Today I opened Pandora Radio on my phone and quickmix played this song:
"All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need."
Its the all too familiar song "All You Need is Love" by none other than THE Beetles (stress on the THE). As my brain absorbs the song I begin ponder more deeply about its message. So... all that you really need is love right?
Actually, its wrong on several fronts and here is my argument.
1. To live, you also need money. Unless you sell your love on the open market, "love" itself does not generate any income. But selling love is prostitution and is illegal by US law. You will probably get arrested and fined probably more than you got paid. Also, if you do sell love in the open market in Nevada (on the assumption of without a "pimp"), where it is legal (apparently) you will be undoubtedly outcompeted by black markets in southern Asian countries such as Cambodia and Thailand. Let's face it: Asians out-compete everyone (take the Chinese for example). Thus selling love is not profitable nor is it legal in parts of the world that would read this blog.
2. To live for more than 3 days you need water. To live more than 30 days, you need food. If you only depend on "love", you will likely die of dehydration, starvation or all of the above. Now, its needless to say, of course you can eat your lover and drink their blood for water. But as Johnny Depp insightfully stated in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, "that is called cannibalistic, my dear children". Also, in order to drink your lovers' blood and eat their flesh, you will first need to kill them which is not only a social and legal taboo, but you will also, in the process, lose the "all you need" thing in life. Realistically, love is not food.
3. To live, one would need air to breathe. Now it is possible to extract all the oxygen and essential air components such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide out of your "lover"'s body but that process would take immense scientific research, investment and long FDA approval. By the time you find a machine that can do that, your will have likely suffocated to death due to lack of oxygen. To say the least, the process is like trying to make lead into gold (a tragic love story huh?).
So I urge you, Mr. THE Beetles, please think of a better message for your songs and please think before you mislead generations of your loyal listeners (including, I, myself). I mean, look at where we are today? I rest my case.
-Luk
