Hate is a strong word. Very strong,
supposedly the opposite of love, which is a pretty strong thing on
it's own. Sticking the two together has always been a bad thing. But
this is not what I was going to say. I was worried that hate might be
losing it's sting by being applied to the mundane and crappy, rather
than things more deserving of it's wrath.
For example, I found myself the other
day walking past a radio and thinking to myself “I hate coldplay”.
Now, while I find the music of coldplay to be whiny, dirgey and awful
to listen to, I'm not sure it deserves a dose of the power of hate
(hey Huey Lewis, there's a dark side to you too). It would be more
accurate to say that I am not fond of the music of coldplay, and
would rather not hear it.
On the other hand, I rarely hear people
use the word hate for things properly deserving of it. We are
saddened and shocked by genocide, and human rights abuses, murders,
assaults, etc. etc. yet we rarely use such a simple guttural, and
primeval emotion as hate to describe how we feel about these things.
We intellectualise about such things in an attempt to alleviate the
effect it has upon us, and reach for the thesaurus in order to be
disgusted, revolted and appalled by the actions of madmen throughout
history. You never hear anybody say “I hate Hitler”, for it seems
too mild for the job. Though “I hate the Beatles” seems
thoroughly appropriate.
In fairness, Love has the same degree
of use, many of us will exclaim our love of cups of tea, chocolate
hob-nobs, and the music of AC/DC. But I suspect it is not the same as
the love we feel for our spouses and children, much the same as the
hate we feel for wasps is on a different level from that we would
have for anyone who deliberately harmed our spouses and children.
But, surely with most equals and
opposites, you need a decent amount of both to maintain a balanced
life and personality. Interestingly in this case, I think not. I have
not yet seen anyone take hate and use it constructively to better
their lives, in fact generally it twists you up inside and stops you
thinking properly until you let it go. Now, I hear myself say, love
also twists you up and stops you thinking properly and can truly and
properly fuck you up sometimes. So surely it is best to avoid both. Interestingly I wrote a fairly shit song on this subject called Love, Hate, Corrosion when I was 18. It was shit, though for some reason I also had it written on my guitar for years....
Nice logical argument, I am clearly a
vulcan. I must avoid emotion. But...
Without love, where would you be now?
As the Doobie Brothers said. Pretty lonely and miserable for most of
us I think. Even if it is just the love you get from your parents,
even if it is just the love of a dog, or a cat, it makes us happier
people, we feel wanted. Can you say the same for hate? Certainly you
can get a rush of adrenaline from it like any strong emotion, but is
it a good thing?
To be honest, I gave up on proper hate
so long ago I can't remember. I decided it was no use to me as an
emotion, and have spent the last 20 or so years trying to understand
the things I might hate, and why others might love them, or just like
them even. Now to many this makes me incredibly annoying, as I switch
sides mid-argument, and don't really do shouty angry about stuff. But
fine, if they want to waste good adrenaline on being annoyed let
them. I'll keep mine for AC/DC and the Wife.
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