• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

Hate or Love: Which is more powerful?

Beorn

Permabanned
Joined
Dec 10, 2008
Messages
5,005
And such is all emotion. It is neurobiological in nature.

Love, hate, guilt, remorse, happiness, sadness, anger, none of it is good or bad. It's being human.

I would agree, but add that any actions taken based on those emotions may be good or bad.


People keep mentioning how hate makes you feel bad, but I don't think that's always the case. I feel good when I'm both unafraid and feel hate for things that are bad.

As in...
I HATE Westboro baptist church and everything its stands for!!!


That felt good. :D
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
I would agree, but add that any actions taken based on those emotions may be good or bad.


People keep mentioning how hate makes you feel bad, but I don't think that's always the case. I feel good when I'm both unafraid and feel hate for things that are bad.

As in...
I HATE Westboro baptist church and everything its stands for!!!


That felt good. :D

Hey, me too.

:hifive:

However, is that really intense hate?

Or is that just intense dislike?

Wouldn't hate drive you in a more angry fashion to perhaps want to act out (even if you chose not to)?
 

Beorn

Permabanned
Joined
Dec 10, 2008
Messages
5,005
Hey, me too.

:hifive:

However, is that really intense hate?

Or is that just intense dislike?

I think intense dislike is hate.

Wouldn't hate drive you in a more angry fashion to perhaps want to act out (even if you chose not to)?

I don't think any action is done without choice unless you have a physical problem.
I think hate and anger can be controlled and made use of in a positive way. I don't think hate and anger necessarily entail a loss of self-control.

Although, since WBC is already far too familiar with hate it might be better to just offer them a donut.
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
I've just noticed that there's a difference between the way I "hate" Ann Coulter, and hate someone who I once loved who actually has hurt me or someone I love in some real way. There's a difference between "hating" math and the hate I feel for people who harm those are weaker than them just to turn a profit.

The first examples of "hate" are intense dislike and are seriously things I'd rather avoid. The secondary examples of things I hate make me actually want to react to that person, thing, or organization and either punish them or stop them.
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
P.S. That link is great, Beefeater. :smile:
 
A

Anew Leaf

Guest
*monotone flight attendant voice over the PA system*

I hope you've enjoyed your flight here on Semantics Airways. Our in flight movie this evening will be Father of the Bride starring Steve Martin, and our in flight meal will be steamed clams, broccoli, all topped off with an elegant parcley garnish.

But I ordered the KOSHER meal. *has fit and is subdued by an Air Quotes Marshal*

I've snipped your responses just to shorten my post. Now apply your responses to ego or self. IF you viewed anger and hatred in a neutral fashion, how would it impact on your perception of self?

I would probably feel freer to feel what I want and need to feel. As in, I wouldn't be as concerned about censoring myself and my emotions.
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
9,661
MBTI Type
iSFj
Enneagram
2
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Note: The opposite of love is apathy, not hate.
 

Qlip

Post Human Post
Joined
Jul 30, 2010
Messages
8,464
MBTI Type
ENFP
Enneagram
4w5
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
All in all they're pretty equal as far as the ability to motivate and change. Hate has a negative quality, like interstitial. It has no form of its own and instead is reactive and defined by what is around it. It's a push action against something, and is ultimately dependent on its object of focus. I prefer love because it stands on its own.
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
9,661
MBTI Type
iSFj
Enneagram
2
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Apathy or indifference is not giving a damn.

Hate, like love, takes a lot of energy. You spend time thinking about the object of your loathing or affection. With hate, you might fantasize about painful or embarrassing circumstances befalling the person, and perhaps you even work - through gossip or worse - to encourage those painful or embarrassing circumstances to occur.

It seems to me that the opposite of love must require no effort, no emotion, no energy. Hate doesn't qualify. Apathy does.

Indifference takes nothing from you. If you don't care about a person, you don't expend any energy - positive or negative - on that person's behalf. You don't waste any time or brain cells thinking about the object of your apathy. The person to whom you are indifferent ranks below such mundane activities as buying toilet paper, removing ear wax or recycling junk mail.
 

93JC

Active member
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
3,989
On a global scale, probably hate as sad as it is to say. It's so much easier than love.

On the other hand on a personal level love is much more powerful than hate, precisely because it is so much more difficult to have.
 

Stigmata

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
8,779
Apathy or indifference is not giving a damn.

Hate, like love, takes a lot of energy. You spend time thinking about the object of your loathing or affection. With hate, you might fantasize about painful or embarrassing circumstances befalling the person, and perhaps you even work - through gossip or worse - to encourage those painful or embarrassing circumstances to occur.

It seems to me that the opposite of love must require no effort, no emotion, no energy. Hate doesn't qualify. Apathy does.

Couldn't you spend and equal amount of time and energy about the object of your affection in love? I see the two as being equal energies, just on different sides of the spectrum. Hate requires only as little or as much as you choose to devote to it, with the greater the emotional investment equating to an equally great amount of energy required to sustain. Same with love, it's just different manifestations of the same emotional energy.
 

Octarine

The Eighth Colour
Joined
Oct 14, 2007
Messages
1,351
MBTI Type
Aeon
Enneagram
10w
Instinctual Variant
so
Hate is clearly more powerful. See: War, ethnic cleansing etc.
 

Stigmata

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
8,779
Hate is clearly more powerful. See: War, ethnic cleansing etc.

Love, especially when you start getting into the realm of like misguided or unrequited love, has the potential to be just as detrimental.
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
9,661
MBTI Type
iSFj
Enneagram
2
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Couldn't you spend and equal amount of time and energy about the object of your affection in love? I see the two as being equal energies, just on different sides of the spectrum. Hate requires only as little or as much as you choose to devote to it, with the greater the emotional investment equating to an equally great amount of energy required to sustain. Same with love, it's just different manifestations of the same emotional energy.

Yes. I think this way too. I feel they (love and hate) are equal in potential power or intensity. Apathy is different though.

Love, especially when you start getting into the realm of like misguided or unrequited love, has the potential to be just as detrimental.

Totally. :yes:
Sometimes love hurts.

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)?

Then you're good. :)
 
Top