1). Love: A Reasoned Examination 2). The Politics of Values

1). Love: A Reasoned Examination
Male male romance is one of the fastest growing sub genres in publishing.
•Is there a hierarchy of importance among the words love, like or respect?
•Can we say we love objects or activities?
• How (is) will AI affect love?
• Consider love in different cultures or historically.
• Do we search for love too hard, perhaps as an obsession?
•Parental, sibling, friendship love
Is there an economic aspect to love?
•Consider love depicted in our culture via books, plays, video…
• What is the place of sex/passion with love?
•Does love change at different ages?
• Is there a difference between men, women's and other’s take on love?
•What can we say about losing love when it dissipates or through death?
•How to deal with love when it is unrequited?

2). The Politics of Values
In 2023 a Wall Street Journal/NORC survey asked people about what values were “very important” to them. Since 1998, the shares of Americans who said they highly valued patriotism, religion, having children and community involvement have all plummeted. The only value Americans came to care more about, the survey found, was making money.
Then consider the crusade for maximum individual freedom, which seemed liberatory back at Woodstock, but over the past half-century, we’ve taken it to its logical conclusion, and it has produced what the journalist Derek Thompson calls the antisocial century.
When you look at these trends through a political lens, the concept called the power of the autonomy ethos becomes clearer. In general, conservatives believe in economic freedom (low taxes, fewer regulations) and social obligations (faith, family and flag). Progressives tend to favor economic obligations to reduce inequality and more social autonomy to live whatever lifestyle you choose.
According to a Pew Research survey, 52 percent of conservatives said that the decline in marriage was a negative development for America. That view was shared by only 23 percent of liberals. According to the General Social Survey, 93 percent of liberal women who were married with children said they were happy. Only 63 percent of liberal women who were unmarried and childless said they were happy. Prioritizing loving attachments over individual autonomy results in personal happiness.
Keep in mind all this text is written by David Brooks,one of NYT'S conservative people of faith.

Respondents to this information took issue with the stats stated above because other studies show the happiest cohort is single, childless women. Or they noted that the reasons for the outcome were because they are US biased, where families lack support in every realm of human flourishing.
That said, the data he presents strongly supports a set of values that implies what one should and shouldn't value. Do you agree? What is in your list of values?