[98] in marriage is unavoidable, but is an expression of the fundamental estrangement^a of all human situations and of an element of estrangement in the marriage relationship also. There is also a revenge coming from the things, if they are completely controlled. We have lost the eros^b to them, and they have lost the eros to us. They come not TO US, showing us something of what they are themselves. They show only what they are by what we make of them. And so an empty eros-less relationship between man and things spreads all over the whole civilization in which this is the case. This leads me once more back to that point I want to make and which is probably the most important of it, namely the relationship of eros and the infinite possibility of the technics. This brings us into a profound theological concept: concupiscence, the concept of endless desire. Now desire to fulfill ourselves by what we are lacking, is an element of eros^c; and it is GOOD, in this respect, and it SHOULD be so. But there is the ENDLESSNESS of the desire, and this endlessness is again a symptom of estrangement^d. Where there is endless desire, there the union with anything or anybody is impossible. You immediately go beyond him or her to something else. Now this of course is especially clear in the sexual relation. You go beyond the immediate object of your sexual attraction, you fulfill it to a certain extent and then you go beyond it again. And INDEFINITELY so. Don Juan is the symbol for this. Now what is lacking in it? Why not? I would not say because it is forbidden, or anything like that. That is not an answer. But I would say: because you miss the person; because the PERSON with whom you are connected in this way,