Hate is not the opposite of Love.
The opposite of Love is Apathy.
Yeah, I know. . . not conventional thinking, but stick with me here –
See, there a lot of people who LOVE to hate things. Their hate is so passionate, they LOVE it. And they will make sure you know it. They put a lot time and energy into what they hate – talking about it, marching against it (or for it in a guise of “doing good”), debating it. Their hate masters them. It is their fuel, their ambition. It drives them to action. . . and negativity and fear. It is based on anger and judgement and fear.
In fact, FEAR is often what is behind hate. People tend to hate things they fear.
(Trust me, I know. . . this used to be me.)
But apathy, by it’s very definition means “indifference, lack of emotion, concern or interest.” Someone who is apathetic has an absence of interest in or concern about emotional, social, spiritual, philosophical and/or physical life and the world. They don’t love and they don’t hate. They are indifferent to either emotion. Insensitive. Cold. Dispassionate. Lethargic. Unfeeling.
And this is why I say apathy is the opposite of love. You can’t be apathetic and love something because apathy is the absence of emotion.
AND. . . apathy is more detrimental to civilization than hate ever will be.
The thing to note here, is that we ALL experience apathy now and then. Apathy is a normal way to cope with stress, disappointment and dejection. Sometimes we have to shrug off disappointments so we can move forward and then when the stress passes, the apathy disappears.
The type of apathy I’m talking about here is the kind that makes people turn a blind eye to the truth. The kind that gives people an excuse to not participate – in voting, in standing up for others (and themselves), in social and political issues that plague our world today.
“If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”
And I’d like to encourage you to stand for something by standing for it with LOVE. Like Hale Dwoskin said “Instead of being anti-war, be pro-peace.”
I’d like to take that step further and say. . .
Instead of fighting for (or against) something, how about we STOP FIGHTING, period? How about we simply LOVE everything into wholeness. <3
Love, Annie
