Unthinkable: Even wrongdoers deserves ‘loving attention’ - a new work of philosophy reinforces the argumentIris Murdoch : 'Good is the magnetic centre towards which love naturally moves.' Photograph: Ulf Andersen/Getty ImagesNow before you think The Irish Times is giving a free pass to wrongdoers hear me out — because I love you, in a profound but not a weird way.
Out goes the Christian ideal of wishing for your neighbour what you would want for yourself, something that requires superhuman virtue. In comes the idea of love as looking. A More Loving World makes the humanistic argument that we are all essentially flawed — the perfect person does not exist. So trying to guarantee everyone is judged against the letter of the law is a kind of self-hatred.
Sarah Stein Lubrano, head of content for A More Loving World, says she sympathises with those who believe justice should take priority over love but “I also think the question is less straightforward than this”.First, love and justice operate on different “scales”, she tells The Irish Times. “In social justice the appropriate scale of thought is wide, and long-term, and it is not individuals by themselves that require changing or addressing.
“Love is not valuable simply because it’s ‘nice’ or ‘feels good’ ... It provides an invitation for those who have done things wrong to rejoin a conversation, or alter their lives.”