People portray hatred by appealing to intense negative emotions such as contempt, anger or disgust, caused by the belief or judgment that the other, the hated one, is an evil and detestable being. It is like a state of excitement, of fixation on the hated and desires for revenge. It can be directed against individuals, such as Donald Trump; against the leader of the opposition; against a co-worker or against the neighbour opposite; also against black or Jewish people; against the “Macho Man” complex; against homosexuality or transvestism; against mental perversions, such as paedophilia; against ideologies or religions, such as communism or Christianity and even against innocent objects, such as the old computer that is frequently hung up or the cistern in the bathroom that loses water.
Hate is an ungrateful guest, corroding the host. Hatred for ethnic, religious, political and class reasons is the ghost that crosses and threatens the present world. It is the beast that stimulates various sectors of ultra-nationalist, xenophobic and racist populism, which is expressed in physical and verbal aggressions and even in massacres.
Although many hatreds are at an individual level, such as hatred of the ex-partner, in its most intense form they are generally shared by many people. Hatred of Jews has been and is shared in history by Nazis and Palestinians. We all hate paedophiles. Hostility toward a different group increases solidarity and cohesion within the group itself. Many hatred acts and feelings are mutual. The Jewish and Palestinians, Serbs and Croats or Hutus and Tutsis have hated each other. Mutual hatred also often manifests itself between political groups and leaders, co-workers or stair neighbours. Those who fall outside of the justice system and are morally excluded are often hated, denied social rights and good treatment. Hate perpetrators devalue victims and in the end they stop treating them as people. But the worst thing is that once moral degradation is created, it can be transmitted from parents to children, from educators to educated and from generation to generation.
The hatred materialised by xenophobia has recently led to a resurgence of this problem throughout the world. Violence and the rejection of African or Eastern European migrants is common in the old continent. The United States fiercely opposes the migration of Central Americans in search of better living conditions. In South America, a new and intense wave of hatred and rejection has been generated against the millions of Venezuelan migrants fleeing the economic crisis the country is suffering. The history of humanity is full of massacres, genocides, imprisonments, repressions and persecutions of entire populations for ethnic or religious reasons. But this phenomenon had never reached the dimensions and geographical simultaneity of today.
Hate seems to be the international flag of totalitarianism in which governments of countries with surprisingly dissimilar political traditions such as Russia, the United States, Hungary, Italy and Brazil converge. There are also leading political leaders from France, Austria, etc., and secessionist nationalisms from Catalonia, Belgium and other countries. The shield of the multiple hatred of ultra-nationalism includes racism, xenophobia and homophobia.
Those who hate feel led to push others to hate as they do, as the validation of their hatred for others reinforces their self-esteem, prevent them from reasoning through their own insecurities. Hate groups form collective identities through their manifestations and proclamations and through symbols, rituals and myths so much so that the more they degrade the hated the more they magnify their acolytes and despicable members.
Hatred is serious when it takes place from the very government of a country and manifests itself especially in the education of the youngest. It is often based on lies or half-truths about the history of the country, the responsibilities and the causes of present evils that affect part or all of its population. The group that sustains an ideology is considered morally and even intellectually superior to the others. This superiority generates hatred and hatred always harbours the desire for a world without the people whom they hate. The worst thing about certain ideologies is that they also contribute to hatred by legitimising it.
The spread of hatred is global: the consequences of the growth of that beast does not escape anyone however far they may be felt. Hatred does not escape from cultural or sporting activities. The racist and xenophobic cries against black footballers and sportsmen in Europe, is a cause for concern for many social institutions because of the intense growth of these expressions. Also, the UN expresses its concern that various digital platforms and social networks have become media for the dissemination of hatred against immigrants and are used by political leaders to promote anti-immigrant posts, generally aimed at minors.
Hatred, prejudice, supremacism and ultra-nationalism poison the soul of those who harbour them. Unfortunately, the use of these resources are increasingly frequent in electoral and political campaigns, regardless of whether certain political or religious institutions are irremediably attacked. The intensity of hatred can lead to the worst aberrations, for example desiring not only the destruction of their adversaries’ positions, but also their physical annihilation. History is bountiful in the executions of “traitors” of certain political creeds and moral “execution” of adversaries.
Leaders, with their words and actions, often instigate hatred and social exclusion of the hated, often by explicitly pointing them out and considering them as intruders in their country or in their particular group or society. Their followers identify with them and with the ideology they propagate. Their main resource is the demonization of the adversary, which intensifies the sense that their rejection and violence are justified. This reduces the inhibitions of those who hate to act in different ways. What happens is that once hatred develops the leaders who have promoted it can no longer control it and it slips out of their hands as autonomy is gained in the minds of the people whom it has been inoculated, and that cannot be easily changed.
Many “progressive” militants and intellectuals distil hatred against people who think differently to them, as well as all political leaders who do not fill up in their speeches their quotas of hatred and phobias. This lamentable discriminatory position is invading many spaces and is degrading classical or traditional politics and its effects are distancing the population from social interaction. The fear of the effects of hatred on the part of those who share some social or political power, makes it increasingly difficult for people to integrate, participate and promote collective projects of well-being or coexistence. This is another side of the consequences of hatred, and of the corrosive effects of this ballast, not only for individuals, but also on social and cultural collectivism.
Although hatred, by nature, changes and increases, we must also trust that time will always end up cooling it and making those who hate look more at themselves, reflect differently. This can facilitate a change in their feelings and attitudes towards others. For this reason, the fight against hatred, at a cultural and educational level, seems to be the only pertinent means to defeat it.
Hate must be fought with understanding and action, which requires recognising its presence and understanding how it is fostered in people’s protests and propaganda, denouncing it where it originates and explaining its consequences. This disease of the human spirit leads to disunity, broken relationships, lack of mercy, violence, massacres and genocide. We cannot fight hatred if we consider it acceptable or tolerable.
Hate does not disappear simply because external circumstances change. Realistically, there is no magic formula to cure and eradicate it completely, especially in culturally diverse and troubled societies. Unfortunately, it is possible that we may have no choice but to learn to live together with as little of it as possible. The processes that change the feeling of hatred are slow and require understanding one’s roots, reconciling the intense contact between people by working to share common projects and reshaping a history of the past acceptable to both those who hate and those who are hated.
Interesting point of view on the nature and origin of hate, which these days has been exacerbated by the resurgence of nationalist feelings that stimulate racial hatred and all kinds of rejection of migrants. Hate externalizes the worst of human beings and mastering it is a difficult but necessary task
I agree with what is expressed in this article. Hatred is one of the most destructive and debilitating feelings that a human being can suffer. In fact, it could be said that hatred is a disease of the spirit, because like racial discrimination, it poisons the soul of the sufferer by making him act and think prejudicially and subjectively; and prevents the appreciation of the true value of people. When I meet someone who suffers from the “disease” of hatred, I recommend healing his soul and heart and remind him of that masterful and primordial phrase, which Antoine de Saint-Exupery included in “The Petite Prince”: Essential things are invisible to the eyes…. So, let us all be healed of hatred, and surely the world will be a better place to live.
Interesante articulo, seguro seriamos mejores personas si no odiáramos, ese sentimiento no permite que el ser humano se desarrolle y evolucione encerrándolo en sus propias creencias sin entender al contrario.
Necesitamos educarnos más y ayudar a otros a que lo hagan y entender que todos tenemos derecho a una vida en paz y en armonía con los demás, sin dejarnos arrastrar por ese sentimiento malvado llamado odio.
Excelente exposición y conclusión de un tema que desde sus orígenes fue sembrado en la propia naturaleza humana, pero su crecimiento exponencial actual se deba a tantas y variadas razones cuando tomamos temas como la significativas desigualdades sociales, los desengaños, frustraciones y rencores, frutos todos estos de nuestras sociedad es razón de alta atención por cada uno de nosotros.
Proyectando ese emoción que es el odio hacia nuestra sociedad actual y observando que existía una nueva esperanza en este nuevo milenio de que tan y variadas tecnologías estás en alguna forma contribuirían a fomentar mas igualdad social, desarrollo económico y cultural, político. Sin embargo toda esta tecnología ya sea a veces por mal manejo o intensión solo ha traído que algunos pocos obtengan logros personales dando al final como resultado promover y fomentar el aumento del odio.
Venezuelans, like the author of this article, know a great deal about hatred, as they have suffered in recent years an intense, painful and interminable experience with this disease of the human spirit. The political, economic and social problems facing Venezuela (which has caused 4 million citizens to leave their country, which has been described by the UN as the second largest global humanitarian crisis) have originated from hatred. Hate to those who do not think alike, hate to those who are different, hate to those who think politically different, hate to the poor, hate to those who do not idolize the leader in turn, hate to the one who has, hate to the one who asks, hate to the one who claims and hate to the one who loves and hate to the one who asks for understanding and truth. In short, hate, as the author says, is the most efficient human machine to generate unhappiness and I would add that hatred can only be conquered with love. So if we are not willing to love, hate awaits us around the corner. Very good article.
As always, excellent writing! I think that hate has encompassed, without realizing it, many areas in the world, and the worst, it has become a truth to use to judge when there are parallel realities. I think it is an issue that is getting out of hand … sitting down to analyze it, it is something to worry about !!
As John Lennon says: “Imagine all the people, living life in peace “… 🙁
A society that has lost all values and principles, and has exchanged tolerance for hatred, the only possible medicine is education. Unfortunately, even this medicine can be converted into the most dangerous of all seeds if used by with ambitious “leaders” thirsty of power and dominance.
Buenos días.
Excelente artículo acerca del odio.
Yo pienso que este sentimiento no es exclusivo de los humanos, creo que lo compartimos con los animales, y eso me hace pensar que tal vez en los orígenes de la vida este sentimiento tuvo un sentido utilitario, al preservar la vida e integridad de los individuos y de las comunidades, agrupando a los que eran iguales y enfrentandolos con los diferentes.
Por supuesto en la época que estamos viviendo esto no se justifica ¿o sí?. El autor del artículo menciona que hay individuos que tienen conductas reprobables y que es casi natural odiarlos. Por ejemplo los violadores, los asesinos en serie, Ect., esto en el ámbito individual, pero en el ámbito grupal, tenemos una comunidad que fue odiada y llevada casi a la extinción por parte del régimen nazi, esta comunidad sufrió mucho, hasta que fue liberada de esa opresión. Ahora bien, habiendo sido víctima de este sentimiento, es casi natural que esta comunidad no práctique el odio, sin embargo, esta comunidad odia a la comunidad Palestina. ¡Que cosa!.
El odio y el amor son sentimientos que son como reflejos uno del otro. ¿Se podrá odiar y amar a alguien o a algo al mismo tiempo?, tal vez si. Yo creo que un sentimiento es excluyente del otro, pero están tan cerca que fácilmente se pasa del amor al odio y viceversa.
Los que estudian la anatomía humana han identificado una estructura neuronal que está en el cerebro a la cual han denominado “El Anillo Limbico”, según estos investigadores en esta estructura están alojados ambos sentimientos, es decir están compartiendo una vecindad estrecha que facilita que se pase de uno a otro.
En casi todas las leyendas de la creación, incluida la que práctico: La Cristiana Católica Apostolica Romana, el dios o los dioses presentes en ellas, son reflejos de nosotros mismos, con todas nuestras virtudes y defectos, por eso nuestro dios o dioses tienen nuestras virtudes y defectos, incluidos por supuesto el odio y el amor.
Me pregunto: ¿las plantas odiaran?. Se ha detectado que en el mundo natural algunas plantas desarrollan comportamientos agresivos hacia otras plantas y animales. Este comportamiento agresivo se pudiera equiparar con el odio. Yo pienso que sí. En consecuencia este sentimiento -El Odio- es más complejo de lo que pensamos.
¿Las cosas odian?. Pienso que no, no tienen la capacidad de hacerlo, sin embargo de vez en cuando tenemos noticias inquietantes de cosas raras que suceden con “las cosas”, por ejemplo “Casas Embrujadas” o fenómenos sin explicación.
Definitivamente debemos seguir este largo camino que nos tiene que llevar hacia la máxima tolerancia y amor hacia nuestro prójimo y el mínimo de odio.
De nuevo felicitaciones al autor por el artículo que permitió que compartamos puntos de vista acerca de este sentimiento.
Saludos.
Very good article, concise and with good inferences. Hate is the modern psychic epidemic that makes man sick, and it is so serious that it can make his existence bitter and compromise his happiness. Therefore, what the author says is very precise: “Hate is the most effective human machine to produce unhappiness.” We don’t love easily but we hate for free for any reason. Hate is present in our life and is always prepared to appropriate our soul and make us unhappy. We hate without knowing people, when we don’t like someone we prefer to hate him instead of trying to understand him or just ignore him; even though we know that hate will drag us into one of the lowest destructive human passions: evil. I believe that in the history of mankind hate has ended with more lives than any epidemic or natural catastrophe. Hatred has been the trigger for deaths that have suffered millions and millions of people from ancient times to the present day. Hatred is the natural and obvious component in wars and political conflicts between nations, or in confrontations for religious, cultural and social causes. It seems that hate is intrinsic to human nature and there is no way to get rid of this ailment of the spirit.
Excellent article, is the synthesis of what is lived today especially in Latin America and the reflection of a society in which violence and hate prevail.
Interesting article.
Human beings are vulnerable to feel threated by those who are or think differently to us. Recognizing that these emotions are wired in our human nature, it becomes essential that the message from any form of leadership, cannot come accompanied by ideas of hate and intolerance. Within the framework of the law, we can learn to be open, curious about other people’s experiences, and challenge our assumptions.
I totally agree with the author. I would venture to add that hatred is exactly the opposite of Christian doctrine, which proclaims love of enemies as a supreme sign of acceptance of God. If we do not love our enemies, that means that we hate them, and if we hate those who hate us, we are victims of what the article highlights, that is, hatred without reason, which poisons the soul and makes you unhappy. The obvious question is how to accept that Christian doctrine that appears to be very difficult. In other words, how can I love my enemy, if he is my enemy? The answer is tremendously simple: don’t wish him evil, don’t do to him or give him the same thing he has done to you, he just wants justice for the evil he has done. This is simply a token of Christian love, he only wants the evil one or the enemy to be condemned with justice for the evil deeds he has done. Divine and earthly justice, if well conducted, can be a remedy to end that sickness of the spirit called hatred.
Good approach to try to explain the origin of a feeling as negative and common as hate. Unfortunately, hate has become so common that many of us feel it and materialize it as normal, without realizing that little by little its intensity can transform us into despicable beings. Speaking badly about someone, or rating him negatively is the simplest and most widespread form of hate. What to do ? The only solution to overcome hate is very simple: love, that is the only way to fight and beat this disease of the spirit.
It is an interesting writing to reflect on hate. It is simply easy to hate anyone, and do it for any reason. But the really difficult thing is to love, even when we know that with love we feel the best way we can imagine. It seems that it is very easy to hate and I think that hate becomes so normal, that we do not even distinguish it when we live immersed in its terrible claws. We know when we love, because we feel in the clouds, but we don’t know when we hate even when we feel in hell. Good job!