One thing occurred to me... Society.

[yaxomoxay]

But looking at the wasted emotion that hate is

I would claim that no human emotion is a waste per se, an no application of such emotion is intrinsically evil or, to use your words, wasted. Emotions exist for a reason, they serve a natural purpose, and must be acknowledged. However, emotions are also a double edged sword as sometimes it is difficult to contain them.

Hate can be as deadly as love, and hate can be as good as love; as long as reason contains them then their purpose can be fulfilled without damage.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I would claim that no human emotion is a waste per se, an no application of such emotion is intrinsically evil or, to use your words, wasted. Emotions exist for a reason, they serve a natural purpose, and must be acknowledged. However, emotions are also a double edged sword as sometimes it is difficult to contain them.

Hate can be as deadly as love, and hate can be as good as love; as long as reason contains them then their purpose can be fulfilled without damage.

I think I get where you are going with that. I would say that while 'hate' can be productive, it is also a dangerous toxic weapon that if not used very carefully, will cause damage to civilians. Hate can be deadly. Hate is a self consuming disease. Negative emotions tend to color and tint everything the hater sees and experiences.

Can love be as damaging? Well, literally any emotion can be damaging. But love that is damaging is a lot more than 'love'. It's often a toxic mix of control, envy, anger, jealousy, and other emotions. But, to use a Star Wars reference, anything made with the dark side will usually end up bad. You can't make good out of strong negative emotions, because they eventually consume everything around them. Hateful people usually end up hating everything, no matter how beneficial. That's why I posted 'do I hate'. When I was younger, I did hate. I didn't know better. Hate drove a lot of the bad decisions I made when I was young. It was easy to hate, and I'm somewhat embarrassed by it. I was never a racist then, despite the siren call from the area I grew up in.

 

[yaxomoxay]

I think I get where you are going with that. I would say that while 'hate' can be productive, it is also a dangerous toxic weapon that if not used very carefully, will cause damage to civilians. Hate can be deadly. Hate is a self consuming disease. Negative emotions tend to color and tint everything the hater sees and experiences.

Can love be as damaging? Well, literally any emotion can be damaging. But love that is damaging is a lot more than 'love'. It's often a toxic mix of control, envy, anger, jealousy, and other emotions. But, to use a Star Wars reference, anything made with the dark side will usually end up bad. You can't make good out of strong negative emotions, because they eventually consume everything around them. Hateful people usually end up hating everything, no matter how beneficial. That's why I posted 'do I hate'. When I was younger, I did hate. I didn't know better. Hate drove a lot of the bad decisions I made when I was young. It was easy to hate, and I'm somewhat embarrassed by it. I was never a racist then, despite the siren call from the area I grew up in.

I think we're more on less on the same page. I think that hate is unique as it can build up very quickly compared to other emotions and can easily lead to disaster. Sometimes I wonder if hate is a self-defense mechanism for very important, immediate, and dangerous situations that somehow the relative calm of society hijacked towards less important, less immediate, and certainly less dangerous situations (see road rage).

I think we all hate in one way or another (I hate cinnamon!), but most of us are able to keep this hate under check in the vast majority of cases. In other words, we're probably able to stop the potential chain reaction as soon as it starts.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Warning, it's been a bad day...

I actually see no future for humanity. I just hope it lasts long enough that I am able to have some happiness before I die a natural death at 80-something... The odds aren't in my favor with what's going on in the world.

But if people stopped trying to compensate for their inner demons, we have a chance of it lasting for a while more...

Scientists should be working to save what they can of humanity, by getting the heck off this rock. Sad to say... The planet is near dead. If only more people believed that we had a future...

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Warning, it's been a bad day...

I actually see no future for humanity. I just hope it lasts long enough that I am able to have some happiness before I die a natural death at 80-something... The odds aren't in my favor with what's going on in the world.

But if people stopped trying to compensate for their inner demons, we have a chance of it lasting for a while more...

Scientists should be working to save what they can of humanity, by getting the heck off this rock. Sad to say... The planet is near dead. If only more people believed that we had a future...

I know, buzzkill... I just read an article about the currents in the Atlantic ocean. It's going to get a whole lot worse, and soon, if they are right.

But it's a glorious day, and I will ride my bike instead of taking out my car. Doing my part...

 

[Crowbot]

I'm up there in years and I see your point. (We all have bad days)

It's going to get rough for thousands of species (including us) as climate changes. But the biosphere as a whole will go on, with species adapting if they can. Worst come to worst, the bacteria will have to start from scratch building multi-cellular organisms.

Even the area around the Chernobyl reactor is still green.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

I'm up there in years and I see your point. (We all have bad days)

It's going to get rough for thousands of species (including us) as climate changes. But the biosphere as a whole will go on, with species adapting if they can. Worst come to worst, the bacteria will have to start from scratch building multi-cellular organisms.

Even the area around the Chernobyl reactor is still green.

View attachment 1815141

I heard they painted it green. 😂😂😂


Part of the despair today was reading the refuse in my trash folder. So much negativity going out to far too many people, and it's all they know, unfortunately.

But it's National IPA Day! It's too great of a day to send negative fear mongering crap! (It wasn't the crap that got me down, it was the tone of it, and knowing that it was a marked low for that kind of poison)

We live on a Beautiful Planet! We live with lots of Interesting People! We have lots of Interesting Things To Drink (and eat)!

 

[decafjava]

As my sig says "Hate is always foolish and love is always wise" from the last speech of the 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi before his regeneration which is a paraphrase from the great Bertrand Russell. Anger is not hate in my opinion, anger can be a tool against injustice or danger. Hate is something that can sap your health and life.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

As my sig says "Hate is always foolish and love is always wise" from the last speech of the 12th Doctor Peter Capaldi before his regeneration which is a paraphrase from the great Bertrand Russell. Anger is not hate in my opinion, anger can be a tool against injustice or danger. Hate is something that can sap your health and life.

Hate can be all consuming, and yet hate is laziness. It's almost easy for some people to hate. Some are so careless with that destructive force. I was shocked, leveled, horrified, when I found out that a couple of women where I worked 'hated' me. They hated my shoes, my clothes, the size of my office. (I had the largest cubicle in the whole place)

I wore Birkenstock London shoes, and a suit everyday. I wasn't required to wear a suit, being a programmer, but figured that I would be seen by the public, and should 'look the part'. The problem with my clothes was I wore cartoon ties. Scooby Doo, Disney, you name it, I have it. And space themed ties, and one that celebrates the invention of the CD (really). The only one I don't have is a Viagra tie. I definitely would have put a hanger in it and made it 'rise'.

I was just stunned that someone would hold such a lazy and toxic view of me. I'm mostly harmless. To spend that much time loathing me is more than I deserve. I felt 'dirty' working with them, there were two of them, both, not unironically, the 'most religious' in the department. *sigh*

I guess I hate 'concepts'. I hate ignorance. I hate intolerance. I hate people that are lazy and far too judgemental. We ALL have a purpose, even if it's just to serve as a warning to others. But life seems too short to spend it actively hating someone. Good grief...

But emotions are powerful. You can't deny it. I believe in experiencing all my emotions, and then moving on. If I feel sad, I FEEL IT, I wallow in it, and then move on... To take that same process to strong negative emotions is draining. It drains your focus, your empathy, your health, as you point out. It's part of the 'dark side'. Whatever...

Cheers...