From buddy  Thu Nov 16 10:52:43 1995
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 1995 10:52:39
Subject: oracle


The Usenet Oracle has pondered your question deeply.
Your question was:

> Tell me oh great and wonderous Oracle.....Why *do* fools fall in in
> love?

And in response, thus spake the Oracle:

} There are several schools of thought on this:
}
} 1) Molecular biology
}
} Basically, a huge hunk of your DNA is there to make sure that the REST
} of your DNA gets a chance to be copied.  When your brain is getting
} constructed, a hunk of it is allocated just for the "reproduce"
} function. In order to accomplish that, it's allowed to tell you any lie
} it wants to.
}
} So when a potential mate shows up, this hunk of your brain tells you
} lies like "you are attractive" and "it'll work out this time".  If you
} try to interfere, eventually it just says "Look, bucko, I was built by
} DNA which has been on this planet for 3.5billion years now.  If you
} think you can outwit a veteran of 3.5billion years of the struggle to
} survive, then you have another think coming."
}
} 2) Self-selection of sample.
}
} If two sets of people begin romances, and one of them fails, the people
} in the failed one think of themselves as foolish.  The people in the
} other one think of themselves as lucky.  So both groups had romances,
} but the one that flopped is the one that is marked as "foolish".
}
} 3) Basic misunderstanding.
}
} This is the school of thought which says that love isn't something you
} fall into: love is something you grow.  If you expect to just fall into
} a perfect relationship, you're doomed.  It has to grow, as the people
} involved nurture it.
}
} 4) The "birds & bees" explanation.
}
} Fools fall in love because they're bird-brains.
}
} You owe the Oracle a copy of Richard Dawkin's book _The Selfish Gene_.