Why do people hate? Everyone has heard of "Hate is a strong word." It is truly a strong word and we need to stop using. The question I'm solving today is why people hate other people. While this can be applied to objects, this post will be directed at interactions between people.
Have you ever hated someone? Are you currently someone? It's something everyone should think about once in a while. When you hate someone why do you hate them? Even if this is just a minor set of dislike, all of these can still apply. So what specific reason do you dislike this person? There is a variety of different reasons that people dislike others while most of them have no stable basis in a solid argument.
The first category of hatred is physical difference. We hate them because they look different. In today's day and age most people are moving away from this set of ideas that physical difference doesn't define a person. That is what people should learn, physical appearance doesn't define a person, it only gives us a physical memory of what to associate a person with. If you look at your friend you will know exactly what he/she is like in the inside, while if your friend had their brain/soul transplanted to another person, you would still associate the physical appearance of your original friend with the way they are. You will find it extremely difficult to adjust to your "new" friend. Physical appearance is only a way to easily distinguish people.
The second classification of hatred is psychological differences/preferences. This involves the way people think, this is what people take as a rationale for hating someone. This is what everyone thinks is the right way to hate someone. However this is no real way to hate someone. In America we believe that people have the freedom to express what we believe without persecution. This principle is almost impossible to reinforce. People who want to commit to a revolutionary idea tend to find themselves alone and ostracized. In this way they pull back and stop their provocation. People hate them because they have different ideas.
The third category is their decisions and actions. This category covers physical acts and choices. This may seem like it's under the category of differences but it's not. When someone is posed the option to help someone, some people will say no. Many will say that they hate this person and their decision. You must note that I gave no context to the situation of helping someone. When context is put in, people will often reconsider. Everyone's decisions and actions are made out of their personality. Everyone has noticed this in which you can predict the answers to questions by various people based on your knowledge of them. They will have their own rationale and reasons for making the decision, what right does another person have to judge the other. While judgement is a trait that stems from human nature, in modern society people need to move away from cursory judgement. How many people do you know that you have judged unfairly. Give them another chance, they might surprise you.
The last grouping is envy. This is simple. You hate someone because they have something that you don't. Either it's something that you can't get or they can't share. Both way's it's hatred. When you encounter this kind of hatred often the solution is that you are overlooking the fact that people are unique in one way but are often not unique in other ways. You may think that someone has something that you want, but you fail to consider what you would lose to get that.
Think of someone you hate. Try to find out why you hate them, if you have trouble, put it in a category first then solve it from there. Once you figure out why you hate them, try to solve the problem. If you end up figuring out that it's impossible to solve, might as well tell them up front that you hate them, with the reason. Maybe it's something that only they can solve. It's often worth it to give it a try.
I also think that for some of these categories, particularly the first one, an individual's upbringing can have an impact. In cases of racism, I think that the prejudices are acquired from individuals that the budding young racist thinks are good, such as parents or grandparents. Fittingly enough, this ties into a scene from my favorite musical, South Pacific. In the scene, one of the main characters turns down the girl he loves because she's Vietnamese and he's an American. Another one of the main characters, a French widower who had been married to a Polynesian woman (and was thus turned down by his American squeeze), expresses disgust at the idea that this hatred is born into the 1940's Americans. The first character replies that, "It's not something you're born with. You've got to be taught," and goes into a song that was banned in the American south until after the Civil Rights movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPzVMTHbHV0
ReplyDeleteThe song itself isn't quite politically correct at times, but it was a different era.
I think that all of your reasonings are valid, especially when describing hating a person you barely know. Oftentimes though, when I hear people use the word "hate," they are describing a person who has done some sort of act to the person that they disliked. I don't know if that would go under the actions category, because there's a difference between a person who does bad things to others, and a person who does bad things to you. Often when someone does something to hurt your feelings, your ability to objectively evaluate the situation diminishes, which is why it is easier for hatred to develop.
ReplyDeleteEven now, I don't like to use the word "hate," and I think that all people are good at heart, but there are some people I dislike because of how they hurt me in some way. I forgive them, but I don't forget so easily, especially when they don't apologize.