Walking the Tightrope

“When we see someone suffering, we like to use this opportunity to take possession of him; that is for example what those who would become his benefactors and those who have compassion for him do, and they lust for new possessions that is awakened in them ‘love’; and their delight is like that aroused by the prospects of a new conquest. Sexual love, however, is what most clearly reveals itself as a craving for new property: the lover wants unconditional and sole possession of the longed-for person; he wants a power over her soul as unconditional as his power over her body; he wants to be the only beloved, to live and to rule in the other soul as that which is supreme and most desirable….to the lover himself the rest of the world appears indifferent, pale, and worthless and that he is prepared to make any sacrifice, upset any order, subordinate any other interest; then one is indeed amazed that this wild greed and injustice of sexual love has been glorified and defied as it has in all a...