Lets set up a hypothetic situation. Take any random person, and lets say he or she is knowledgeable about one topic, or even two. Is this not how most people are? Don’t people tend to be better at particular things or have “specialties” in certain areas? Having said this, it is safe to say that most people are trapped in their own “limited realm” of information, or as the podcast “The Truth Is Out There… Isn’t it?” by WNYC, New York Public Radio calls it, as people having preconceived notions about certain things they already know or are familiar about. 

            Beginning with the first story about the Gullible expert being fooled in a Pansy Scheme, he is only limited to the area that he is the most educated about, which is the psychology about why people do dumb things. His brilliance in that area is what made him, but on the other hand it ended up hurting him as well. This also goes for the Newton comparison mentioned by the expert, “I can solve heavenly calculations (or something), but I cannot understand human nature (or something too)”. The point being here is, due to people’s lack of knowledge about certain areas, they may need to rely on someone else or some other source that is knowledgeable in that area they are not. 

            This paints the reality that everyone lives everyday. From the weather channel to the meat in the freezer, or even the educators of the world, everyone needs everyone else to basically be more "knowledgeable". If the weather lady says its 70 degrees outside, people just believe her, it not like they are able to disprove her. No one really knows what good meat or bad meat looks like, so there is a tag with a rating that someone made on the sticker. The reason why "knowledgeable" is in quotes is because most of the information that we know or take in is from other people. 

             Just think of any random fact that you learn, where did you get that information? A magazine article that someone wrote, something someone said on a TV show, maybe what a friend told you, whatever, people take queues from other people. Many people don't realize that without other people, they would not know anything besides what they see in front of them. 

            Take something as silly as gossip. Its not fact and its usually made up, but people believe it as fact. This is where the darkness casts its shadow on people. Unless individuals are scientists that analyze data to formulate a conclusion, no one really knows what the facts are, so, again, people rely on other people for information. 

            This relates to their idea about risks versus uncertainties. Given much data and information, risks can be calculated, while lacking knowledge about something becomes uncertainty. Within the realm of familiarity or what we are good in, we take risks because we know what most results will be. If we are not familiar with something, hence like Newton, we may need to rely on an outside idea. This is where people can be left vulnerable. 

            In a sense, most people have bits and pieces of the puzzle, but to fill the missing parts, or the uncertainty, people make this compromise of agreeing with something most people believe in, which gives them that sense of normalcy.

Then again, they also play around with this notion of the more knowledge you have, the more extreme your point of views can become. The more pieces you have the more you see the whole picture, therefore the point of this is the more you know, there are more variables you can use to formulate a solution.

What about the people who think they are right, but they can be wrong? This is where the alien guy comes into play. He basically proved that the idea of people having preconceived notions about something is very true. When someone truly believes in something, it is hard to convince him or her otherwise. As a result, if they were to hear things about that belief, they are already naturally biased as to how they will take in that information. They are already trying to anticipate what they want to hear, rather than if they are wrong or The Truth.

In conclusion, as I have mentioned over and over, people just simply need other people to learn more things or for help. No one knows everything, but people want to know many things. What do they do to satisfy that thirst for knowledge? They reach out to resources that are made by other people. Having these preconceived notions about certain things can keep a person from, really, expanding their mind. People need other people to know everything. In a sense, the whole world as a collective knows most of it all, but as the individual, they are restricted to what is already in their mind.

             There are times when people need to understand something. A simple touch on someone’s hand can make any pulse react. That it may just be the thrill of boy meets girl and opposites attract. Sometimes it can be physical, other times it can just be logical, but one needs to try to ignore that it can mean more than just that. A question that we, and the lovely Tina Turner, always asks ourselves about that moment, “What’s love got to do, got to do with it?” Coincidentally, Anjula Razdan also wrote an article called, “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” where she has a discussion between arranged marriages and romantic marriages, and where love plays its role in it.

So here is the million-dollar question, what is love and is that necessary to have a healthy marriage or relationship? Based on Anjula’s discussion and like many other things, I think it depends on the situation of the person or the couple.

Humans are intelligent, so therefore they are able to think and make conscious decisions. Since people are able to process thought, they are most likely to add flavor to their thinking. In other words, people like to tie their thoughts with feelings and emotions. It is within human nature to be attracted to the opposite sex, so to add some flavor to it, people have this thought or idea called “love”.

            In terms of having arranged marriages, having goals is the main drive, and feelings and emotions are put aside. Typically these marriages are decided between families, so really the couple to be does not have a choice. Within the families, when deciding to arrange a marriage, they would share common ideas or goals. Lets take an obvious example; two families want to produce a really tall male. Family A has a tall girl and Family B had a tall boy, so both families fork up their tall kids to get married to spit out more tall kids.

In any case, love is typically irrelevant in arranged marriages, if love means liking a person. As a matter of fact, the couple doesn’t even need to know each other or even like each other in that matter; all they need to fulfill is what needs to be done to satisfy what the whole family wants. This toys with the idea of the greater good of the whole rather than the individual, love in this case is within the family and away from the couple.

            On the other hand, choice or free will is essential to liking or “loving” someone. It wouldn’t make sense to get married if you hated the person, right? A romantic marriage is what most people want because it makes them feel like they have someone to lean on, or to just feel something; it goes hand-in-hand with emotions and feelings. Whatever they do, whatever they feel, typically has something to do with their other half. If people like each other and form a connection, then love may be lingering around them.

            In contrary, Anjula mentions how about half of these romantic marriages fall down the drain, so does love play a roll there or was love never present? In my opinion, I don’t think we will know the answer, even the vice versa, of love playing a roll in successful marriages.

Having split parents, I have obviously asked something about what happened between them. I find it funny that their answers have stayed fairly consistent, that it was good at first then bad, maybe because they had a kid or my dad’s job. Whatever the reason, something happened in these romantic marriages.

Depending of the individual’s situation or the couples’ situation, things happen and they have consequences. Whether these things are good or bad, wanted or not wanted, people move on, and its possible, in a sense, that love can change its shape. Like when couples have kids, situations change drastically. Rather than caring for one person, they now need to care for another; hence the flavor of love can begin to taste different.

To recapitulate, what does love got to do with anything? Two people share common things or ideas, make each other laugh and feel better in each other’s presence, so does love got something to do with that? Two people get married only to make their family happy despite of how much the couple dislike or not know each other, does love got to do with that also? Love is an idea that is hard to understand. It makes people feel different, plays with their emotions, and makes people do certain things. Some people claim they found it, while others are still seeking it. Yes this is one of those rather mushy gushy topics, but just think, what’s love but a sweet old fashioned notion, what does love got to do with it?