Good post. Great catch on the Renaissance "romanticism" that altered people's perception to create a new image of "love" in our consciousness. I have also mentioned that in some of my own work (not on steemit).

"Love" can indeed be blind. But as you explain, it's not really "love", hehe. It's more accurate for people to say infatuation with our desires, it becomes more correlated with attachment through desire. The term "love" has been diluted in meaning these days to mean so many things. The biochemical aspect of infatuation is referred to as "love", but its not the deeper love of "philos" or "storge" that can be had through mutual respect and admiration of others that extends beyond personal sexual relationships and won't be extinguished simply because we get infatuated with the romantic personal variant or the duty of parenthood variant.

Today, we do use the word "love" to sell so much. We use "love" as a term to refer to things we like, and what other people like, which is often referring to commercial products and activities. I "love this". You "love" that. And there is a commercialized day to sell "love" called Valentine's Day where YOU MUST obey to buy things for the woman... LOL. TO be fair, it is indeed harder for women in the sexual and parenting dimension, as they do usually bear the brunt of the responsibility for raising children in their belly and afterwards.

But there is a valid use for the word, once it can be understood for what it should refer to in reference to reality. There is something to trace the word back to in reality, if we want to find it.

Are you familiar with "The Four Loves" or the "6 Love Styles"? I am not saying these are that specific original definition, but they are other variants that describe parts of our reality. So I don't agree with "If we had to accept that love is just a meme we invented, we would have to accept we are just brutes—and we are." There is a reflection from reality that creates word symbols to begin with. That is their purpose.

• Storge – affection, familial
• Philia – friendship, bond, common interest
• Eros – romance, in love, loving someone
• Agape – unconditional love

• Eros – From the Greek word for “erotic or passionate”; a passionate physical and emotional love based on aesthetic enjoyment; stereotype of romantic love; hormones flying.
• Ludus – From the Latin word meaning “sport or play, a love that is played as a game or sport; winning; fun; may have multiple partners at once; short relationship; lust, getting laid, conquest.
• Storge – From the Greek word meaning “friendship”‘; an affectionate love that slowly develops from friendship, based on similarity, not physical.
• Pragma – From the Greek word meaning “practical”; love that is driven by reason, not feeling; practical; common goals shared.
• Mania – From the Greek word meaning “frenzy”; highly volatile love; obsession; fueled by low self-esteem; need for love; possessive; jealous; highs and lows, Hollywood mania love affairs: angry love, revenge love, killing yourself, controlling others, addiction like heroine.
• Agape – From the Greek word meaning “divine or spiritual”; “selfless altruistic love”; “true love”; sacrifice anything for the partner; “selfless love”.

I will put a link to my site about how "Truth is Love, Love is Truth", for any who wish to read. But it was written a while ago and has some woowoo concepts I was influenced with at the time tied into it. Despite that, there is still valid material to be gained from understanding the supremacy of truth as the highest form of love. Truth, non-contradiction, the basis for understanding and communicating about reality.

Take care. Peace.