and no one seems to have it. What’s up? Church and State have ever been repositories of this wisdom, so I blame them for the failure to make it work, and I ask you for the privilege of demonstrating my love formula.

Church and State would make us believe that love is injected by force; it comes, they say, from some mystic where to the chosen few, who alone can furnish that article to those who feel in need of it. Therefore they established institutions, such as Sabbath schools, sewing circles, social settlements, reform clubs, anti-cigarette leagues, anti-vice societies, and the thousand and one others, for the purpose of changing the heart of man. Man will love when his heart is changed, they all say. I cannot imagine any advantage in changing that shape, which required ages to evolve, to a round or star shaped heart. Beware, says Church and State, of getting love or into love by taboo paths. Obey Church and State, that thy days may be long in the sort of happiness which they ladle out to you. Love of any brand that has not the sanction of Church and State is lust and passion. To supply yourself without paying duty you are not only not receiving the genuine article, but are smuggling as well. The punishment for smuggling, if your case comes within the jurisdiction of the Church, is fire, brimstone, torment, ostracism, and other devices that may be summed up under the general head, Hell. Those who declare their allegiance by full payment of the required duties are promised harps of a thousand strings (with sufficient finger equipment to fetch forth heavenly music), golden streets, avenues of jasper and amethyst, radiant halos, rapid-action wings, and a large repertoire of songs. The State likewise has a schedule, whereby both rewards and punishments are not so long delayed.

These penalties, whether in the hereafter in hell or before you have time to get there, are in the name of love, law and order, progress, and good citizenship. After having a fair trial for a few thousand years, I charge them with incompetency, their formula being an entire failure. I have examined their books, and the net balance found is great liabilities and no assets. Man is further away from happiness and love than ever before they took charge. They had good advertising and a fair trial, and have failed to produce results. Man is getting further and further away from Love. Instead of here and there a murder they are slaughtering themselves and each other by the wholesale; strikes, lockouts galore; jails, prisons overcrowded; the soldier’s home, the orphan’s home, the homes for foundlings, the home for the incurable, the home for reformed prostitutes, testify that the people are getting further and further away from brotherly love.

“Reverse!” says Jacob. “The assumption that the mass of mankind is a loveless agglomeration of individuals is false, and accounts for the falsity of our common life. You have been trying to grow your potatoes on top of the stalk instead of underground. They will not grow there. Nature has decided otherwise. If you desire potatoes you must look for them where life has placed them.”

“Reverse your entire plan of life, cast away the things you have taken up; gather up the things you have cast away. Take off the label ‘Evil’ you have placed upon the things you have cast aside and label it ‘Good.’ Seek in the opposite direction for life, and you will find rest, love, and satisfaction.”

There is in the heart of the “masses” a great surging volume of love seeking an outlet. There is in the hearts of these people a vast wealth of love that clamors to be freed from all imposts and repressions. But a sentinel stands in the way preventing expression. There is a taboo on free expression of Love.

This vigilant sentinel-inspector of the custom-house of Church and State stands ready to fire on whoever frees Love.

This is the world’s tragedy, that its Love is in bondage! O for the great Emancipation! Sore is the heart of man, for Love is in chains!

Do you think people need to be educated to love? Observe the gallery of a cheap playhouse; hear the illiterate, unkempt street waif applaud with all the vigor that a loving heart commands when the heroine is saved from mimic danger. You laugh at the cordial plaudits that the gallery yields to melodrama. That is because you know no better than to mock the spontaneity of love. We dislike spontaneity. It is too free and unrestrained. We crave reposeful dignity. Think of a dignified Cupid!

Do you remember reading the story of that poor convict who escaped from prison and had succeeded in baffling the searching parties. He was securely shielded in a thicket near a village. There was an alarm of fire, and he heard a frantic mother shrieking for assistance for the rescue of her child. To offer help meant reincarceration. Nevertheless he did not hesitate. His face was scorched when he delivered the child unscathed to its mother, but under the soot and burns there was a look of satisfaction even when the officers took him back to his living tomb.

What is this enthusiasm of the newsboy and the convict? Is it not love? Society imprisons the one and degrades the other, because they are judged to be without love.

Take the word of a fool that society’s wisdom is at fault. The misery of the world is due, in spite of all your findings to the contrary, to the fact that the heart is not free to express itself; and how to free the heart is the problem.

If I have an ulcer in my throat and am nearly famished because of the difficulty of swallowing my victuals, the problem that confronts me is not how to increase my appetite, but how to assuage it. Read the faces of the people and you will see that their heart is breaking because they love and are prevented expression.

The man who dropped a nickel in the cable slot to stop the car was wise in comparison to him who thinks that Love can live otherwise than free.

Love does not work at all unless it be so simple as to be automatic and spontaneous. It is not by “trying,” but by “letting,” that happiness is realized. Little children love without restraint, and they are and remain happy until a perverted education prompts them to suppress love. To love! To love freely without analysis or question. Love and the capacity to love increases until it is all-embracing. He who loves, loves even when hated, is true to the love law. If I love you because you love me, that is barter, not love. My love will then depend on the extent of your love for me.

If you love God because of the desire to go to Heaven, the conception you have of Heaven determines the extent of your love. As you really cannot conceive Heaven, you really do not love him at all. Anything worth having cannot be bought, therefore you get it for nothing. Love that can be bought is not worth the price. The most precious thing in life is the love of my mother. I received it gratuitously and undeservingly, giving pain in return. I love with all my being, even if the torments of Hell would be its reward. I love, because I love to love.

Love does not come by talking about it, not any more than a corn-field comes into being by talking about it. Suppose all the gardeners of the city would talk and pray flowers, how many flowers will you have? How unreasonable you are to expect love to come that way. This is the law of propagation: a seed must be sown in order that an object may grow and multiply.

The blockade is effective, and I admit that I do not know how we shall raise it, for they who make it so can supply you arguments by the ton that it is wise as well. And the world is with the blockaders.

The miscreant who cries “Stop thief!” when running from his pursuers has this sort of blockader wisdom. Who, indeed, would think of seeking the thief at the very head of the chase? Likewise it is that they who most earnestly preach to us to love our neighbors are the most diligent in preventing us from giving expression to that impulse.

They who so loudly preach this—does their love evince any semblance of it in their treatment of their fellows? Is it love that proclaims that the husbandman must pay “duty” for the use of the earth? Is the love he preaches back of such a claim? It is the wolf in the covering of a peaceable lamb. Love is the landlord’s mask. It is fair to look upon, and he employs the blockading forces of church and state to lull us with his false pretenses of love. And it is the chief business of society to justify the mask.

But a velvet glove covers the mailed fist. It is a part of the garish masquerade. And so we do not see the iron hand beneath its false exterior. We are soothed by the very insistence of kindliness which the velvet glove denotes. And so we do not recognize the force that inheres in the armor that it conceals. Else would we discern the challenge and meet it. It’s a clever game, there’s no denying. And right well do the blockaders play it. The blockade is not maintained, they assure us, for our hurt, but for our protection. How dearly we love our protectors; and how well they know that when we discover that the mystic inscription on their banner means force that we too will employ force. But no one sees through the deception save here and there a fool.

Any scheme of society that requires force to maintain its stability must fail. Society professes to be the defender of right and justice. More than half of mankind accepts this protestation without cavil. Yet I am the only fool!

There’s not a land title in all the world that is free from taint of force and fraud. Not one. For no one can claim title from the maker. And there is no other valid title to ownership. And they who defend land titles are accessory to fraud. This is a stern indictment, though writ by a fool. This army of fraud is the force that prevents the interflow of love that would make all the world a paradise were it free.

Your heart cries for a chance to live and love. It is dying to love and your wisdom stands in the way. How long, I ask you, do you think that Life will consent to let you suppress love?

Has not history taught you that when fools awake, stretch, and shake themselves, the wise look foolish? I see that you do not understand.

One of the blockaders said to me not long ago that he could trace his title back to the original conqueror. He does not see the danger in the admission that his titles are of conquest, for I may some day feel like contending with him on that basis for his holding. When we no longer acquiesce in titles by conquest they will fall. And with the fall we will not need to meet force and fraud by force and fraud.

There is no love in bond-love. There is no freedom in love short of all freedom.