What if hate didn't exist?

That would be nice. However if hate didn’t exist then everything would be liked and there wouldn’t be any boundaries.

 

There would be a lot more people still alive for starters. And likely more scientific progress because less energy would have been spent killing and more energy spent making things better.

 

Then nobody would hate death so nobody would be trying to save lives or cure diseases.

Nobody would fall in love or have friendships because nobody would hate being lonely.

There would be no such thing as policing or security because nobody would hate crime.

Parents would not protect their children because they would not hate the thought of them being in danger.

There would be no fear or sadness because people just wouldn't be bothered if anything bad happened to them or their families.

There would be no nature because nobody would hate to see all animals and plantlife going extinct.

 

A lack of hate does not equal a lack of compassion or empathy.

 

Yes it does.

Why would you feel compassion for someone if there was no reason to dislike their circumstances?

How would you know if someone was being kind to you if you've never experienced cruelty?

A world without hatred also means a world without mercy or forgiveness.

 

I have to say this doesn't really ring true for me either. Yes, there are people who achieve good in the world by railing against the bad and I suppose for some of them that is a type of hate. But I think most people do it out of simple love of the good and I don't think that is somehow dependent on hate. Wanting everyone to have food to eat isn't the same thing as hating hunger--they may sometimes accomplish the same things but they aren't the same thing. Similarly I just don't think most people fall in love or enter into friendships because they hate being lonely, they do it because they enjoy or even love being with other people. But then again I don't think hate is somehow the flipside of love. Love's opposite isn't hatred, it's indifference.

 

We hate it when the people we love leave us, or betray us.

 

Yeah, I know where you are trying to go with this, but the research I have read about emotions doesn't support this.

Hatred is usually a response to protecting something we love. You have to want to protect something and you have to have anger towards the group wanting to destroy the thing you love. You can't experience hate without those two emotions. With that in mind, your examples just don't stand to your theory.

As for the question itself, its impossible to get rid of hate as long as we want to protect the things we love.

What you can do is create a culture that is able to process that anger and love with compassion and empathy. That's the difference between negative peace and positive peace.

 

Hate and dislike are different things.

If you think that you can only experience something because you have experienced the opposite, that is also not true. If you slip and fall; and someone helps you up, you know that they are being kind because you needed help. Not because they hate you fell down.

You love someone because you enjoy being with them and want to be with them, not because you hate being lonely. You can hate being alone, but the hate doesn't make you love someone. The hate is caused by being alone, but it doesn't make you seek the company of others. The positive emotions of being with others drives you to seek out others.

Every positive emotion does not have a negative emotion driving it. I do not do good things because of bad things. I do good things because doing good brings happiness and joy. I love because I love the people I am with not because I hate being alone. Truthfully I like being alone.

 

Without hate, could/would love even exist? If not, that would make for quite a drab world

 

Yes.. of course.

For some reason people have this idea that humans are naturally mean or evil? We are not built to be evil beings. People can't sustain hate for long periods of time and those who do will be consumed by the feeling. Those who can sustain to be evil are sociopaths.

Humans, for the large part, are peaceful creatures and we don't do well with violence. Like, at all.

Love is the thing that is easy for us to sustain and create. We are pack animals and we love to create communities We can't function without them.

Now, if you take out capitalism then A LOT of evil shit would be solved. But that is a whole different thread and I'm sure older members here just rolled their eyes at my very millennial statement lol

 

Honestly I think without hate the world would never have advanced past cavemen. Most of what people do is driven by small amounts of hatred. We get good jobs because we hate being poor. We build houses because we hate being out in the elements. We drive cars because we hate walking everywhere. We wear clothes because we hate getting sliced up by branches and pebbles. We eat because we hate hunger pains. We find friends because we hate loneliness etc.

Without hate, we would all just be naked cavemen sitting around talking about how great being naked cavemen is.

 

All of that is driven by survival not hate.

 

Not really though. You can still be a poor homeless guy, that walks everywhere, doesn't have clothes, only eats enough to not die, and has no friends if you wanted to be and you'd still survive. All of those things are optional not required.

 

I disagree @Destin i think we totally would still have advanced and maybe even further along without hate because we would work together. Hate didn’t inspire fire, or the wheel, or shelter, etc. need did. Making things more functional and work better did. So take out hate and greed and our earth would be thriving and I think we’d be a lot further advanced than we are now for sure!

 

We get good jobs because we like the idea of having money, money means fun and security.
We build houses because they give us comfort and security.
We drive cars because we need/want to travel long distances in a short time.
We wear clothes because society says we have to and sometimes it’s cold.
We eat for survival and because it usually brings a little joy.
We find friends because as humans we crave companionship, love and physical touch, friends also bring a sense of security.

See how easy it is to take hate out of the equation?

 

I agree, especially taking out greed as well would solve so many problems.

 

I actually think hate is more of a transport emotion lol like it’s not the root emotion or motivation but gets people to a goal that is motivated by something else... anger, hurt, fear, shame, greed, etc. Just my opinion though!