"What's So Bad About Hate?"

Andrew Sullivan's article "What's So Bad About Hate?" was featured in the New York Times Magazine where he questions the motivation someone must have to be able to commit such a hateful crime against another. He questions what that certain "thing," or motivation, is. He also questions what "hate" actually is. When questioning the theme of "hate," he wrote, "About not the violence, but what the violence expresses. About what- exactly- hate is. And what our own part in it might be." He believed it's not about the violence, but what the violent symbolizes: hate. Now that I think about it, I also wonder what "hate" actually means. You hear people saying, sometimes jokingly, saying, "I hate you," but I think people sometimes mistake the offensive significance of it. But what is "hate?" "Hate" to me is a very strong word. When I think of hate, I think of someone disliking something so much that they would act towards that thing or person so cruelly to the point of violence. One quote that I found that really made me think about the meaning of "hate", was when Sullivan wrote, "A single word, after all, tells us less, not more." When talking about the theme, Sullivan explained that "hate" actually tells us less about the person or thing that is being hated rather than more. I completely agree with this statement because in my opinion, I think that one of the reasons of why people "hate," is because they are ignorant of the person of thing that are hating. For example, when someone first meets another person, they almost always make a first impression or create this image of that person without fully getting to know them yet. That doesn't mean that that person will automatically hate that other person just because they don't know that person, but I'm saying that it could be a factor that ultimately results in that one person hating the other person. Sullivan later explained that hate cannot be eliminated, but only overcome by success. He believes that there is always going to be hate in the world, hate that the world cannot fully eliminate. I agree with this statement because with so many people in the world, there are always going to be people who disagree and it would be very difficult to change the opinions of those people. At the end of Sullivan's article, he explained an example of how hate can be overcome and wrote, "The only effective answer to sexism is not a morass of legal proscriptions but the simple fact of female success." He explained that sexism cannot be banned, but only overcome by the female success of achievement.

Andrew Sullivan "Hate Crimes," Annals of American History. http://america.eb.com/america/article?articleId=390332&query=What%27s+So+Bad+About+Hate%3F">http://america.eb.com/america/article?articleId=390332&query=What%27s+So+Bad+About+Hate%3F>