• 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?

A

Anew Leaf

Guest
In typical P-fashion, I vaguely searched a few pages of this forum to see if this topic has been done before... seeing nothing, I decided to make my own thread.

So the question I am curious about is whether you personally believe love or hate is the more powerful force in this world. I am interested in your viewpoint whether it comes from life experience, personal philosophy, or religious reasons.

Hopefully it can end up being a fun discussion!

I personally believe love is more powerful than hate. I also think that both are a choice you make until the choice makes you.
 

Valiant

Courage is immortality
Joined
Jul 7, 2007
Messages
3,895
MBTI Type
ENTJ
Enneagram
8w7
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
Hello swinging rodent. :) I'd say that love beats hate any day.
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,191
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
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.
 

NotOfTwo

small potatoes
Joined
Jan 30, 2010
Messages
509
MBTI Type
INTP
I find it difficult to sustain the intensity of emotion that hate requires. It is exhausting. In my life, love has been more powerful and motivating. Hate does not move me to action but if I love someone or something, I will get up and do what needs doing and more.

On a world scale, I would have to say love of self often equals hate of others. Us vs them. Greed is exaggerated self-love as is extreme patroitism. This is seen in capitalistic societies as much or more so than other societies. So, is self-centeredness/love stronger than hatred of others? It appears to be so tangled that that it can't be separated. I do not believe love for others and the greater good is a more powerful force than these.

My view comes from experience, personal philosophy and religious reasons. LOL
 

wolfy

awsm
Joined
Jun 30, 2008
Messages
12,251
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.

I think this is right on. Hate feels stronger but it eats you up. Love moves in the other direction, it expands, building. It's hard because anger is such a powerful motivator. I'd be interested in thoughts on hate, love as motivators.
 

Rasofy

royal member
Joined
Mar 7, 2011
Messages
5,881
MBTI Type
INTP
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/sx
In extreme cases hate, overall love.
Love can be a powerful force in both good and bad ways, and I think it has much more influence in the world than hate. OTOH, while we see people killing one or two for reasons involving ''love'', people consumed by hate are prone to mass killing. And I reason that while love has some concrete advantages, hate is all ego.
 
A

Anew Leaf

Guest
I find it difficult to sustain the intensity of emotion that hate requires. It is exhausting. In my life, love has been more powerful and motivating. Hate does not move me to action but if I love someone or something, I will get up and do what needs doing and more.

On a world scale, I would have to say love of self often equals hate of others. Us vs them. Greed is exaggerated self-love as is extreme patroitism. This is seen in capitalistic societies as much or more so than other societies. So, is self-centeredness/love stronger than hatred of others? It appears to be so tangled that that it can't be separated. I do not believe love for others and the greater good is a more powerful force than these.

My view comes from experience, personal philosophy and religious reasons. LOL

You are win my Owly friend.

They can be very tangled in together, which is why I think it can all be such a slippery slope.

I had a grandmother who was an extremely bitter woman. She didn't have a particularly hard life but she acted as if she had had the worst life on the face of the earth. At the age of 91 she was still upset/bitter/angry over some events that occurred in 1957. She enjoyed sowing the seeds of discord in her children, and because of that I won't ever see one Aunt and my Uncle ever again. My mom ended up hating her mom, and maybe since I was removed from the situation... I just felt pity for my grandmother. And a bit of fear because I do not want to end up like that. I just think how sad it is that each day she made a choice to be bitter until one day it was no longer a choice, she was just simply bitter.

So in myself I find each day the choice to act loving towards others and the choice to act negatively towards others. Haha, I hope that it gets easier because some days it is incredibly easy for me to love everyone... other days it is a giant struggle to not be angry with someone over a slight. Hopefully the act of me trying will be enough in the end. :)
 

rav3n

.
Joined
Aug 6, 2010
Messages
11,655
Both can move mountains. It's the process and motivation that will define which is greater.
 

Totenkindly

@.~*virinaĉo*~.@
Joined
Apr 19, 2007
Messages
50,191
MBTI Type
BELF
Enneagram
594
Instinctual Variant
sx/sp
I think this is right on. Hate feels stronger but it eats you up. Love moves in the other direction, it expands, building. It's hard because anger is such a powerful motivator. I'd be interested in thoughts on hate, love as motivators.

Will have to think more about it when I get some mental space, but hate can be a powerful IMMEDIATE motivator. It promises to right wrongs, get what one deserves, punish the enemy, balance the scales. And anger is typically an aggressive way to resolve hurt/inequity; if you don't get angry, you typically ache. It's the "fight" response in the "fight/flee."
 

rav3n

.
Joined
Aug 6, 2010
Messages
11,655
Will have to think more about it when I get some mental space, but hate can be a powerful IMMEDIATE motivator. It promises to right wrongs, get what one deserves, punish the enemy, balance the scales. And anger is typically an aggressive way to resolve hurt/inequity; if you don't get angry, you typically ache. It's the "fight" response in the "fight/flee."
Not just immediate. It can be honed to knife edge if directed and kept burning. It's the indignation of Fi where sometimes, you have to pull down Berlin walls.
 

Stigmata

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
8,779
I see both as having an equal potential for depth or power on their respective spectrum sides, but we just interpret the manifestation in different ways.
 

skylights

i love
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
7,756
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
so/sx
i do not think hate is real. not hate in the sense of "evil" or "bad", not hate in the sense of the opposite of love.

i think that hurt is real, and fear. and together hurt and fear can what we call "hate". but they are just postponements. protections. we act hateful because we think it will get us what we want. we think it will stop the hurt and prevent the fear. sometimes it's a temporary solution, like a piece of duct tape over an infected wound.

but ultimately, deep down, i think that love is all that exists.
 

Stigmata

Super Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
8,779
Interesting. Would you care to elaborate at all?
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.
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
9,661
MBTI Type
iSFj
Enneagram
2
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
I think they are equal in power.

Some people find it easier to love than hate, and other people find it easier to hate than love. Not sure why the differences but they are there.
 

Giggly

No moss growing on me
Joined
Jun 12, 2008
Messages
9,661
MBTI Type
iSFj
Enneagram
2
Instinctual Variant
sx/so
I think this is right on. Hate feels stronger but it eats you up. Love moves in the other direction, it expands, building. It's hard because anger is such a powerful motivator. I'd be interested in thoughts on hate, love as motivators.


Hate feels stronger because it feels so self-preserving but you are right that it silently and unsuspectingly turns inward. Love makes you feel so vulnerable and weak but it is the stronger of the two because it's ultimately more rewarding.
 

SRT

New member
Joined
Apr 9, 2011
Messages
174
MBTI Type
INFP
Enneagram
?
I'd say love is more powerful, but hate is more common. An interesting topic to think about, especially since it seems that both have a tendency to live on in others. Idk, I like to think that, to an individual, one person's love can overcome the rest of the world's hate. I'm not an Idealist for nothing, after all.
 
Top