All We Need Is Love

I woke up to a television program on UR, SVT. I don’t know what the name of the program was, but it was quite interesting. The theme of the documentary seemed to be about language and the origin of man. There were some stuff about Lucy and the first humans. I think I now have come to a stage where I think of the future with a very selective perception. When I saw the program this morning I thought not of the monkey-people long time ago, but how their behavior can make us predict the very distant future.



Yesterday, when eating sushi to lunch with my group members, I once said that our morals and behavior change dramatically over time. Even short time. For you who know Swedish I’d like to quote Hjalmar Söderberg’s Doktor Glas:

”Moralen hör till husgerådet, inte till gudarna. Den skall begagnas; den skall inte härska. Och den skall begagnas med urskillning, ‘med ett litet saltkorn’. Det är klokt att ta seden dit man kommer; det är enfaldigt att göra det med övertygelse. Jag är en resande i världen; jag ser på människornas seder och tar upp vad jag har bruk för. Och moral kommer av ”mores”, seder; den vilar helt och hållet på seden, bruket; den har ingen annan grund.”

I will not try to translate this into English, since I couldn’t do it righteous. Even with the ongoing globalization, I think most people will have one native tongue; usually the language we first are accustomed to as newborns. To me, all languages have different tones. Translations never tell you everything. At its best, it tells you the same thing in a different way. If I’d try to say what the Swedish quote was about, in its essence, I would say that it learns us that morals do not reflect what is right and wrong, but what is said to be right and wrong.

To get back to the sushi lunch, I told my group mates that even our great grandfathers and great grandmothers would think we are all sluts, if they would see us all today, sometimes changing boy- and girlfriends as often as we buy new shoes. I have always been somewhat puzzled by how most Swedish people do not believe in God, but as the same time go to church to marry the man or woman they love; swearing to love this person in eternity in front of this God they don’t believe in. There is a very funny dialogue in the L'Étranger by Albert Camus. The protagonist’s girlfriend asks him if he loves her. “I don’t think so”. “Will you marry me?” she then asks. “Sure”. The really funny thing is, I don’t know who he most weird, him or us.

I’m not a religious man, but I have always loved the idea of monogamy. For some years, I have questioned this, thinking I have just been indoctrinated by some obsolete religious brain wash. That’s why I was so delighted this morning, when I heard about the homo erectus. They were the first human species that lived in pairs, long before religion.

“Man ska inte vara ensam. Man ska inte vara många. Man ska vara två”,

Hjalmar Söderberg once said.

I think about the monkey-people, living together two and two thousands of years ago. That’s why we’ll still live in pairs with the person we love, after all religion is gone. We don’t need it. All we need is love.