Question: To love what you are, do you have to hate what you are not?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

That assertion was made in a book I read quite awhile ago. For some reason, people feel the need to try and tear other people apart, even if they have no vested interest in doing so. Neocon, Republican, Liberal, Democrat, Veggie, Meat-Eater, Atheist, Believer...whatever...

Do you believe that is true?

[MadisonProgressive]

1. It's not true for me.

[bryant69]

2. Interesting theory

Kind of like the somewhat dissapointing third Matrix Movie- neo could only defeat Mr. Smith by becoming one with him.

We are all one people!

I don't know if that's true, but I'd rather believe that than believe that we are doomed to battle all those who disagree with us.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[bertha katzenengel]

3. Hmm. How can I put this stronly enough to be clearly understood?

HAY-YELL, no!

[wli]

4. the neofascist issue is different

There's a clear pattern of exploiting attempts at cooperation, and they're pretty hostile to begin with. I don't hate them, but they're a serious problem. You have to disenfranchise them because their sole purpose is to disenfranchise others. There's no hate per se. Fear perhaps, since their intentions are far less than honorable or peaceful.

[TahitiNut]

5. Only ignorance regards alternative choices as threats.

At a Sunday morning buffet, must we hate pancakes because we choose omelets? Must we force the restaurant to only offer what we choose for ourselves? If we do, do we stand a chance of ever learning? How can we learn if the alternatives arent't offered?

It's the Big-Endians against the Little-Endians over and over. This is the syllogistic quicksand in which the intolerant right is entrapped. "Live and let live" is a liberal attitude, regarding the weekend buffet of human choices as abundance and diversity to be celebrated. Only those with atrophied self-esteem and no faith in the innate viability of their own choices wish to destroy alternative perspectives. It's the Grand Myopia With Blinders, incapable of regarding the abundant Universe as a blessing. It's the Politics of Scarcity vs. the Politics of Abundance - zero-sum thinking in a win-win Universe. They are fish who've yet to discover water, living in the desert and unwilling to evolve and grow legs.

Everything contains its opposite and there can be no choice without opposites. It's NEVER a case of either half-full or half-empty -- it's always both. Neither can exist without the other.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

7. I agree...

Live and let live is a liberal attitude. Unfortunately, intolerance for...whatever...even creeps into liberals. I find myself getting annoyed with "the other side" as well sometimes. I suppose the key is whether you just accept it, or choose to try and correct the problem.

[TahitiNut]

10. It's NEVER about making choices ...

It's ALWAYS about trying to prohibit others from exercising their God-given free will!

This, IMHO, is the key. If God allows us to make choices, who the hell are they to try to stop us??? They are going against God's Will!!

[SemiCharmedQuark]

13. I like that!

I'll have to remember that one...

[Igel]

6. No.

But it's the most usual way of doing things.

The others aren't quite human, moral, godly, smart, of the right skin color or language or ideology ... whatever the 'good' values are.

And, as time goes on the "we" group tends to accrete more and more positive virtues, with deviations from virtue being ignored, and the virtues becoming more and more complicated to make sure they can't be applied to the 'other.'

[bonito]

8. When you accept everything as yourself

at the same time you become none of it.its a freeing experience.

[TahitiNut]

15. We're "human beings" not "human doings".

What we do is not the same as who we are ... unless we make it effectively so by refusing to separate ourselves from our destructive behavior. When a community expels the behavior, those who remain obsessively attached to it go right along with it.

[applegrove]

9. Only if you still think as a child. And I mean - like three years old.

[KarenInMA]

11. Well, I'm not a potato and I hate them.

This is a silly question. I don't hate anyone. I strongly dislike some people, and a lot of that has nothing, whatsoever, to do with politics.

I'm NOT a vegetarian, but I don't hate them.

I am a liberal, but there are plenty of Liberals I can't stand.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

12. But if it is so simply "no" why do we have so many people absolutely

tearing eachother apart? Clearly, many people ACT this way and don't even try and correct themselves. So why do they do it? Simply because they're jerks? It's not just now, it's throughout history. Witch hunts, the Crusades, the Cold War...people ALWAYS have torn each other down for being different.

And now it's not acceptable to do it with an axe any more, so we do it with words and smears.

[MsTryska]

14. Well to get all philosophical and stuff, let me just say this....

the opposite of Love is not Hate.

the opposite of love is indifference.


Hate is based in fear. So what this writer is saying is in order to love who you are, you must fear who you are not.


does it sound right now? (in practice that seems to be how it goes tho doesn't? it)