Question 1

Is love, as Cornell West describes it, an essential element of ethical, democratic citizenship?

Cornell West describes love in a sort of abstract way. Love, to him, has nothing to do with knowing, understanding, or desiring to know anything about the object of this affection besides the fact that they have the same scientific name as you. Love the 'concrete other.'Cornell West thinks you should love people because they are people. This suggests that one of the inalienable rights that you get for being born human is the love of your fellow man.
I do not agree with this. I do not think that you need to love every other person to be ethical. I think you should respect people, and try your best to understand them before decidedly hating them, but you don't have to love them. People have to earn your love. Recently, I have read two books which play a big role in my current view of the subject. "Anthem" by Ayn Rand, and "Brave New World" by Aldous Huxley. These are two different takes on a future where people put the collective 'we' before the individual. It may seem like a far reach, but the way Cornell West talks about love is echoed in the books. They say things like 'everyone belongs to everyone else'. In both of these books such a dedication of self to humanity became an obsession, to the point where individuality was even lost. The word "I" has left existance, lost, because it was not used. The main character in Anthem had this to say on losing individuality: "But I still wonder how it was possible, in those graceless years of transition, long ago, that men did not see whither they were going, and went on, in blindness and cowardice, to their fate." This is an extreme, eventual case, I realize, but an interesting take on collectivism and on where 'brotherly love' could take us.
Also, imagine a world where everyone gave away their love to every other person. What would it mean then, to love someone? Thomas Paine said, in his essay The Crisis, "What we obtain to cheap, we esteem too lightly." He is saying that anything that we come by naturally, that which we don't have to work for, means almost nothing to us. He goes on to say "it is dearness only, that gives everything it's value." We put a value on love because it takes something to achieve. When you have to work towards something it gives it dearness. I believe that just giving away love takes away it's value, and therefore it's worth in todays society.
To be an ethical, democratic citizen you need to be informed, respectful, and be constantly vigilant in deciding what is right and wrong. You need to be able to see your own errors in thinking and judgment. You can't disrespect people for disagreeing with you, and you can't set your ideas and morals in stone: you are human, and you are probably wrong. However, you do not need to love every person in your country to be a good citizen. You can sympathize with them, you can love your country, and you can feel unity with your fellow citizens, but you don't need to go as far as love. Love is something to be earned and tended, and not freely given.

Cornel West Quote

I don't remember the exact words, but what he said was



You are being lied to; if you oppose the lie, you're called a liar.


It was just the most interesting thing he said. The quote was about three lines, but this is the start of it. I don't know why, but it just stands out to me.