Hating Hate

I’m feeling more and more assaulted lately by the hate around me. It flies out at me through news and social media and at times it feels almost like physical blows. I sometimes feel like I need to look at my body for bruises. The damage, however, is to my psyche where things are feeling disorganized and incoherent as the devolving discourse among us brings havoc upon us all.
Hate is an honest emotion, but when not balanced by the other side — loving kindness — it gets mean and dangerous. It has many forms and as we absorb the intensity of it from our environments, what creeps in is permission, if you will, or an inner imperative to disperse it to others, thus becoming hateful ourselves.
It has occurred to me that there is only one thing we should hate, and that is hate itself. The reality is that we are somehow titillated by the hate being spewed. We love to seek out and repeat/repost everything hateful and outrageous. And it’s not done to share information. There’s something about this that feels good. Like a journalist breaking a story, or being the first to spread gossip among our friends.

We love hate.
Loving hate intensifies it and spreads it and normalizes it. We carry it around inside us, but can’t contain it. Hating hate, on the other hand, brings up in us the other side — respect and compassion. It’s a bit of a conundrum, isn’t it? But think about it. Hating hate moves us from aiming our venom at certain individuals and groups, real people who are damaged by it, to being disgusted by the abstract form, the emotion, the inner tyrant.
It’s really a simple inner shift if there is a will to do it — shining a light on hate so the ugliness of it is revealed. We see the repulsive nature of it and want it out of us. To fill the space where it once was our thoughts can move to the real feelings underneath — sorrow for mankind, deep compassion for all who are suffering, and a dawning realization that we are connected to them all and hate has no place among us.