Hate

Narration

When in elementary school, there was another kid that really made me mad.  In the classroom or on the playground, there was something about him that just didn’t sit well with me.  For some reason or another one day I told my mom I hated him.  Her reply, “You don’t really hate him. Try to be his friend.”  Of course that made me more mad, but I realized she was right.  I didn’t hate him after that I just strongly disliked him.

Description

A dark figure slinks, sneaking in the shadows.  It waits for the right moment to be called upon.  Anyone and anything can provoke it to rise out of anger.  It is ready in an instant to grow, to swell, into a fiery demon driven with emotion.  No matter how much water you pour on its fire, the flame will not be doused.  Forever, internally flickering, waiting for kindling, another spark to return, take control, and consume you with its presence.

Example

Possibly the oldest hate rivalries are religious.  Why we must bash each other over what higher power we do or do not praise seems crazy to me.  There are plenty of ways prove you are superiority to someone else, say, a game of rock-paper-scissors, or better yet a game of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock.  Yet humans often resort to physical violence.  For thousands of years the Arabs and Israelis have fought each other because neither has been able to see past their hate for the other.  Tom Lehrer shed some light on this with his carefree chords.  “Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics, and the Catholics hate the Protestants, and the Hindus hate the Muslims, and everybody hates the Jews.”

Compare/Contrast

There is a definite difference between hate and anger.  They are certainly connected. Anger is usually the precursor to hate or the beginning stage.  Yet hate and anger are miles apart.  Anger is petty, and comes from simple everyday life situation that prove irritating.  It comes and goes easily with the passing moments, and can easily be suppressed.  Hate rarely comes in the spur of the moment.  It is taught and learned from repeated anger, conditioned into existence.  You must work to control hate.  Unfortunately, hate towards someone or something can never be fully obliterated.  It always lingers, even after it is resolved.

Process Analysis

Hate: A How to Guide.  Why would you ever want to intentionally hate?  I don’t know, but here are my NUMBER steps to hatred.  One, find something that annoys you, something irritating.  This could be something new or something you have already been exposed to.  Two, surround yourself with this nuisance, but don’t accept its being.  Deny its existence until it eats at you.  Then, relieve yourself.  Separate from it.  Live without it.  Forget about it.  Feel how nice it is, to live without this pestering nuisance.  Finally, go back to it.  Let it return to your life.  At first you will be able to deal with it.  Next you will build up the same anger you had before.  Then it will consume you with utter loathing.  You will be pushed to the brink, and will fall into the endless pit of hate.

Division of Analysis

Do not be too quick to jump to the conclusion that you hate something.  Hate is the top rung of a very tall ladder.  Underneath it are many feelings that may cause the “I hate this” utterance.  On the bottom is simple dislike.  In my opinion it is follow by abhor.  I have always found this a funny word and can’t quite take it seriously, so it is not very high on the hate scale. Next we have despise and detest.  These are the gateway into the harsher malevolence, rancor, and loathing.  All of these feelings are slightly different and are present in different situations.  However, none of them are parallel to pure hate.

Classification

Hatred appears readily in children’s stories and movies.  The evil doer, always a solitary person radiates hatred.  There is never a reason for their hate, but they are evil and out to get anyone who is not.  Often these characters are either so evil that they are destroyed in the end, or are deep down just kind and misunderstood people.  In a way it is disappointing that there is never reason fro their anger and hate, it just seems to be their natural disposition.

Cause and Effect

Scientific studies have linked the brain activity of love and hate.  Although they are opposite feelings, their source involves the same areas of the brain.  The “hate circuit” when stimulated by some environment produces a reaction of aggression and anger in the brain translating to hatred.

Definition

“Hate: a feeling of intense or passionate dislike.” Hate does not deserve its own definition.  It is not something that can stand alone on its own.  All that I have said up to this point is moot.  Hate is not a thing, it is a vacancy a hole, a pit.  It is the absence of love, much the same way that cold is the absence of heat.  It is a destructive and powerful thing, or non-thing, that tears people apart.

Argument/Persuasion

So what do we do about hate?  I will call upon the good Dr. King for that. “I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to bear” because “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”  Therefore I propose we set out in love to do battle against the hate that has manifested itself in our world.  It will never fully be driven away, but can be pushed to the smallest corner of the most remote region of the earth.

When I googled hatred this came up.  I found the comments quite amusing, specially the top comment by TanongSak and the comments on it.