Global Dialogues

When in a political context, for too many still, the word love sounds embarrassingly funny. If one dares to use the word political love in a progressive political environment one always has to make it look academically serious enough so not to be a laughing stock. And this has to do with the tradition of our political behavior as secular progressives and perhaps in a deeper sense, with our inherent arrogance. An attempt to change this culture that prompts us to imagine love as a concept beneath ourselves takes some courage to look like a fool. So, here’s a story about my foolish attempt. 

 Vienna. June 2025. Revolutionary Love Symposium, organized by Srecko Horvat and Milo Rei. The audience is primarily young activists and academics who are experts in political theory to varying degrees. The mood is solemn, as it mostly is in such gatherings. The speakers, like myself, are trying hard to connect the word love to a high-brow intellectual context so that we don’t embarrass ourselves. As we strive to make the word abstract enough to sound sober, I feel a strong urge to deconstruct the context radically. 

While I talk about our need to borrow some mannerisms from the religious congregations to make each other feel like “being held” in these destructive times, and that the religious traditions of welcoming people are far more compassionate than the progressive political groups, I step down from the stage and begin holding hands of the people, asking how they are—like a humble clergy would do. “Why is this basic expression of love monopolized by religion?” I ask, “Why are we so cynical about this simple expression of love in a political context? Why is it easier for humans to show compassion to each other when God is the intermediary?” 

Some members of the audience hide their secondhand shame by covering their faces with their hands, while others giggle with a cringe. I giggle a little while imitating a priest myself. However, at that moment, there was a real question: Are we, as the knowledgeable secular progressives, too arrogant to look like ordinary people who are more courageous to admit that they are in fear, feeling lonely, and on the brink of despair? Or why do we lack our own rituals of love in political contexts? Better to ask: Are these still insignificant, almost embarrassingly banal questions in a world where organized and mobilized hate has become the most potent tool of fascism on a global level? When all kinds of human togetherness is under attack? 

Today is the time to rediscover the new answers to these old questions. The liberation theology that stems from Latin America, of which the late Pope Francis was one of the most refined representatives, has already discussed such questions decades ago and practiced its answers in the most severe conditions when “America’s backyard” was soaked in blood and political cruelty. Similarly, in the Muslim World, during the non-aligned movement of the 50s and the 60s, a less known yet similar tradition was briefly exercised until it was mercilessly suppressed both by international powers and the brutal forces of conservative Islam. In short, once the brave attempt of a deep alliance between progressive religion and the left was made. Then, the progressives were humble enough to learn from the theology. Or perhaps, their awareness of their desperation was thorough enough to open their culture to religion’s thousands-year long expertise with humans and its practices of love. The fact that they could be suppressed only through violence should be proof of their righteousness and the power of such cooperation.

Ece Temelkuran is a novelist and political thinker who explores challenges to democracy on a global scale.