I’m not saying politics is all good, but politics gives humans the power to make all those nice things you said mean something. Tools only get passed on to the next generation because of schools and apprenticeships; political organisation of knowledge. Ingenuity only has a lasting effect because of education politics, and the political organisation of philosophy and science. Climbing Mount Everest and landing on the moon would be difficult or impossible without politics to make supply chains and organise expedition parties. Knowledge would die in a generation if not for our politics, like it does with octopodes, an animal just as smart as humans, but apolitical.

And I think love is an inherently political emotion. Apolitical animals like octopodes or lizards don’t have an evolutionary reason to develop love, except perhaps sexual love for reproduction. Look at seahorses and how political and loving they are in comparison. Or penguins. So very political, so very loving. They care for their partners and children for a long time. Love is what binds them together and lets them do all those politics. Compare with eagles, whose most advanced political organisation is “get off my lawn”. Their lack of love makes them less political.