Thoughts on hate

created by PureDoxyk

(idea) by PureDoxyk (4.9 mon) (print) ? 1 C! I like it! Thu Jan 04 2001 at 18:35:25

From an emotional point of view, Love and Hate are opposites; the positive and negative extremes of "like" and "dislike".

From a Holistic point of view, the second half of the above sentence is the correct part--"like" and "dislike", along with fear, desire, sadness, and whatever-else, are emotions. Therefore they *do* work on a sliding scale, much like we imagine. Love, however, does *not* qualify as an emotion in most philosophies, and "hate", in these paradigms, is often summarily rejected as some sort of f*cked-up illusion.

From a Chaotic point of view--and this is Chaos the realm of study and practice, not chaos-the-lack-of-organization--Hate is Love. Why? Well, Chaoists (along with many mystics) place Love outside the realm of the emotional; therefore Love has no opposite. But they aren't so silly as to deny that there is such a thing as Hate; everyone who's seen or felt it knows it's real, in some way at least. The theory that Hate is Love relies on Love's being a sphere where the other "feelings" we have are merely lines; there are realms, sectors, AREAS of Love, not just degrees like there are with the emotions. Hate is simply one of the realms of Love; it is Love expressed as its own opposite--something that only a sphere could do, I guess. This is a pretty abstract conjecture to be making, I know, and the only reason I've ever bought it is that Hate, when you taste it, is like Love in the Mirror. It's like watching water burn...

But anyway. Now, from a straight-up Magickal point of view, Love is simply the word for a god; that highest thing that Nietzsche says the Creator "Hung above us" so that we had something to aspire to, and by aspiring to it, we worship and sanctify Life itself. Heavy sentence, no? *lol* But surely, you're thinking, the "highest thing" like that must have an opposite--Hate, right? Okay, well, no. In fact, the highest things are the things most renound for NOT having an opposite -- Love, Will, The One, Laughter, etc etc depending on who you read. Hate in magickal terminology--and this is magick-the-field-of-study-and-practice, not 30-easy-steps-to-magick-by-Llewyllyn--is another way of USING Love, and one which, in the correct circumstances, can be just as sacred, pure and useful as Love can.

It's also easier, in any terminology, to Hate than it is to Love, whatever theory you accept about their relationship. It is also, in any terminology (any rational terminology, I should say), BETTER to Love than to Hate, except, as I said before, for certain magickal purposes. It produces better results, better health, and better understanding of the world to Love when one would normally Hate. For instance, if I were to take the Hate-Path when my writeups got The Treatment from some disgruntled noders, I wouldn't have to work at it at all. I'd just sit here and swear to myself, and maybe say something nasty, because Hate burns if you leave it in too long. Taking the Love-route not only sounds hippie, it's against our first instincts when we think we're wronged. But all of the above terminologies, with a little more study, also provide methods to induce the Love-over-Hate response; one of them is Laughter. Believe it or not, by laughing to myself at my negative reps, I can pretty much instantly transmute Hate to Love. The burn goes away.

This is enough for me personally to ascribe (for now) to the theory that Love is indeed the Stuff, and that Hate is just what happens if you cook it wrong. Otherwise, how could something so simple transform one straight into the other, without passing through any place in between? It's not like my Hate, when exposed to Laughter or whateverelse, rides the whole spectrum of feeling through neutrality and up into Love. It's just wham!--Hate, then Love. Like adding a molecule and WHAM! Where you once had oxygen, now you have water.

Anyway, that's what I know. Does anybody have any other or further theories on what Hate is and where it comes from? Love to hear 'em...

(idea) by psydereal (2.1 y) (print) ? I like it! Thu Jan 04 2001 at 18:50:21

I think that there are different levels of hate, just as there exists different levels of love. There's the "I hate green beans" sort of hate, hate that applies because you dislike something and hate fits better in the sentence, though if you sat down and thought about it, hate is rather strong, eh? Another level is hating a person who is prominant in the public or historical domain (or who you don't know on a personal level, but know of) for an action they have taken that you believe hurts you or others. For example, hating Hitler because he was a general all-around bad guy who killed a bunch of people. Though this level of hate can be very damaging (such as the case with hate crimes), but not the highest level of hate.

True hate, in my opinion, is deep, personal hatred, and I believe that it stems from one emotion: hurt. Love and hate are related, you have to love someone somewhere in your mind before you can hate them, and hate stems from having someone that you love hurt you horribly.

Hate is love distorted and reflected back.

(idea) by WolfDaddy (13.3 hr) (print) ? 1 C! I like it! Thu Jan 04 2001 at 20:36:41

I've never considered love and hate to be opposites, since they can co-exist in one's regard for something. Doesn't one both love and hate their parents from time to time? They're not mutually exclusive so, to me, they're not even the same coin. Love derives from affection, hate derives from anger ... and I'll stop that progression right now before I start sounding like Yoda.

To me, the true opposite of both love and hate is ... apathy

printable version
chaos

let me hate for you	Was I nearly as anti-consumerism as I had initially thought?	apathy	All you need is hate
hate crime	mutually exclusive	All Things Must Pass	quick question
John Adams's 1799 State of the Union Address	Howard Cosell	Propaganda	Jen, I really hate him
Dream Log: January 17, 2001	Chautauqua	Dream Log: January 2, 2001	Dream Log: January 3, 2001
Dream Log: January 12, 2001	January 2, 2001	Hatred	January 18, 2001
Carl Von Cosel	Daily Evil: January 23, 2001	Dream Log: January 24, 2001	muse

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