Love Is a Form of Death - Cornel West

"Love is a form of death. And you have to learn how to die in order to learn how to love," says Cornel West.
We live in a society that avoids death and yet love is an action that ultimately leads to death. In order to love we must die to ourselves, and this is the exact opposite message we get from culture every day.
He adds: in "disagreement" we're not talking about something merely political or civil, but something spiritual.

[@zethraelofteldrassil3149]

After listening to Dr. West, I always come away a better person. And, I shake my head amazed by thoughts unthinkable to me.

[@24kobe243]

They don’t make em like this man anymore. To have him on the heels of James Baldwin is a true blessing.

[@justinmiller1118]

Michael Brooks looked to be a promising voice for the same vision in the younger generation. Sadly he just passed far too young, but you can find great videos of him that we are lucky to still have.

[@Jeffreyd337]

They still make ‘em

[@Jimmy1982Playlists]

_"Justice is what love looks like in public..."_

[@beverett9866]

So much truth in so little time 🤯❤️

[@americanbrother1]

Ron Oneebrum - Any justice thats only justice soon degenerates into something less than justice. Justice must be rescued by something deeper.....LOVE. Love of truth, Love of neighbor & most of all...Love of Enemy.

[@timothyjeromewilliams8589]

Much love for Cornel WEST PHD SCHOLAR OF IMPORTANCE & EXCELLENCE!

[@0gdiosa-fi5is]

Preaching living salvation ....WEST

[@christinamitchell6796]

This was beautifully stated I need to listen this over and over.

[@monicasaffold9405]

I’m a redeemed sinner w gangsta proclivity 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

[@mn_mohawk4456]

"...You don't wanna be just well-adjusted to injustice and well-adapted to indifference. You want to be a person of integrity who leaves his mark on the world. People can say when you go that you left the world just a little better than you found it. I understand: I wanna be like that too." - Cornel West, on Letter To My Countrymen by Brother Ali. Cool to hear him go into that here too.

[@stephie7015]

Cornel West is one of the most intelligent men alive today... PERIOD!

[@thelightofsight9038]

Thank you Brother West. Just wonderful.

[@thetwilightraven]

🙏☮️💟

[@Sunset0071951]

It can be! Love of self and family is a sourse of ever lasting life. When you cross the line you give up on not only yourself but your family and community!

[@yellowisme]

"Love is a form of death. You have to learn how to die in order to learn how to love" a word.

[@ReubenNathaniel]

powerful

[@curmudgeon8584]

Deep integrity rather than cheap popularity.

[@bigdap100]

Magnificent.

[@pa7957]

Awesome ... :)))))

[@wahazitamahazion7748]

Love the true...❤

[@zal04001]

wowww just wow

[@rabbaniasamuelchaudhry7381]

Nice.

[@leamercatwild3354]

"The death of what is dead is life." "Leave the dead to bury the dead."

[@davidsheriff9274]

What does that mean?

[@Jeffreyd337]

Genius.

[@curmudgeon8584]

Man is a legendary human.

[@oscar-bc8dy]

Wow.

[@lasahe4440]

“A redeemed sinner with gangster proclivity.”

[@jjsingh04]

I don't understand part of what he said. Can someone help explain? Is he saying that we as individuals have transient (?), insatiable drives for what we think will eventually give us pleasure (but never actually will)--and that these drives are distracting (?) us from committing ourselves to love? And if so, is the point of me "dying daily" so that the transient, insatiable drives die daily? Isn't there an easier way of getting rid of them? Doesn't having me "die daily" also have the effect of my merits also "dying daily"--things that I have somewhat nurtured and developed over time, including love? I mean, if it's love that I want, why does love have to die daily; wouldn't it make more sense if it was given a chance to grow over time?

[@tylersweek9035]

Dying daily is a metaphor for the recurring need to recalibrate away from the merely selfish desires that all-too-easily govern our minds, actions, and hyper-individualistic societies, towards a more social, sacrificial, and mature moral ethic based on love. It does not preclude learning and building over time; in fact, it provides the vision and courage to do so effectively.

[@jjsingh04]

@@tylersweek9035 Wow, very well written

[@timothyjeromewilliams8589]

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐4️⃣ WEST PhD scholar par excellence..,...

[@devoradamaris]

🌎

[@EmpressCreopatraOmega]

Healing from abandonment to me was that I truly believed and trusted my self to the wrong people..I'm unpopular to the Mutual ignorant..peace

[@gcmediaclass]

too bad that this genius must share a stage or a even a moment with rick warren - mega-church guru and evangelical watch dog of presidents and more. more cornel. less rick warren. this is a powerful treatise on what real love is and at what cost it comes. the humility to take stock of your evangelical beliefs and be willing to name where they are wrong? thx mr. west.

[@elvispampier3401]

did he say ''homonautical humility''? what does that mean? please help

[@peteryokota6855]

hermeneutical humility

[@dranzageezprocva9881]

Cervantes' Don Quixote is he your Mohamed Caliban?

[@user-ik3oi7yc9c]

ELECTION 2028 SERVE THIS TRUTH THANXXXX GIVING TIL THEN

[@calldwnthesky6495]

i think if Dr. West could drop the religiously or "spiritually" inspired comments (or even platitudes) that he sprinkles into his talks, that his impact would truly be monumental...

[@idabgold1440]

Starts at 00:44

[@tmdblya]

West is critiquing the audience and his hosts and they don’t even realize it. The just laugh and say “Amen!”

[@periechontology]

Robert George is not dumb, he knows exactly what West believes and why he's saying what he's saying. He knows that West is a Marxist and the context of his commentary. He's nodding because he agrees with the general truths even if he does not agree with the particular application West has in mind. You see Conservatives don't try to boycott speakers that disagree with them, they attempt to engage them.

[@periechontology]

Do you think they didn't know what Bernie Sanders believed either when they invited him?

[@graterdeddly9527]

As much as I disagree with Cornel West, he's very likable. He can be forgiven for his endless and shameless name-dropping because they are all unquestionably important names that need dropping now more than ever. How many people throw in a reference to Cervantes as an exemplar of the use of the Spanish language? Here's an anomalous guy on the left, unabashedly religious, and even more so, unashamedly Christian. Undoubtedly a voice from the left, but not foolishly so, or at least not here. Though he's not my favorite, his quote from "Moral Man and Immoral Society" is spot on. His reference to "love thine enemy" is also welcome in a world of those who cannot manage even the basics of civility.

[@tylersweek9035]

It’s strange how people forget that Jesus was a voice from the left, a radical socialist who preached that sharing one’s possessions was the path toward the beloved community, executed for opposing the greed of the Roman Empire and the spiritual materialism of all who have become “well-adjusted to injustice,” as many are today. Like MLK said in a similar vein, “to be truly free, you must overcome the love of wealth and the fear of death.”

[@graterdeddly9527]

@@tylersweek9035 An interesting take on the ideas of Jesus Christ, though I would suggest that Christ is so far beyond mere "left" and "right" in today's political constructs, that it's hard to describe it in a short blurb. Suffice it to say that when he told the Pharisees to render up to Caesar that which was Caesar's and unto God that which was His, he set the stage for the American First Amendment, and the general idea of keeping the intricacies of politics and those of faith separate to the extent possible -- not the hostility toward the religious that the modern left spouts on about (they utterly reject Jesus and all he stood for).

[@isaiasortiz100]

@@graterdeddly9527 Youre critique of the left is too general and it disregards those who believe in leftists ideologies because of their religous and spiritual foundations. Theres plenty of us and theres a deep history of latin american catholics and african american protestants who occupied the political space with jesus as their moral standard. That was my first time hearing someone suggest that Jesus was advocating for the separation of church and state in that text. That feels like quite a reach.

[@graterdeddly9527]

​@@isaiasortiz100 This is not the kind of forum that lends itself to an intricate explication of complex opinions on political systems, and hence sometimes critique end up being somewhat "general". I've been criticized in the past by others for being too verbose and have gotten quite a lot of "TLDR" in responses to posts. Process aside, in the past few decades, the atheist Left has almost entirely supplanted those who are of a spiritual political vantage and hold religious views. Marx was an avowed atheist (religion as “Opium of the Masses”) and has come to envelope that part of the political spectrum just as his thought has. Even though there are some usually classified on "the Right" as being of similar disbelief, they are not easily named. Hitler, Mussolini, Ayn Rand are ones who are usually called right-wing and were atheists, but traditional-minded conservatives disavow all three. Even those named made accommodations with the church (and The Church for that matter -- the Lateran Treaties were rather an accomplishment for Benito), atheism is not usually openly expressed by any major conservative, none come to mind. I don't see how saying that “Jesus was advocating for the separation of church and State” is a stretch at all. He didn't talk that much about politics, but His phrase "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22:21) is an early incarnation of that concept. He also said that His “Kingdom” was not “of this world.” While Christianity infuses Western Civilization, and at its heart it is “Judeo-Christian” along with “Greco-Roman”, at some point during the years following the Enlightenment, formal religious participation in the political arena diminished. I don’t agree with those who take this “separation of Church and State” to the absurd levels that those on the Left have, as in driving any positive mention of God from the schools or deploring things like having “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Nor do I disagree that many on the left have been motivated by religious belief -Liberation Theology priests took their fervor a bit too far and likely didn’t do anyone any good in the larger political picture. Martin Luther King, on the other hand, though not exactly the paragon of religiosity in his personal life, did bring religious concepts to the public discourse and that was a positive thing. Even so, the left is far more associated with Christopher Hitchens (an ironic first name) and his crusade against religion. His late-in-life work “God Is Not Great” is somewhat demonstrative of the hostility the Left has shown. Bill Maher is another example, he felt strongly enough about it to make an unfunny documentary attacking religious in the political sphere (“Religulous” poorly named, poorly made). I think those examples are a fair representation, and my experience has been that - in general - the farther left a person is, the more hostile to religion he is likely to be. Not always, as Cornel West demonstrates. You, it seems, as well. However, this is not typical, and as time has gone on, gets all the more atypical. It’s one aspect of the political left in the United States that is a fundamental problem, some of the most loyal voters of the Democratic Party - African Americans - are among the most religious, and that disconnect has always been a problem they gloss over as best they can, but with that party’s move to harder left, it has opened up fissures that are not easily hidden or obscured.

[@isaiasortiz100]

@@graterdeddly9527 Hitler was not an atheist. Your association to the left with Marx and Hitchens is reductive and Im willing to bet a large portion of those on the left dont consider themselves to be operating in this secular tradition. While I disagree with both of those mens ideologies wholesale I think a critique of the market and religous dogma is good. I think there are christians who, maybe without realizing, are advocating for a theocracy and have been for the past 50 or so years. While I dont live my life from the secular lense I recognize it is an moral imperative that the state doesnt promote one faith over the other. I agree its an apolitical message Jesus is giving. Paul continues this when he frames God as being so sovereign there is nothing for the church to do but pray and obey. The issue i had with your early comment is you made it seem like Jesus is talking about what the state should do in relation to the church and that isnt the context. The context is he is talking to his followers and making it clear that their ambitions are not political. As an american who votes and tries to be politically active and also a Christian I wrestle with this concept daily.

[@HenryLeslieGraham]

cringe.