Noticed the switch from anime theme songs to mainstream music? Well, I chose this one because I was listening to this at the moment of this typing, and that it fit in with my topic today very well as well.

Infatuation: Love or Lust?

Well, perhaps the question, "Love or Lust?" is alittle too pompous even for me. But well, every subject must have a focal point. A point where we examine our arguments in context. Anything more general would be too general.

Well, given that most of you know I no longer believe in that flimsy concept of "Love", why am I writing this? I'll have to give credit of the idea to a friend of mine who wishes to remain anonymous. That isn't saying anything? Well, guess what, buggers? It doesn't meant anything to you, but it does to that guy.

Enough about him, its infatuation we're talking about today, and so let's talk.

What is infatuation? That is the question that comes to mind as you read the name of the topic. Let's not even talk about the obscure meanings. Half the people don't know the dictionary definition for "Infatuation". Well, let me enlighten those who don't know.

Infatuation
in·fat·u·a·tion (.n)

A foolish, unreasoning, or extravagant passion or attraction.
An object of extravagant, short-lived passion.

Courtesy of www.dictionary.com

Personally, I agree whole-heartedly. Infatuation is foolish, stupid, and short-lived in the extreme. But well, with my bias against love, who can say when love stops and infatuation begins for me? Well, let's examine just that today. We'll examine just where love ends, and where infatuation begins. And we'll find out if infatuation really is stupid, foolish and short-lived, or is something that is mysterious, powerful and a force of the universe, as undeniable and inevitable as the tides.

What is infatuation? In our lives, I mean, not in dictionary context. What does it mean to all of us? Infatuation... In cases like these, it is pretty obvious infatuation is a different thing for everyone.

For someone, infatuation may be the path to love. A path which would, with effort and perseverance, lead to undying, eternal love. For someone, infatuation may be the path to glory. A path which brings a continous stream of materialistic items without end. For someone, infatuation may be the path to misery. A path that, when followed, leads to the darkest, worst abyss of hell; leads to heartbreak, to disappointment, to the end of life as we know it.

A wide range of definitions for infatuation from a wider range of people. How can we examine them all? Well, love cannot be measured either, or at least, so claims those who believe in it. How do we add infatuation to the equation?

By claiming it cannot be measured, of course. The most obvious way is sometimes the best way. Like time, infatuation is something that is one whole entity, not something that we can measure. True, we break up time into repetitive patterns, but if you think about it, when does "time" have a beginning and an end? Similarly, how can we ever define when we start infatuation for something, and when it ends? When our heart thumps ever so fast, when our knees shake ever so hard? When the person tells us to our face we're not worthy, when the person falls for someone else?

So indistinct and undefinible infatuation is, how can we even deign to compare it? To analyse it? How many infatuations have you gone through now? One? Ten? Millions?

Infatuation isn't even a feeling. You know when you are happy. Sometimes, you don't realise you are happy until you stop being happy, but you still know when that happens. But what about infatuation? Do you tell me that from the moment he/she rejects you, that infatuation ends like so much of gutted fire? Do you tell me that when he/she moves away from you, so far you never meet again, the infatuation disappears like so of a dispelled mist?

What do most of us define infatuation as, anyway? Most of us, as in most of us. Those freakos who think infatuation means salivating over the newest GBA game don't count. Does infatuation mean a step-stone to love? Is it a totally different thing?

Personally, the only thing I am ever infatuated with is with my GBA games. But for those romance freaks out there, infatuation means commitment that leads to a life-long bond. Infatuation means the slow definable build up of a love never realised. Infatuation means looking at a person you've been friends with for months or years, and suddenly realising you want to be their life-partner.

Well, that was pretty hard. Coming up with what all those heart-warming, tear-jerking, experience-sharing examples romance people would think of. But no more. No more illusions. No more faked reality. I will show you what infatuation is.

Infatuation is lust.

That is the cold hard truth. When does love and infatuation seperate? They don't. They are one and the same. And that means they don't exist. They don't exist as an entity you can feel, you can grapple. They are not real. They are illusions in the mind which humans care not to dispel. Just like the existence of a higher being. Just like love.

You disagree? Well, disagree with this:

Tell me that (for those who have had infatuation before) you did not want to be with the person. Tell me that when you are infatuated, the feeling comes only when you look at the said person. Tell me that you've never been near that person and tried to take in everything that was him/her.

Tell me all that, and you have every right to dispute my arguments.

Tell me that when you were rejected, you just picked yourself up and went on with life. Tell me that as you did that, you no longer think of the person at all. Tell me that whenever you look at the person, you don't have even one iota of feeling.

Tell me all that, and you have every right to dispute my arguments.

Yes, I know that it makes infatuation sound like something holy. I mean, what I have been saying is basically this: Infatuation is not something you pick up and throw away. Infatuation is not something that you will discard after being rejected. Infatuation is not something that exists only when you look at the person.

Certainly doesn't sound like a description of lust, right?

Well, no one ever said lust was bad.

Yeah, your eyes didn't deceive you. I just implied that lust is good.

Well, I'll clear up your doubts. I do not think lust is good. I just think lust is neutral. It is, to me, an instinct. A natural instinct which exists in every human as sure as it does in every animal, every bird, every bear, every badger, every rat, every salmon, every ikan bilis. Lust is not something that is shallow, or bad. Lust is just the drive to reproduce. And without lust, humankind will have died out. Hell, every living organism would have died out if we all only had sex for the fun of it.

So what has that gotta do with infatuation? Well, scroll up abit and re read. I said, infatuation is lust.

Infatuation is just another name for the drive we have to reproduce. Like religion is just another name for the fears we all have.

And if you think that "the drive to reproduce" means the drive to have sex all the time, you're wrong. "The drive to have sex all the time" is nymphomaniac. Not lust. When someone starts calling you a nympho, look to yourself for self-reflection.

But anyway, I digress.

The drive to reproduce doesn't mean just having sex, getting the other party pregnant, and tada, the end. For humans it means making a family. For many animals as well. Creating a family is part of the instinct to reproduce, to ensure survival. A wolf pack is formed on such lines. A family of beavers is formed on such lines. A nest of ants is formed on such lines. A bear mother and cub's relationship is formed on such lines. Even animals which mate excessively during the mating season have an innate instinct to form families.

This is more so with humans. When we want to reproduce, we look for a mate; a life partner. Someone to carry our seed, or contribute it; someone to give birth, create birth; someone to look after the newborn, or protect it. That's the drive to survival, to reproduction. That is lust. When you look at a hot body, you may "lust" after it. Whether or not you want to be with that person for the rest of your life is besides the point. When you look at someone and want to be with him/her for the rest of your life, that points straight to the need to propagate.

Still don't get it?

To propagate means to ensure survival of your race. To ensure survival means to survive. To survive means to create a family which can thrive and fend off starvation and predation. All this is rolled up into that one instinct called, "The drive to propagate/reproduce", which = lust.

Does it make sense now? If lust is the drive to create a family so that you can have children so that they will survive, then lust automatically means to find a life-partner as well. Doesn't this sound very close to infatuation now? When you are infatuated, you want to be the life partner of that person. Whether or not that person reciprocates is a human reaction. Nothing to do with instincts, and thus, nothing to do with infatuation.

That explains why, when someone rejects you, your infatuation need not fade immediately. That explains why you do sometimes think of that person even when he/she is not around. Because infatuation is lust, and lust is the drive to find a life partner.

That also explains how, sometimes, you can be infatuated to two people at once. Not many people realise this, but more times than you would care to count, you are infatuated. And sometimes, with more than one. More than two, in fact. Why, that might even go some way to explain why some people commit adultery. Certainly, that is a more logical explanation than saying that adultery is the work of the devil; especially if the devil and his counterpart doesn't exist.

I can't go into details of the feelings, since I rarely feel any such thing anymore, but give me a few more years, and maybe I can tell you more about those feelings. But the logic, the theory never changes. No matter how many times you are infatuated, no matter with how many you are infatuated at one go, it doesn't change the fact that infatuation is lust, and that it is no more real than love, no more mysterious than any other instinct.

Infatuation, Love or Lust?

The truth is sometimes cruel, but well, life sucks. Get used to it.

Looking to the future~
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Entertainment or End-the-atainment?

Humans are well known for their myriad abilities. From inventing a light-bulb to discovering that E=MC squared. From the bullet train to the atomic bomb. From doing trigonometry to calculating accounts. From building the Empire State Building to Apollo 13. Humans have never been disputed as the biggest brains on planet Earth. I mean, this is perfectly true, tell me, have you ever seen a dolphine do sums? Have you ever seen a monkey build rockets?

Humans are undoubtedly the smartest creatures on Earth. Granted, we are not the strongest, neither do we have physical specialties, like the bat's super hearing, nor the dog's super smell. We don't have the gorilla's super strength, or the wolf's super speed. Neither have we the elephant's size advantage, or the falcon's air superiority. And while we might be tricked by animals once in a while, it is without a doubt we are the smartest, cleverest, and with the most potential to develope intelligently.

Well, the above are all proven, or assumed, scientific theories.

I say it is all bullshit.

Humans may be intelligent, but they are certainly not smart or clever. Since when did people who bomb others with atomic bombs be termed smart? Since when did people who drive a plane into the WTC that his fellow men made be termed clever? Since when did people who sit in a large, cold, darkened room and stare at a huge eye-damaging screen, chewing unhealthy pop-corn and drinking soda like a mindless zombie be termed either smart, or clever?

Entertainment, they call it.

End-the-atainment, I call it.

The more humans do mindless things such as watch movies and anime, the more we degenerate. From noble, kingdom building, to the space age, we're slowly, but surely and steadily, regressing back into our primitive age. With every movie being aired, thousands of brain cells in the world are destroyed. Even more eyes are damaged beyond repair. And uncountable teenagers' minds have been tainted.

Noblemen who worked hard to provide for their people, are being replaced by tyrants who act under the name of justice and judgement. Who declare war against countries because of suspected nuclear weapon possession. Government who act under the guise of democracy, but is actually a tyranny bent on turning an island and its natives into its own huge gambling den by buidling casinoes in the name of "Tourism". Not to mention poaching endangered animals, cloning, genetic engineering and also transplanting without consent. Well, with dead consent that is. And I've not even touched on STDs yet.

Well, what has all these got to do with Entertainment, you ask.

What has it all got to do with End-the-atainment? I'll tell you:

Deep Impact - Note the very obvious parallels depicted of the United States of America's tyranny. The "Extinction-level event" that was the meteor on a collision course to Earth was code named "E.L.E." or "Elly", and was mistaken for the president's newest affair. It was made during the Clinton administration too. Obvious cause of STD.

Initial - D - Need I say anything at all? Indecent exposure, purposeful with-holding information regarding racing cars and its dangers, malicious casting to attract even teenage girls, and introducing the idea of a "sexy swimsuit" to children and infants. Major cause of almost every social problem I can think of. I mean, which mother would not disown a child who declares he wants to race down Bukit Timah hill on their skate-scooter? Just the embarrassment is enough for anyone to disown the child.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Another great writer's work flushed down the sewage along with LOTR (Spell it out, Lord of the Rings, for fucking gods' sake) and the tantrum-prone Harry.

Naruto - Just the dragginess of this anime would cause lung haemorrhage. Translation = vomit blood. Stupid storyline also helps to increase illiteracy rate as it exponentially increases the SQ in its watchers: the Stupidity Quotion.

Shaman King - 'Nuff said. The corny name by itself is lame enough. The lame jokes in the show are even lamer still. Can you imagine a lame lame joke? I mean, as in a lame joke that lames? That the coldness you feel is only the tip of the iceberg, that cliche meant quite literally.

I could go on, but it would take you the better part of your month to read through all that.

Think about it. All these End-the-atainment would one day be the downfall of humankind.

MARK MY WORDS.

Looking to the future~
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