On Hating Hate
You’ll fall into the abyss
- by David Matthews 2
OK folks, this is an issue I think needs to be addressed. America is a nation that’s right now in the midst of severe growing pains, with dozens of different cultures, hundreds of different religions, and literally thousands of different philosophies. And it’s those differences that have been causing some major friction between various factions.
And it all boils down to one word: Hate.
Believe it or not, hate is an intellectual feeling. Much like love, you can hate something without any physical stimulus present. We can hate something without really knowing why. And here’s something rather important: people can be TRAINED to hate! It’s been done before - when conflicts break out, the first thing we do is we demonize our enemy, to make them something we CAN hate! Look at what we did in both World War I and II, and again in the early years of the Cold War. We demonized our opponents by calling them names like "Krauts" or "Japs" or "Commies." We played on our own natural prejudices against anything different from us. We’re even seeing that now with corporations and "the rich." Ever listen to the rhetoric of today’s social crusaders? Everything is now an "evil industry" made to profit "the rich" because "they’re not like us."
Of course, the solution to hate has been love. Those who are of heavy religious persuasions have talked reams about "hate the sin but love the sinner." Unfortunately it’s not that simple to separate the hate from the hate-filled, or the sin from the sinner. Hate requires a symbol in order for it to continue to exist. Bigots need their token racial and ethnic symbols, socialists need industry, militias need government, religious crusaders need gambling and sex and alcohol, and Macintosh fans need Bill Gates. If it can’t be personified and demonstrated to exist, it looses it’s hold on people. So it’s nearly impossible to separate the hate from the object of hatred. It needs that object to thrive.
Then there’s the message to hate the hate. Consider the logic in hating hatred. Much like staring into Nietzsche’s abyss, you become one with it. This can best be seen by those who were once zealous about one cause, only to later convert and become equally zealous about it’s opposite. Even the Bible tells of St. Paul, who once was Saul, a zealous persecutor of those who followed the words of Jesus. Then he was converted to one who followed Jesus. However, if you examine his words and the various books of letters, you’ll find that Paul was as much of a zealot as he was before his conversion. Only now his venom was made legitimate because he was "blessed" by the Holy Sprit. Same stances, different religion and name. And you can see it in those who follow his words to the last letter.
Hate involves denying something’s basic right to exist. It’s not SUPPOSED to exist, therefore we will deny it’s right to exist. Therefore when you hate hatred, you are essentially saying hatred is not supposed to exist, therefore you will deny it’s right to exist. You essentially become that which you so rally against.
The opposite of hate is love. Funny thing about love is that it’s about ACCEPTANCE, with all of it’s flaws and imperfections. That should be the real message - love the hate, accept it’s existence. That doesn’t mean you have to condone it, but rather accept the fact that it exists.
You know today’s moralists and censorship-happy crowd just haven’t gotten the point yet. Their continued hatred of things they dislike doesn’t end hatred, it simply feeds off it and gets stronger. The message should be simple: accept that hatred exists. Deal with it, and don’t fall into it’s trap by hating it back. It’s not idealistic, but rather simply part of the brutally honest world of reality.
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