Hate or Love: Which is more powerful?

[rav3n]

Did love stop the Axis Alliance in WW2?

 

[Giggly]

^Maybe.

No one likes to marinate in love. It's too mushy.

 

[SRT]

Love is more about resilience amid vulnerability (because you can't love someone with your armor up), while hatred is more about armoring up and launching a full-frontal assault, might makes right.

So hate is very powerful but also acts like a poison, and people recognize that, the more someone hates.
Love seems weaker but seems to implant itself in new hearts and minds even if it is trampled underfoot.

As insightful as ever. This is a very clear way of putting it. Love's strength comes from its resilience through sacrifice, whereas hate lacks that quality.

 

[rav3n]

^Maybe.

No one likes to marinate in love. It's too mushy.

Ever seen the ads/propaganda used by the Allied forces? There's no love! Just rallying cries to defeat the evil enemy.

But this entire topic of love and hate fascinates me. People believe that love builds and hate tears down. Love = positive and feel good. Hate = negative and draining.

Now let's take this apart. IF social perception was the reverse, would love still be feel good and hate, draining?

 

[Anew Leaf]

Ever seen the ads/propaganda used by the Allied forces? There's no love! Just rallying cries to defeat the evil enemy.

But this entire topic of love and hate fascinates me. People believe that love builds and hate tears down. Love = positive and feel good. Hate = negative and draining.

Now let's take this apart. IF social perception was the reverse, would love still be feel good and hate, draining?

Are you looking at it like a rose by another name wouldn't smell so sweet?

 

[Santosha]

Seeing more love or hate in the world will tell you very little about the world, and a whole lot about the seer.

Both can be extremely powerful forces.

Infact, love and hate go hand in hand for me. Like to hate, really really hate something.. i had to love some aspect of it first. Only a tremendous amount of emotional energy (usually a great love) can be channeled negatively into hate. Otherwise I'm just more apathetic.

Give me any example of hate, and I bet I can link it back to love at some point.

 

[Beorn]

Did love stop the Axis Alliance in WW2?

I think people are willing to act braver and sacrifice more out of love for the family and home they have known than out of hatred for some faceless enemy. I even think that the hatred of many germans toward the jews at the time was a perversion of the love they had for their own families and the pain they felt seeing their families suffer through hard times.

 

[Anew Leaf]

Sure. Basically, I'm imagining a line graph, but with the negative alignment being hate and the positive being love, and the center most point (or 0) being a state of complete emotional indifference and apathy. Now as you move further away from zero in either direction cognitively, how the emotion expresses it self outwardly with intensify, yet I don't see either sides having a definite end point in which one can go further than the other, therefore they both have an equal potential for depth being that there's no sort of arbitrary limit. As far as interpersonal dynamics go, I think we just tend to recognize negative emotion(hate) before anything else because of its general presentation. Hate, as it would progress down this line, would be more detrimental to the self and its immediate surroundings than its counterpart of love if placed at equal points, yet they're still actually at equal emotional points on their respective sides, with the only separation between them being the presentation relative to that side.

This is all just on the fly theorizing, by the way, so take it with a grain of salt.

Very interesting. Great visual aid on what you mean.

 

[InTheFlesh]

You can't have love without hate, one proves the other. The strength of either in any given situation is subjective and near impossible to measure.

 

[rav3n]

Are you looking at it like a rose by another name wouldn't smell so sweet?

Both are emotions. They're neurobiological reactions to stimuli. So...why would one be draining and the other not?

 

[Anew Leaf]

Both are emotions. They're neurobiological reactions to stimuli. So...why would one be draining and the other not?

Hmm, interesting.

If want to look at hate and love on a spectrum of energy created or drained out... then I can see cases being made for both sides. Hatred can be incredibly energizing (look at politics, lol) for some people.

Maybe it can just come down to the individual people. I personally find hatred draining and I can't stay angry for very long. Either it turns into apathy or it goes back to love. But that is just me.

 

[Giggly]

But this entire topic of love and hate fascinates me. People believe that love builds and hate tears down. Love = positive and feel good. Hate = negative and draining.

Now let's take this apart. IF social perception was the reverse, would love still be feel good and hate, draining?

It fascinates me too. I think people's perceptions of the two are based on practical experience.

I think hate is ever-living in human-kind. It never dies and actually I'm not sure if I'd want to. I think the contrast of love and hate causes us to push our boundaries... it keeps things going, and dare I say, it's exciting.

 

[Thalassa]

They're equally powerful but the person chooses which one will overcome them. Of course, some people get totally mixed up and think their hate is love (think terrorist attacks and abortion clinic bombings), and that's probably because they're both intense feelings and run on a similar circuit in the brain, kind of like funny and disturbing.

Ironically the closer you get to the "Holy Land" the more hate you see. I was thinking about that last night, how you see some of the ugliest most sadistic shit amongst deeply religious people. And I'm not singling out Muslims, either, I'm thinking about the Salem Witch Trials and the Crusades and people who have beaten their children in the name of a god and all kinds of other nonsense that's related to Christianity as well.

So, love and hate are equally powerful, some people get them mixed up, and it's really in the person to decide which one will over power them. Apparently hate is pretty seductive.

 

[rav3n]

Hmm, interesting.

If want to look at hate and love on a spectrum of energy created or drained out... then I can see cases being made for both sides. Hatred can be incredibly energizing (look at politics, lol) for some people.

Maybe it can just come down to the individual people. I personally find hatred draining and I can't stay angry for very long. Either it turns into apathy or it goes back to love. But that is just me.

It fascinates me too. I think people's perceptions of the two are based on practical experience.

I think hate is ever-living in human-kind. It never dies and actually I'm not sure if I'd want to. I think the contrast of love and hate causes us to push our boundaries... it keeps things going, and dare I say, it's exciting.

Is it personal experience or is it public perception that makes these two into positive and negative, building and draining?

Imagine living in a society where hate is revered and love is quashed. Are you both 100% certain that you'd still feel the same way?

 

[SRT]

Did love stop the Axis Alliance in WW2?

Did hate? Look, I'm of the opinion that perception counts for pretty much everything, regardless of whether or not something is objectively true. I think believing that love is a more powerful force than hate will have more positive and rewarding outcomes than the other way around. Odds are that it was a combination of the two (love of self/country/family/etc. and hate of enemy) that lead to the Axis being destroyed, but the combination would differ for every single person.

No one likes to marinate in love. It's too mushy.

Yes, but what if you've been prepared correctly? Maybe a dash of cinnamon, a hint of parsley, with some pepper on top (y'know to give it that extra kick)?

 

[Beorn]

They're equally powerful but the person chooses which one will overcome them. Of course, some people get totally mixed up and think their hate is love (think terrorist attacks and abortion clinic bombings), and that's probably because they're both intense feelings and run on a similar circuit in the brain, kind of like funny and disturbing.

The more I think about it the more I think that they are really two sides of the same coin. When we talk about hating people things get complicated because I think there are things to love and hate in every person. But, I think the fact is that the more I love something the more I will hate that which is antithetical to what I love. For example the more I love human life the more I will hate cancer and praise it's destruction.

I also can't help, but think about yoda and what he said about hate. So i think the danger of hate is when it is mixed with fear and people then behave in a destructive manner.

 

[Anew Leaf]

Is it personal experience or is it public perception that makes these two into positive and negative, building and draining?

Imagine living in a society where hate is revered and love is quashed. Are you both 100% certain that you'd still feel the same way?

Hmm... well, I think we could look at some of the societies that Earth has seen to imagine this. I actually have always wondered this idea myself, now that you speak it so plainly. Whenever I watch movies that show a dystopia, like "Equilibrium", I ask myself... Would I notice something amiss in this society? Would I just mindlessly fall into line with the others?

I do believe that love is love no matter what the name, and hate is hate no matter what the name... But it comes down to how we perceive it.

Man, my mind is just whirling with the possibilities and angles of this right now. I will have to get back to you on this so I can form an actual cohesive answer rather than just a jumble of questions and meaningless ideas.

 

[SRT]

They're equally powerful but the person chooses which one will overcome them. Of course, some people get totally mixed up and think their hate is love (think terrorist attacks and abortion clinic bombings), and that's probably because they're both intense feelings and run on a similar circuit in the brain, kind of like funny and disturbing.

Ironically the closer you get to the "Holy Land" the more hate you see. I was thinking about that last night, how you see some of the ugliest most sadistic shit amongst deeply religious people. And I'm not singling out Muslims, either, I'm thinking about the Salem Witch Trials and the Crusades and people who have beaten their children in the name of a god and all kinds of other nonsense that's related to Christianity as well.

So, love and hate are equally powerful, some people get them mixed up, and it's really in the person to decide which one will over power them. Apparently hate is pretty seductive.

Maybe that discrepency has to do with a lack of recognition of the possibility of hate. Kinda like pride and arrogance with their perception of themselves.

I'm gonna go ahead and call an intp being the first one to come in here with star wars jokes

 

[Thalassa]

The more I think about it the more I think that they are really two sides of the same coin. When we talk about hating people things get complicated because I think there are things to love and hate in every person. But, I think the fact is that the more I love something the more I will hate that which is antithetical to what I love. For example the more I love human life the more I will hate cancer and praise it's destruction.

I also can't help, but think about yoda and what he said about hate. So i think the danger of hate is when it is mixed with fear and people then behave in a destructive manner.

I agree with you.

Hate is also mixed with feelings like fear and hurt in many people, they decide they hate someone they loved, not as a conscious decision, but because that person did something so hurtful to them.

And, yes, people can hate what they fear without checking to see if it's worth fearing. I think this is where things like racism come from. The fear of people who are different.

 

[Thalassa]

Maybe that discrepency has to do with a lack of recognition of the possibility of hate. Kinda like pride and arrogance with their perception of themselves.

I'm gonna go ahead and call an intp being the first one to come in here with star wars jokes

Oh yeah, this? I think it's due to not even being fully aware of what love or hate is, it's kind of a blindness, and a lack of self-awareness. A dangerous lack of self-awareness.