The good news is that I’ve not gone insane. Or maybe I did and I’ve just brought you all along with me for the ride.
I’m pretty sure it is the former though.
OK, with seven opinions in, I am distilling that “Love” is a very powerful thing that can make people do some very out-of-the-ordinary things. But we all already knew this. I am going to have to disagree with Robb’s opinion in that I do not believe that “Apathy” is not the opposite of “Love”. In my opinion, that would still be “Hate”. “Apathy” is the exact middle between the two. The Wife is of the same opinion as Robb, and even with our discussions, I cannot picture it.
Breaking the opinions down further, I get this: “Love” is something people will die for to keep alive, whether it be a person or an idea. If someone or something matters so much that you are willing to go to wild and extraordinary lengths to keep it in existence, you honestly have to say that you “Love” it.
This is what I have always seen “Love” as, though to be honest, the “die for” angle was as far as my mind had been able to go with it. The words of others, like those in the comments yesterday, were always just fluffy filler that I was unable to add on because I’m just not geared that way. I’m a very black and white kind of guy anyway, so the shades of gray on any topic have always been pretty much lost on me.
A good comparison point would be the term “Racist”. Most folks only see/use the pejorative use of that term. I really have a hard time with that, just ask the wife. I’ve popped that word out in conversations with new acquaintances and gotten some very cross looks until she straightens folks out about how I give/take things very literally. She is a walking Berlitz guide to me. I can usually translate incoming, but the outgoing just takes too long and people get tired of my pauses before i speak. Yes, I am very terrible at public speaking, which is why I have a blog (with an “edit” button”) and why it takes me so long to type up a post.
David can also probably tell you some of my quirks like that after being stuck in a vehicle with me both to and from Boomershoot earlier this year.
Now, to “Hate”. Feel free to tell me your opinions here as well.
“Hate”, being the opposite of “Love”, which we’ve concluded is something we’d die for, is something you would take overwhelming physical action, or even kill, to put an end to and/or stop.
I don’t care if it is an idea, a person (or group of persons) or an object; what ever you want to tie it to, if you say to me that you “Hate” something, you’d better be out to put it down. Or down to put it out. Otherwise, you don’t actually “Hate” it, you just really don’t like it. It pisses you off, but not enough for you to do anything more than bitch about it.
I have hated things in the past (Soviets, certain classes of criminals, etc), but the wife doesn’t let me get away with that any more (which is probably a good thing), so now I’m just “holding them in deep disdain”. Who knows if I’ll ever “Hate” again in the future, though I see it as inevitable. As an aside for any who have now seen inside my head and know of my love of firearms and are now concerned, I have never once connected “Hatred” with a firearm. Most likely because the sheer need to expel the energy behind the hatred could not be satisfied with the pull of my index finger.
So, any thoughts.
Love, to me, is hard to define, because I feel like it changes depending on the context. When I say I love someone, it means I feel a deep affection for them, whether it’s a romantic or platonic relationship. I’m much like you in verbal ability, so I’ll leave it at that before I start trying to describe it in greater detail, thereby confusing anyone who comes around here. Heh. With things, if I say I “love” them, it means that if they’re presented, I’d gladly take them. If it’s food, I’d eat it. Some of the things, I’ll go out of my way to obtain.
On the other end, we have “hate”. I have a strong dislike for a lot of people, I prefer other foods to things like, say, cabbage (honestly, though, I think cabbage just might earn my “hate”…hah), and there are events and situations that I’d just rather not be in. I’ll use the word “hate” pretty fluidly for those things, just for simplicity’s sake, but I never say it in regards to people unless I mean it. And how many times has that been in the past 10 years since I’ve realized what the word really means? Once. There’s one person alive on this earth whom I really hate. And all that means is that I’d rather never have to see, speak to, or hear about him ever again. I don’t wish death on him (though it’s really about time – he’s really old), and I wouldn’t go out of my way to hurt him. I just want him to go away.
Both love and hate require that you give the target your attention.
In my opinion, the opposite of love is indifference.
What? You don’t hate the Constitution-shredders and especially those who want to tear up the Second Amendment?
Imposter detected at the controls of this blog.
You have ten seconds to properly identify yourself…..
If love is the state at which someone else’s happiness is essential to your own, a definition I agree with, then hate would be the state in which the object you hate (person, thing, idea, etc) causes you to be miserable by it’s very existence. So that about agrees with what you came up with in that you can never be less than miserable again as long as the object of hate exists.
I do believe most people use both of these terms far too loosely, however, I also believe that one cannot use them too literally either. I love both my mother and my cat, however I wouldn’t think of giving my life for my cat to exist or be happy. This is an example of how the term love is quantifiable as an emotion, with differing degrees.
I hate child molesters, for instance. If one were to mess with my kid, they would be dead, sure as shit, however, I don’t feel like I should kill ALL of them.
Love and hate are human emotions that vary by degree from person to person, as I described with the examples above. There is no black and white; perhaps some people love their pets so much that they *would* be willing to die for them, just as some people might think child molesters are swell. I am not arguing that either of these examples are sane or normal, just that because they exist, it is impossible to describe *any* human emotion with such finality or objectiveness.
P.S. The biggest line of bullshit is, “I love you, but I am not *in* love with you.”