Hate is a thing.
It is an important thing. I've written about its institutionalization and employment in a political/editorial context. But it is often poorly understood.
Extreme examples are easy to recognize when we encounter them—genocides, pogroms, e.g, being obvious ones. Other instances are readily typifiable, especially in extremes —bigotry, racism, misogyny, misandry, gay bashing, political or religious extremism, etc.
We've probably all known someone whose entire being was eaten up with hatred for something or someone or some group. So much so that we begin to suspect there might be something comforting, if not rewarding, about it for that person.
But we also find ourselves saying something like 'I hate brussels sprouts,' or 'I hate those shoes', or 'I hate cocktail parties,' or 'I hate having to wake up early,' or 'I hate the Dallas Cowboys,' or even:
We all have our pet hates.
So, what does, say, a food aversion have in common with an effort to wipe an entire race of people off the face of the earth? Are they different in kind or merely in degree?
Let's investigate.
(to be continued)
Chickadees gonna chick.
ReplyDeleteAnd Tufted Titmice gonna ???
~
Jim H., Avast is a commonly used, free antivirus program.
ReplyDeleteAs for what to do about it...I don't know. It's not like revolver maps hurts anything (AS FAR AS WE KNOW!...MAYBE THE NSA IS CONTROLLING IT???)
~
Thanks. I'll check it out. I use a Mac, so I'm on a different anti-virus gig. Remember McAfee? Sheesh. That AV program sucked so bad, constantly messing up my OS.
ReplyDeleteSo, yeah, maybe it's a back door for BIG Bro. But, then again, they've got Goggle/Blooger. I have to admit I get a kick when I log on to check my updating blogroll and see someone else flagged in, say, Abu Dhabi or Tokyo or Sydney or London. My vanity is my weakness.
I love you and am not crippled in my capacity for love, but you are totally not taking away my hatred of the Dallas Cowboys, you effing hippie. Although I admit that when I saw the post title, I was hoping it would be about me and the University of East Carrboro.
ReplyDeletei) i've noticed that sometimes the title phrase here is used in response to a communication from others that includes well-founded criticism, not hate per se
ReplyDeleteii) a couple of quotes from one of my favorite authors:
“Thus, the ultimate choice for a man, inasmuch as he is driven to transcend himself, is to create or to destroy, to love or to hate.”
― Erich Fromm
“There is perhaps no phenomenon which contains so much destructive feeling as 'moral indignation,' which permits envy or hate to be acted out under the guise of virtue.”
― Erich Fromm, Man for Himself: An Inquiry into the Psychology of Ethics