Love and power illustrate perfectly one of the great formulae of game theory.
Power is the ultimate zero-sum game. The more power I share, the less power I have. There’s only so much to go around so, the more I give away, the less I have.
Love is the exact opposite. The more I share, the more I have, because love, like friendship, influence, even knowledge, is the kind of thing that I only ever really acquire by sharing.
So that is why power is always connected with conflict, because I want more and that means less for you and therefore you must oppose me. Whereas love is always associated with cooperation because it means that what we can do together is so much greater than what we could do alone.
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