Is Hate the New Drug?

If you had asked me a decade or so ago what brings people greater pleasure, love or hate? My answer would have been quick, and what I would think obvious. Love.

In the scheme of emotions love and hate are the polar extremes of each other. I tend to think more things in life fall into the categories of like and dislike, OK and not OK. Whatever and meh. You get what I mean.

This could apply to music you listen to or sports teams you follow, or types of food your palate has an opinion about. The list goes on and on that triggers the emotions of love and hate or something in between.

This post is more about the loss of the in-between options of love or hate. If we are talking about issues like Beyonce over Taylor or Mets verse Yankees or even Chinese food or Indian food, love or hate isn't too big of a problem.

The repeated concerning issue is more in politics and the society it represents. Unlike the previously mentioned choices, the feelings people have towards a politician or politics is becoming more and more polarizing by either loving or hating.

Creating those extreme emotions attached to another human being or ideology is a slippery and potentially treacherous slope. First of all, no politician or political ideology is perfect. The feelings of love or hate on these issues tended to be fluid in the past. This leads to a more in-between sentiment. For some reason, currently those days seem to be over. It seems you either wear the uniform of one side or the other. If you approach the opposing side its seem frighteningly natural to get so emotionally angry, filled with hate, you might even express it through violence.

We are currently in another important political race here in New York City. The mayoral primaries have been quite heated on the democratic side with many folks having thrown their hat in the ring. What I've noticed more times than not, the commercials supporting a particular candidate spend far more time spewing negative, pseudo-hate propagating information about the other candidates and telling me far less about themselves and their plan.

What I'm getting at, is there is a greater shift, in my opinion, of what emotion people seem to be desiring for some time. I feel like far too many of us enjoy the feeling of hating something or someone. We look for it and live to hold onto it. Anger seems to be something that feels good for far too many of us. It's becoming a perverse drug to the social peace of what is supposed to be an advanced civilization we live in today.

Does anger make us feel more alive? Forget about love. How about just acceptance of things we don't agree with. It has become energizing to many people to have strong feelings of disdain and hate toward someone or some group of people.

To be fair, I feel a degree of this exists in most people, but the sense of fairness and desire for a more peaceful society, allowed us to put things in perspective. This, I believe put our emotional barometers in a more neutral state, with some degree of respect always reserved for those with a differing view.

When our public leaders, so-called voices of the people of this country, are resorting to name calling, belittling and making those with a differing belief now enemies, we have a very serious situation on our hands. When you create a society like this you are making it ripe for the taking of something that could be very detrimental.

I don't care what side you're on, the fact that you're on a side that is not truly one of the "United" states is a significant problem. We have already become the "Divided" states of America and quite frankly many people seem fairly content with that.

Don't let your personal frustration about your life be the fuel that entices you to spew anger at perfect strangers or people that are being labeled "the enemy". Most people are expressing anger at things that they generally don't even deal with on a regular basis. It's easier to join in with the angry mob than to confront your individual issues that are making your life personally miserable. It's a classic displacement or transposing of one's own emotions. The release of anger temporarily makes you feel good. Newsflash. Anger moves the needle of progress nowhere forward. In fact it stalls progress or sends us backwards in resolving problems.

We need the leadership on many levels to call a timeout. To realize the rhetoric has gotten out of hand. Too many of us believe this is the new way in which this country operates. It has been a very long time since I've heard anyone in power say it's time to heal the wounds and reach across the aisle and accept each of our fellow Americans with whatever belief system. Until we even begin with that very basic step, the aisle keeps getting wider and time makes it that much tougher to make the first move.

Stop spending so much energy on anger and revenge. The history of the world has already proven this is a formula for self destruction and disaster. I hope someone singularly or collectively can shine the light back onto the things that made this country the unique and beautiful United State of America it once was.