For many people, such as myself, it is hard to understand the concept of hate. To clarify, when I speak of hate, I refer to those who hate based upon a person’s gender, race, color, sexual orientation or the many other things the hated person has no control over–simply put, the traits they are born with. There are many factors which contribute to hate–family belief system, influence from the church and other peers and environmental facts (by which I mean the environment you were raised in and the perceptions of its society.)
I do not claim to be free of hate myself, although I do try everyday to purge it from my beliefs. It is hard not to hate, what easily starts as a dislike for a persons actions can easily grow into hate the more arrogant they get with their actions. However, that is not exactly the type of hate I am referring to here–I am focusing on the feral type of hate that rears its ugly head when confronted with the stereotypical “them”, the others, the not “us”, the different ones.
Sadly, I do not think we will ever really see an end to hate, at this point in our species history we are to focused on maintaining what it is that makes us different from one another as opposed to intermixing the races and evolving as a single species with a similar appearance. Growing up, I used to wonder about various science fiction shows and movies and the “alien” races they presented, my main question was, “Why are there no different skin colors in these races?” I went through my younger years and early adult years never having gotten an answer to this question. It was not until I read Robert Heinlein’s Friday when I began to get an understanding. As I read more of Heinlein’s novels it began to become clearer to me–in order for a species to advance off of their own planet they have to become a united species, freely intermixing and mingling with one another, hence the similar skin tones in the science fiction movies and tv shows we see. The question remains however, can we get to this point before we succeed in destroying our own species?
Is it possible to raise our children free from hate? Maybe, however, it will only work if we ourselves are able to shed our own hatred so it does not become an influence on our children. Nor will this be an easy accomplishment–it will take several generations to remove hatred from our society and even then there will still be pockets of it around–like wire coat hangers, it will seem to blindly come out of nowhere.
If the Christian god, or any other, really does exist, why would he allow hate to be? There is no logical reason for it other than to maintain separation between different peoples and ensure conflict and strife. Personally, I do not think a higher being, a creator if you prefer, would want his greatest creation to hate itself, it serves no purpose other than its own extinction. Is it enough to chalk it all up to misinterpretation of his words? Well then, who has the correct version? Asking that question will only lead to more hate and discontent.
I’ve encountered a lot of hate in my own life, directed at me and at others, and it is brutally ugly no matter where it is directed. I can just barely understand having enough emotional overflow to hate someone for something they said, did or believe, however, hating someone for something they had no control over… ridiculous. We have enough to worry about on our journey through life, I think it is time we set hate aside and moved on without it. Learn to become more accepting of others and you will soon find more acceptance towards yourself.
Related articles
- I now understand why people like Robert Heinlein… (thefinchandpea.com)
- Hate (dharmabeginner.com)
- I’ll sing for your success. (brokenstringsandprettythings.wordpress.com)
- Blind hate does not impress (litendeavor.wordpress.com)
