What if we think of love as a drug to be possessed that is a temporary solution to alleviate existential loneliness? Nietzsche thought of the feeling of being in love as inseparable from greed. We view others as commodities which when they tick certain boxes, we can then start this mutually beneficial transaction with them. We need to possess them and we fall in love, intoxicated by the feeling! I want X from you, and I need to give you Y to get it. The entire SMP notion facilitates this human trading.

It’s only inevitable that any single relationship, or purchase, or trade, becomes boring after a while (desensitised of it marginal utility) and you either tolerate boredom or you try to flee by finding “true love”elsewhere.

Looking for another high to forget about your problems and insecurities. When the positive effects of the love drug wear out, many try to convert the ones they love into slaves in an effort to ensure the prolonged protection from the wilderness, their insecurities and their weaknesses. Once you have a slave that complements you (your other half/ significant other) you don’t need to face your own weaknesses, you can safely hide.

This existential loneliness is a result of consciousness. Seeing yourself as an ego, seeing yourself as separate from everything else seeing nature as something to exploit for your own benefit. This alienation is bound to make you lonely and try to exploit others to alleviate the pain, just as one very often sees nature as something to exploit and not to live in harmony with.