Working for love

A post by Samyak Shah

Since the time we were young, more or less, we've been made to work for every single thing that we have in life. No, there's nothing wrong with it because it is in a sense teaching us that many things in life are supposed to be 'earned' as they're either in scarcity or are just too damn expensive to be given just like that as a reward for a small activity/chore.

What they actually mean is: The world is not generous every single time and many a times, you'll have to toil day in and day out to get something that you want.

However, because a huge majority doesn't 'want to hurt others by telling them the truth in a harsh manner or getting the true intentions of providing something out in the open', they resort to reading between the lines and objective & reward based techniques to pass on information or impart knowledge which, though not completely wrong but, is most certainly a mindf*ck.

My point is: Love is something that every individual desires, it is something that every individual needs, it is sometimes essential and most importantly, it needs to be given and it is needed to be felt by everyone.

There shouldn't be this gap between receiving and giving which needs to be filled with work because if we're saying that one needs to work to get love that they desire, they have to do something that they don't want to but have to because we want them to and because we possess the one thing that they require, and that's only fair going by the standard logic of demand and supply.

Beginning from the childhood itself, parents have been conditioning children to behave the way they want them to by bribing and manipulating them with something or the other that they know the kid loves, and they're made to sometimes do things they would not otherwise do because they want the reward without always realizing that they're being manipulated and the cycle is settling in their brains that to give someone the love they want, they have to do something that you want them to.

Sometimes, I agree that, manipulation is needed to make sure the child does something that is seemingly essential for them, but luring them with something they love to make them do something is not always the way to go and it has to be understood irrespective of the general logic of demand and supply.

A person cannot and should not be stripped off of something so vital and essential for one's mental and physical well-being because a person devoid of love, or someone who is set in the cycle that in order for them to get the love they want they have to do things the giver wants them to do, might just become a machine in the figurative and borderline literal sense.

The reward-punishment system that is set in place for conditioning still works fine if done with a purpose of well-being, and destroying someone psychologically so that they obey one's orders without question is not a purpose to tomtom.

To everyone out there working so that you get a reward and that reward earns you someone's love, it's not love. That's a transaction. You're providing an investment and they're providing a service for your investment.