Philosophy of Hate

[seireikhaan]

I've been pondering this for a long while, and I think that the backroom really is the place to bring this issue to light. Wherever I go, whether it is around my university, home, or online, I find that there is, in each person I meet, some kind of hate or scorn. I myself have been guilty of this many a time in the past as well, particularly towards politicians and others in high ranking positions. And yet, upon delving on the issue, I've found something. Hate, scorn, disdain, they do nothing. It does not help me. Hating politicians, bigots, the ignorant, and those that I have severe disagreement with; it serves no purpose. Holding the burning candle in my heart of heart only singed me.

However, as I stated, I find hate and scorn everywhere, from almost every person I've met. Why? Why do we humans succumb so easily to hate? Do so few really delve on the issue personally? Do many people gain personal reprieve from hate, by assigning blame for the world's problems to others? Again, I repeat; I have failed to find any purpose through hate. It blinds those it encumbers. It harms those who are on the end of said person's wrath, should they act on it. And again, what benefit does it bring? What benefit to constantly dwell on those we quarrel with, to dwell on the "nasty (insert group of people)"? Even further complicating the matter is that the more we dwell on that which we allow to anger us only angers us even further. Its a self sustaining process. And to repeat myself again, it gives us what? What benefit is reaped by ourselves with such thoughts? It distracts us from the realities of the world, the realities of now; instead of contemplating for truth and solutions, we instead just blame those we hate for the lack of progress which we ourselves perpetuate. It leads humans to do horrible deeds. It leads to discrimination, torture, genocide, and all manner of atrocities. And for what? To act upon our burning flame, to release the blaze building inside. Whether or not we act upon our hate only changes those it harms; bottling it slowly kills our selves, and releasing it quickly harms those on the receiving end.

This has bothered me for a long time and I felt like sharing. You may now return to your regularly scheduled program.

[Boyar Son]

bkuz simply u dont like what u see so u do something to 'destroy' it. like "go away" or hitting them. really jsut to get rid of what u dont like.

besides humans w/out hate is not human. or natural for advanced life forms (such as myself).

[Marshal Murat]

Maybe hate is the requirement for love? To truly appreciate pleasure, don't you need to subject yourself to pain?

Hatred in itself can be a good thing. If we didn't hate genocide, would we act to prevent it? Hate means that you recognize something as bad (in your viewpoint) and if given the means you would act against it.

I hate homework, I don't like it, and if I was a teacher, I wouldn't assign it. But does that mean I won't do it? No, that's stupid. If I don't do homework, I won't understand the material or what questions will be asked.
Same with your "hatred". Say you hate "Person A", your boss. If you hate "A", that means you perceive something wrong with him, and you can act on that hatred. You could file a complaint, you could quit, you could do a number of things. But if you committed homicide, that would be stupid. Hatred, if properly channeled, can lead to better things. If incorrectly channeled, leads to your own self-destruction.

Think about it.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

I don't have a lot of hatred in my heart, thank God, though I was more prone to this when I was younger. I have to cop to scorning though -- some behaviors etc. are so stupid that they evoke this reaction in me, and I don't always do the right thing and shut up and think about it.

It is natural to feel such feelings, wisdom starts to grow as you confront them.

[Lord Winter]

Maybe hate is the requirement for love? To truly appreciate pleasure, don't you need to subject yourself to pain?

Hatred in itself can be a good thing. If we didn't hate genocide, would we act to prevent it? Hate means that you recognize something as bad (in your viewpoint) and if given the means you would act against it.

I hate homework, I don't like it, and if I was a teacher, I wouldn't assign it. But does that mean I won't do it? No, that's stupid. If I don't do homework, I won't understand the material or what questions will be asked.
Same with your "hatred". Say you hate "Person A", your boss. If you hate "A", that means you perceive something wrong with him, and you can act on that hatred. You could file a complaint, you could quit, you could do a number of things. But if you committed homicide, that would be stupid. Hatred, if properly channeled, can lead to better things. If incorrectly channeled, leads to your own self-destruction.

Think about it.

I think your going more towards anger, I would argue that hate is by its nature irrational were your examples clearly have reasons. I believe that hate is fueled by ignorance; only by dwelling in ignorance are you bound to not see any redeemable quality or for that matter a solution, which gives that sort of rightous anger Marshal Murat is talking about. Can you tell me that if the nazis or the KKK, or any other group, had viewed there victims as humans that they still would have done what they did? The other thing is we fear unknowns and it much easier for a human to give into instinct and ignorance then to take a risk to understand.

[Incongruous]

I approach most people in power with anger, the person themselves not with hate but their actions. Such as "I hate Brown's decision to allow Lord Madleson into cabinet", but I do not hate the man, I am merley angered by him.

Similarly I do not hate George Bush I am angered by him.

Hatred in my life seems to be preserved for a very few people I know in my close personal life.

[rory_20_uk]

Men and women (or if you rather, females and males) have different roles to play in society.

Women as a rule are programmed to love children more than anything else, to like stability and be fiercely against anything that will damage their nest.

Men are programmed to "love" women, as many as possible and are hard wired to get pleasure from acts of violence and conquest: we protect the home makers and destroy anything that might damage it. Men are far more expendable than women for as long as all of child bearing age are pregnant and safe that's fine.

Men used to kill men because they were men and as such were competition for the women. Why would we suddenly stop?

In these wonderfully modern times these ancient parts of the brain are still present and working fine. We can not kill what we file under the threat category, so we hate it instead. A very few can throw off teh veneer of civilisation and do get back to their roots, but these are in the main the minority.

Communities are not just defined by what they are and what they like, but also what they are not, and what they hate: to belong and gain the feeling of belonging in the KK for example showing you hate blacks is all that is required.

[seireikhaan]

Thank you for the responses. I believe people may have slightly mis-interpreted my basic question. I realize that there are some base, instinctual drives which contribute to hatred. However, hatred itself is entirely a human aspect. The pack of wolves does not kill just to kill- it kills for food, or to eliminate competition for its source of food. As far to my knowledge, man is the only creature on this planet which will kill for reasons entirely unrelated to survival.

Rather, my question really was this: what does man gain from hate? As Marshal Murat pointed out, hate can be harnessed into action. However, this is what I view as being most dangerous. While hatred of my boss could lead me to just quit, it also could lead to far more grave acts as well. Hatred has driven some of the most barbaric and horrific acts in human history(along, of course, with greed). As for the argument that hatred can be used to conquer hatred, I have this to say: and if hatred had not been perpetuated in the first place? Even further, to use WWII as an example, an American soldier could easily descend into hatred of his German nemesis. Hatred can lead man to do highly irrational actions. Such as transferring hatred from a certain person, or isolated group(the German army) to a far larger sample(the German people). What happens should that soldier participate in the conquering of a German city? If he harbors hate in his heart, he is far more easily persuaded to commit horrible actions upon civilians.

However, of even more interest to me is those who harbor hate and anger but do NOT act on it. What benefit does this bring? How does holding the fire of anger in one's heart benefit them? Why so many do it? I urge every member here at these forums to think: what makes ME angry. Whom do I hate? WHY do I hate them? What purpose does this hate serve me?

I am not saying that we cannot oppose those whom we disagree with. What I am saying is that, though we may stand in opposition to others, we do not allow them to anger us. Rather than attempting to be the immovable object, we be willow, adjusting ourselves to reason and impartiality. When we allow anger and hate to encumber our thoughts, we abandon this flexibility, this adaptability, and insert ourselves into immobile rigidity. And in doing so, condemn ourselves to the life of a parrot, rather than the life of a human. Only by continually seeking truth can man be set free.

[Askthepizzaguy]

Hate is the English word for an abstract phenomenon related to a rather irrational and destructive emotion that we sometimes feel.

It's purpose, if there is one, seems to focus the mind on a certain concept or goal, and give the person feeling such an emotion a dauntless drive to overwhelm, overcome, and possibly destroy his/her object of hate. I would suggest if there is a logical purpose for this it is a defensive/survival mechanism which evolved into something awful.

There are different kinds of hate;

I hate serial killers, mass murderers, air raids over civilian settlements, weapons of mass destruction, the concepts of nationalism, racism, sexism, and most forms of irrational intolerance. I hate the perpetuation of ignorance via conscious or unconscious propaganda, I hate greed, I hate lust, I hate addiction, and all the major and minor vices.

Some people hate certain people, enemies, rivals, ex-lovers, family members, employers or employees, based on personal grudges. Some hate politicians and leaders and public figures they have never met. Others hate nations, governments, races, philosophies, religions, or sciences. Some hate themselves, or hate life in general, and enjoy inflicting damage, chaos, and destruction upon as many people as possible, ending their own existence in the process. Hate takes many forms, from the most "reasonable" to the most irrational.

Hatred is a powerful and mostly destructive thing, and I resent that it is such a large part of our history.

[BigTex]

Hatred is beautiful. It is one of the strongest emotions a person can find. It is passion in it's rawest, the antigonist of love, without it there you couldnt understand the joys of love. Hatred is wonderful and without it's sharp sting life wouldnt be as enjoyable.

It seems more that you hate ignorant and hatred you cannot understand. Hating politicians, hating people without cuase is an ugly thing, a person consumed by this one emotion is an ugly thing to see. But we wouldnt have our basic human rights and laws without hatred. Hatred of those that have harmed our tribe is a fundimental survival instinct. We would not have survived without this.

I hate many things and I know I am bettered by this.

Hatred is passion, people would be so boring without it.

[Fragony]

Wouldn't know how to hate I just don't care enough

[Fisherking]

Hatred is beautiful. It is one of the strongest emotions a person can find. It is passion in it's rawest, the antigonist of love, without it there you couldnt understand the joys of love. Hatred is wonderful and without it's sharp sting life wouldnt be as enjoyable.

It seems more that you hate ignorant and hatred you cannot understand. Hating politicians, hating people without cuase is an ugly thing, a person consumed by this one emotion is an ugly thing to see. But we wouldnt have our basic human rights and laws without hatred. Hatred of those that have harmed our tribe is a fundimental survival instinct. We would not have survived without this.

I hate many things and I know I am bettered by this.

Hatred is passion, people would be so boring without it.

I am just guessing that this is mostly tongue in cheek.

Hate is bad for you. It doesn’t effect the object of your hate so much but it is a self consuming emotion…

It is not the opposite of love…that would be fear.

Hate is just something that makes the feeler of the emotion a little sicker and a little weaker.

[Samurai Waki]

Hatred is a powerful emotion, and I roundly agree with Askthepizzaguy but, it is a simple emotion located in the Medulla oblongata which is triggered by thoughts or acts of emotional anger or rage in response to a threat, this message is sent to the cerebral cortex which turns the base instinct into something man can decode, this is usually in the form of anger, or if the satisfaction of having dealt with the problem is not met, resentment and hatred is what we will feel...

Can't do much about it, since Hatred is probably the most primal emotion... one could argue love as well, but I tend to go more for the lust instinct first.

[Fragony]

Can't do much about it, since Hatred is probably the most primal emotion

Can you mention something you absolutely hate, something that really gets your wires firing? Fear is the most primal emotion if you ask me.

[Strike For The South]

Hate is for the simple minded, to scared to challenge themselves.

[Samurai Waki]

Can you mention something you absolutely hate, something that really gets your wires firing? Fear is the most primal emotion if you ask me.

I think fear and anger come from the same source... both of which as you know are very primal instincts, but we'd be screwed without them.