LOVECULT
The myth of true and intimate togetherness has become the lodestar of our time. As an opponent to the diversity of lifestyles, individualism has become a global, uniformed concept. The way to personal luck, fulfillment and happiness lies in the only goal to find Mr. and Mrs. Right. The myth of love easily fulfills all criteria of pseudo-religion in that the higher power of worshiping and subjection promises to bring salvation. The tragedy of this »lovecult« doesn’t only lie in its inherent expectations; it is something that begins way earlier, in the long search for such an experience of love.
The media is firing love messages to their audience all around the clock and doesn’t show love as daily togetherness or community through life, but rather, as a competition. The world has become a commercial stage for potential lovers. The one who wins gains the one true love.
Of course, this love doctrine doesn’t come for free and it goes hand in hand with a lot of commercial interests. This necessary stage of self-improvement, in order to gain competition qualities, has become a huge market. The body becomes the most important capital in this game [and, of course, it has to be shaped].
On one side, love should be a supernatural and superhuman experience. On the other side, this luck should be well-planned, so that, on the way to perfect luck, you seek help from friendly and experienced professionals.
The collateral damage of this substitute religion is the result of the ones who choose to stay alone or those who have a different view on how a relationship should be. Their life is seen as something in deficit. They are suspicious. Something must be wrong with them. If one fails to find his or her perfect partner, it is seen as their own personal defeat.
Love plays the role of a substitute religion. She pretends to be able to answer all of the big human questions and pretends to fulfill all emotional desires. She is the ideology that stands behind the ideal couple. And in our couple-centered society, there’s only one status that counts: being one-half of a couple.
This record does not only deal with love, but it is also based around the ongoing capitalization of more and more areas of our everyday life. if we start to pay for our own emotions, if the relations to our own body and to the people around us become an optimized ideal of something we can buy, then can we call this love?