What's so bad about hate?

Question

Hate is everywhere. Human beings generalize all the time, ahead of time, about everyone and everything. A large part of it may even be hard-wired. At some point in our evolution, being able to know beforehand who was friend or foe was not merely a matter of philosophical reflection. It was a matter of survival. And even today it seems impossible to feel a loyalty without also feeling a disloyalty, a sense of belonging without an equal sense of unbelonging. We're social beings. We associate. Therefore we disassociate. And although it would be comforting to think that the one could happen without the other, we know in reality that it doesn't.

Of course by hate, we mean something graver and darker than this kind of lazy prejudice. But the closer you look at this distinction, the fuzzier it gets. Much of the time, we harbor little or no malice toward people of other backgrounds or places or ethnicities or ways of life. But then a car cuts you off at an intersection and you find yourself noticing immediately that the driver is a woman, or black, or old, or fat, or white, or male. Or you are walking down a city street at night and hear footsteps quickening behind you. You look around and see that it is a white woman and not a black man, and you are instantly relieved. These impulses are so spontaneous they are almost involuntary. But where did they come from? The mindless need to be mad at someone -- anyone -- or the unconscious eruption of a darker prejudice festering within?

What do you think about these two paragraphs?
"What's So Bad About Hate" by Andrew Sullivan
http://www.racematters.org/nytarchjb206.htm

Answer 1

I really like this question

To contribute:

I think things that are automatically awarded tend to have no real value. Friendship should be earned, not required, and telling me it's not okay to hate someone is, in many cases, going to make me think that I might have good reason TO hate that person, especially if people had to go so far as to put rules in play, before I even met them. Although I usually tend to try to get to know people individually anyway.

I tend to dislike people generally, and like people individually. I think people should also worry a lot less about earning my approval, and more about what they think of themselves. If enough people hate you that you have to go to great measures to get them to stop, either you're doing something wrong, or need to associate yourself with different people. And no one else's opinion of you should matter as much as what you think about yourself.

Let people hate you or like you all they want. They're not living your life. You are.

That aside, I think hating people can also inspire you to try to be better than them. I think part of our survival instinct drives us to attempt to be stronger, smarter, richer, and in cases where it helps survival, ethically better than our enemies. We always want to be the "good guys", and the only way to do that in reality is to compare ourselves to the "villians" in our lives, and succeed where they fell short.

I think hating people is just as important as liking people.

Answer 2

Hatred not only implies that you're unhappy in general, but unhappy with yourself. If you go as far as hating something, it goes deeper than hating just that one thing. The fact that you cannot see the positive side of whatever it is, means that you are not optimistic, and will not be living as happily as you could. Hatred also has the ability to inflict pain on others, which again, just shows that you're unhappy with yourself. Hatred comes off as being self conscious, and people generally don't enjoy being around others who are not happy with themselves, or life in general. Finding the lighter side of every situation will make you happier, will keep others' feelings safe, and will in turn make people like you more.

Answer 3

discrimination yes.i am discriminating in what friends i have .what neighbourhood i live in.what type of work i do.etc.hate? no.hate is not good for the soul.fear is also bad .it cuts off the flow of the holy spirit to hate.or be fearful.forgiveness is best but is hard to obtain sometimes but it should be chosen over hate.but we should of course know better then to handle dangerous snakes even though i personally like snakes or be around bad dangerous people and places.or allow a Yankee in my home. now i am just joking.on that last one.

Answer 4

Lets be honest... Being hateful and being nice can both do things to the world around you, but honestly, you being positive will not make someone else positive. Therefore, being negative is easier, so people become negative and bitter.

Answer 5

Hate can be a force for change. If you hate poverty, you try to feed people. If you hate ugliness, you do all you can to make the world beautiful. If you hate ignorance, you live to educate.

Answer 6

Because hatred is often misdirected, and corrupts relationships with all people, not just people that is advantageous to avoid.

Answer 7

It is O.K. to hate Evil and Wickedness!!! (not Human Beings)
GOD does that alot.

Answer 8

If hate obeyed the law of love, it wouldn't be so bad.

Answer 9

hating is a bad side and loving good side of human bin

Answer 10

Never hated anyone or anything. Never will.