CityOfAngels

"Hatred is an element of struggle; relentless hatred of the enemy that impels us over and beyond the natural limitations of man and transforms us into effective, violent, selective, and cold killing machines. Our soldiers must be thus; a people without hatred cannot vanquish a brutal enemy." - Che Guevara

"We love without reason, and without reason we hate." - Jean-francois Regnard

Hatred has been a bane of every society from the beginning of time. When one thinks of hate, they think of Hitler, Chairman Mao, or even Satan. Hitler murdered over 6 million people, most of whom were of Jewish descent, and sparked the creation of many hate-powered factions that still exist today. Mao Tse-Tung brought about the Cultural Revolution in China, in which the oppression of the Chinese public was maximized to epic proportions; even more so than "The First Emperor," who spent thousands of lives on the construction of the Great Wall and other lavish buildings, including his own mausoleum. Satan, whether a fictional character or an angel fallen from Heaven, is seen by many as the source of everything "evil," which includes hate.

Many people neglect to include themselves on that list. In America today, hatred is looked down upon just as much as infidelity is in many (if not all) strict-Muslim countries. What we forget is that hate is natural in all of us; we all hate. It is our social and moral responsibility to suppress such hate. Hate is even promoted, although indirectly, by many Christians today. I've heard many Christians say, "Don't hate the sinner, hate the sin." It's an acceptance of our nature, yet it conveys a message that discourages the allowance of hate to negatively affect our lives.

Personally, I hate many things. I hate the fact that many people are ignorant. I hate it whenever I see a news story about a terrorist group flying planes into skyscrapers or taking over a school of kids and their parents and killing over 300 of them. When I was with my ex-girlfriend, I hated every time I let her back into my life, because it pointed out a weakness in me not only to myself, but also to the person who was hurting me. I even hate my own father, whom catalyzed the demise of my last relationship by not giving her a chance from day one, and whom is relentless in his ignorance and immaturity. But the fact is, I made it a personal goal to rarely if ever act upon my hate unless it came to life or death.

What many people fail to realize is that hate has its reasons; whether such reasons can be backed up by common sense is another story. Instead of looking at why Timothy McVeigh truck-bombed the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, many like to instead label him as an "evil-doer" (forgive my Bush quote) and leave it at that. One obstacle preventing these people from looking at reason is the theory that tolerance and hate are like water and oil; that people in general have a mental list of people and things they hate, and a completely separate list of people and things they tolerate, with no similarities between the two lists.

The truth is it doesn't work that way. Earlier, I said that I hate my father, and I gave a reason why. Well, right now I'm also going to tell you that I love my father very much, because he has done whatever he could to make sure that I have a place to stay, food in my belly, clothes to wear, money for school, videogames to play, and a computer to post long rants such as this one ever since I was born. Yes, I both love and hate my father. How can this be? One word: Reasons. I have both reasons to love my father and to hate my father. This means that in order to elminate hate, one must eliminate the reasons that generate hatred.

Hatred is not always negative. It is quite possibly always deleterious to someone, but it can also be used as a tool to produce a better standard of living. I will once again quote Che Guevara: "Hatred is an element of struggle; relentless hatred of the enemy that impels us over and beyond the natural limitations of man and transforms us into effective, violent, selective, and cold killing machines." Now, let me provide you with a fictional example of how hate can be utilized:

Scenario: Tom is a racist, yet his Christian grandmother has been taking him to a Protestant church every Sunday morning. After about two months, he decides that this stuff about peace and love makes a lot of sense, yet he can't rid himself of his hate for black men because his mom was raped and killed by a group of black men. One day he sees his pastor walking out of a grocery store, and he decides to approach him with some questions regarding his dilemma. After approaching him and striking a conversation, they begin walking towards his car. He asks Tom if he needs a ride home and Tom says, "Sure."

They both enter the car when a group of 4 masked men approach the vehicle, demanding him and his pastor to "Get the fuck outta the car, n***a!" Tom and his pastor get out of the car while his pastor tells them to take the car and anything they want, just "leave us alone!" One of the masked men pompously says, "How you gonna tell me what to do? Y'know what? I'm gonna shoot you anyways just for opening yo' mouf!" He grabs the pastor as his buddies, now frightened of their own friend, take off in his car. He takes off his mask, revealing himself to be a black man, and says, "Prepare to meet your maker, bitch!"

What Tom's pastor doesn't know is that Tom's packing a dual-action semi-automatic pistol that he purchased "just for this type of situation; when a n****r tries to fuck with me." Before he can pull out his weapon, the masked man fires his gun at the pastor, mortally wounding him in the head from point blank. As he points the gun at Tom and says, "Now it's your turn, punk!", Tom whips his out and blasts him; 3 shots in the chest.

End scenario.

The point of this example is that, although Tom's views of black men were stereotyping a large demographic based on one incident, his hate for black men prepared him to defend his own life that day. Sure, it was a coincidence that he had the gun at the time of being threatened, but think about if he didn't hate black men. Think about what went through his head. Was he scared? Or was he angry? Fear often causes a momentary paralysis, while anger is an energy that can be channeled. It is quite possible that Tom wouldn't have been able to defend his own life if he wasn't fueled by his hatred for the assailant, however misguided it may be.

Tom's scenario may just be an anecdote, but it proves that, when it comes to life or death, hatred can temporarily be a virtue.

Willravel

I agree with you totally. Hatred is just as much a part of us as love or any other emotional response. It is totally natural. Of course this is not illustrated in your scenario. The tale, while very sad, contains little more of what some might consider coincedence. Stereotyping sometimes has at least a partial base in reality, but preparing for stereotypes and running into them really has no connection to hatred.

I didn't mentioon this to undo your point. I still totally agree.

CityOfAngels

I think you get this because I strayed from the overall point of the scenario (his hatred fueled his emotional ability to kill a man in self-defense) by emphasizing on the coincidence of him being armed. Thanks for narrowing that down.

zen_tom

If Tom didn't have the hatred in the first-place, he wouldn't have talked to the pastor and gotten in the car. In which case he would have avoided the entire situation.

Just an anecdote? Apart from being a poorly worded and badly crafted story, it also doesn't manage to make the point you are trying to get across. Sorry, it had to be pointed out...

martinguerre

That was some mighty fine racist crap, if you don't mind me saying. the dialouge lines were especially well crafted...implying a certain subhumanity to the attackers. the problem of Tom isn't that he hates black people. In the universe in which you created...he should.

1 John 1:5-7 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

If destroying your life with hate, cutting yourself off from relationship and love...if all that buys you is a chance to survive a possible mugging...then i'd have to say the price is way to high.

asaris

No, I think hate is important, even for a Christian. We are taught that there are things we not only may hate, but ought to hate. The Devil and all his works, for example. The evil in this world is not something we ought to have any feelings about other than hatred. I hate the fact that little girls are molested. I hate the fact that innocent people are killed by terrorism. I hate the fact that people are killed, raped, and violated. And I ought to feel this way.

__________________
"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."

"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."

-- Friedrich Nietzsche

powerclown

Hate, by definition, exists in everyone.
Hate can be a great motivator as well.

CityOfAngels

Just to let everyone know:
a) I'm not in any way trying to be racist. When I tell a story, I try to make the characters individual in their psuedo-existance. Whether or not each character is politically correct has nothing to do with the point of each story.
b) I'm not necessarily promoting hate. I am just recognizing its existance and purpose in our lives, and the fact that hate stems from other things that can be prevented. The point of this post was not to force any ideas, but rather to spark an intelligent discussion.
c) If you think my scenario is "a poorly worded and badly crafted story," well sorry that you feel that way, but my intention here was not to win an emmy, but rather to elaborate on what I was conveying to the reader.

filtherton

I don't think his hatred had anything to do with killing someone in self defense. I think self defense had more to do with it. Hopefully, if tom was the "killing in self defense" type, he would've killed the carjacker regardless of his race. Tom's hatred just made him an emotionally scarred tragedy waiting to happen.

CityOfAngels

Take two people. One of them is Tom. The other is a paranoid family man who is afraid for the lives of him and his family. They both have guns. Now put them in that same situation. They both could possibly act quick and save themselves, and they both could possibly hesitate and instead get killed. But think of the logical probability. Who is more likely to whip out their gun faster; Tom, who is fueled by anger, or the family man who is afraid for his life?

filtherton

I think that, when faced with a situation that is obviously life threatening, the race of those involved would probably become secondary. I don't think that tom would second guess shooting someone who had just shot his pastor in the face solely because he was white. I don't know though, he's your character.

CityOfAngels

Have you ever been fueled with rage? It makes you act quickly and without thinking, often resulting in you doing something very stupid. Although fear pumps up your adrenaline, many people become paralyzed with fear when faced with a life or death situation; it's a process of putting everything together and accepting it to be reality. With Tom's rage, he skips that hesitation and just acts.

ARTelevision

Hatred has no place in my life. There was one time it did and it destroyed me. That was a long time ago. Since then, I have operated without it. My motivation has been unimpeded and strong without it.

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mo42

While hatred can indeed be used as a tool, it is a very dangerous one at that. It is the root of much of the suffering and killing in the world, and I try to harbor as little hatred in me as possible.

Among the things that I do hate: murder, rape, and betrayal. And because I hate these concepts, I would be just as likely as Tom would be to own a weapon, in the event that someone ever tried to murder me or someone I cared about. *That's* what Tom should have hated. Rape and muder, not black men.

zen_tom

CityOfAngles, you have a really valid point, and, in many ways I agree with you - hatred is an emotion, our emotions have been honed for millions of years by evolution, it follows then that each of our emotional responses has a reason for it to be there.

Presenting a story to prove your point is an interesting way to post, but for it to work, the story should be believable, and have a similar level of maturity to the rest of the post. All of the intelligence your post begins with and promises is totally eroded by the last few lines of your story. I hope you don't take offence or think I'm being rude, and I feel like a high-school teacher marking someone's homework, but seriously, I was interested by your ideas all the way untill the mo-fo's turned up.

archpaladin

I think mo42 has expressed an interesting point.....it's a lot easier, and perhaps "safer" to express hatred for a particular type of action or emotion, rather than a type of person or object. Hating an object or a person leads to a lot of unnecessary and undue conflict. Hating an action can lead to self-awareness and change for the better.