Why do we hate?

[Rick336]

From Yahoo News:

By NICHOLAS K. GERANIOS, Associated Press Writer Nicholas K. Geranios, Associated Press Writer – Wed Nov 18,2009

SPOKANE, Wash - Why did the Nazis hate the Jews? Why did the Hutus hate the Tutsis?

Hate is everywhere, but the fundamental question of why one person can hate another has never been adequately studied, contends Jim Mohr of Gonzaga University, who is developing a new academic field of hate studies.

The goal is to explain a condition that has plagued humanity since one caveman looked askance at another.

"What makes hate tick?" Mohr, director of Gonzaga's Institute for Action Against Hate, wondered. "How can we stop it?"

Gonzaga founded the institute a decade ago after some black law students received threatening letters. It has since started a Journal of Hate Studies, hosted a conference and offered its first class on hatred last spring.

Read the rest of the article here:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091119/...s_hate_studies


Rick

[Victoria]

"But Stern said it is too easy to blame ignorance for hate. People can have plenty of knowledge about something and still hate it, he said. The problem is when one person or group can separate another person or group from their humanity, thinking of them as an "other," Stern said.

"We dehumanize them and justify violence against them," Stern said.

That's still ignorance. It's easy to define ignorance as lacking knowledge in terms of factual data and make the mistake that just by giving someone enough data then they'll no longer be ignorant, but ignorance is more completely defined by lack of understanding, even with data.

In order to dehumanize someone, you have to lack understanding of them, separate what they are from what you are. If you truly understand someone, and can see them in yourself, you ~can't~ dehumanize them.

There is no simple answer to why people hate, Mohr said. Hate can be sparked by greed, or fear, or a tribe bonding together in opposition to another. People looking to belong will hate others to fit into a group, he said.

Fear is the simple answer. All of the situations they describe are rooted in fear... I guess I just don't understand why they think hate is so complex when it's not

[ladyinred]

Fear has ALOT to do with it, people also learn to hate and judge others often because they do the same things to themselves.Some people also need to feel superior to others because they think it gives them a sense of self esteem and gives them a reason to feel like they are better than the other guy therefore it gives them a justification to look down on others as inferior..