October 9, 2006

hate is just a word

hateisjustaword219.jpg
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19 Responses to “hate is just a word”

  1. This is the quote immor­ta­li­zes you.

  2. jen says:

    I read your site often and I always admire the way you put words and ima­ges together, but I have to say that this one really struck me. Very inte­res­ting and thought pro­vo­king. Thank you.

  3. CyberCelt says:

    Here from Loup’s blog for C&C Mon­day. Like your dra­wings. Do not always know what you are dra­wing, but then I am no artist.
    Have a great day.

  4. dydimustk says:

    wow
    when I get rich enough to buy your cards, this is the one I want.

  5. jon o says:

    I’ve been thin­king about this one all day. A for­mer cus­to­mer sho­wed up on our doors­tep last week. He’d been one of our best cus­to­mers for nearly a decade but he left us with a bang a few years ago — hate-filled let­ters, law­suit, the works. Now he’s back as if none of that ever hap­pe­ned. For wha­te­ver rea­son, he belie­ves in us again. Whether we’re going to take him back or not, that’s another story.

  6. clementine says:

    I thought about every case of someone who I am no lon­ger friends with or no lon­ger have in my life for some rea­son or another…and you are right! Even though they have done some rot­ten things it is true…on some level I still care about (love?) them but I no lon­ger believe in them. I don’t ‘hate’ anyone though. Hate seems like you want to go out and seek revenge and do something rot­ten back. Which I have no desire to do..so…Very aptly put.
    So if love is the oppo­site of hate, then to love someone is to believe in them?

  7. Jane Greer says:

    This one makes no sense to me, Hugh, and you usually make WONDERFUL sense.
    First of all, gram­ma­ti­cally, “hate” isn’t a synonym for a per­son, as in, “You are my hate.” Just isn’t ever used that way.
    Second, there are many peo­ple I love but don’t believe in – for ins­tance, family and friends who con­ti­nually and con­sis­tently let me down – and I cer­tainly don’t hate them.
    It seems to me that hate has more to do with fear and per­cei­ved intent than with belie­ving in someone. We hate peo­ple who we fear may do us harm or at least intend to do us harm.
    Look at the Pennsyl­va­nia Amish fami­lies who ins­tantly for­gave the man who killed their little daugh­ters. Their lack of hate had nothing to do with “belie­ving in” the killer. It had everything to do with their trust in God and belief that follo­wing God’s word is the only thing that mat­ters and that if they do that, NOTHING CAN HURT THEM (says a lot about their atti­tude about death) and they have nothing to fear, thus no one to hate.
    Just my two cents’ worth.

  8. nancy says:

    Hate hap­pens. It hap­pens when there is too much worr­ying about los­ses or too much caring about gains depen­ding on which side of the fence.
    There is natu­ral free­dom in loving. A small exam­ple: You guys in Lon­don have the most uni­que syca­more trees I have ever seen. You do not have to become a tree hug­ger to feel their beauty. Some, who might extre­mely worry about their loss, may learn to hate the other side of the deve­lop­ment fence. I just know Lon­do­ners are too smart or too much in love (natu­rally) to ever give up their beauty, even if they are not cons­ciously making that deci­sion everyday.

  9. dydimustk says:

    Jane,
    Maybe they belie­ved in the imago dei – the image or like­ness of God – within the killer.

  10. Jane Greer says:

    dydi­mustk,
    Could be. Still, I think we’re all wor­king with a whole bunch of dif­fe­rent defi­ni­tions of “believe” here. I, too “believe” that we’re all made in God’s image, period, but there are indi­vi­duals whom I don’t “believe in” because they have taught me not to. Howe­ver, my not “belie­ving in” them does not mean that I hate them.

  11. Lori says:

    i believe this sums up my the “fabu­lous” rela­tionship that my ex-husband and i share. e-ghads.

  12. Hugh MacLeod says:

    Wow, this car­toon has gene­ra­ted a lot of debate. Thanks, Everybody =)

  13. drinman says:

    The best part about losing faith
    Is that you never have to worry about it coming back.

  14. deannie says:

    I don’t know Jane. There are days when ‘I am the hate’ of seve­ral tech­ni­cal things I have to deal with. And that is exactly how I ver­ba­lize it, too!

  15. momo says:

    I have had much hap­pen to me in my short (soon-to-be) 33 years on this pla­net. Much good & much bad. Some things are what peo­ple would & have killed over. I do not hate. I have hated but when it came down to it, I always found I was hating myself in those moments. I hated the fact that I “let” those things hap­pen. I now rea­lize, it was not all me & espe­cially the things that hap­pe­ned when I was not able to see. Like what hap­pe­ned when I was a child, for exam­ple.
    Hate is fear & plain anger. But I do not hate.
    And I have never hated anyone I have ever loved… even those who some would say deserve it.

  16. olex says:

    AMAZING how SIMPLE it is.

  17. Leener[long comments are my life] says:

    I like the com­ment about how loving someone is to believe in them. When I hate someone I feel ina­de­quate to change their beha­viour. If I feel that there is room for change, or even want for change, I don’t hate them. I ‘belive’ in them to be bet­ter. When someone has no effort to be bet­ter or kind or can­not even see what they may be doing wrong, then I can begin to hate them because they com­ple­tely love them­sel­ves more than they are worried about anyone else. In the play ”sound of music”, love is defi­ned as put­ting someone else first. when you put someone else first, you believe in them, you say ‘go ahead, I know you can do it. I trust you to use this [oppur­tu­nity, wha­te­ver] well’.
    Hate is the absence of belief in that per­son or group. When we say ‘I do not believe in you’ you say ‘you are not worth my time, energy, love or even appre­cia­tion, because nothing good can come of you’. That is hate.
    To love is to let go. To love is to believe in someone to love you back.
    [[Which, Jus­tin, I believe in you]]

  18. Leener says:

    I like the com­ment about how loving someone is to believe in them. When I hate someone I feel ina­de­quate to change their beha­viour. If I feel that there is room for change, or even want for change, I don’t hate them. I ‘belive’ in them to be bet­ter. When someone has no effort to be bet­ter or kind or can­not even see what they may be doing wrong, then I can begin to hate them because they com­ple­tely love them­sel­ves more than they are worried about anyone else. In the play ”sound of music”, love is defi­ned as put­ting someone else first. when you put someone else first, you believe in them, you say ‘go ahead, I know you can do it. I trust you to use this [oppur­tu­nity, wha­te­ver] well’.
    Hate is the absence of belief in that per­son or group. When we say ‘I do not believe in you’ you say ‘you are not worth my time, energy, love or even appre­cia­tion, because nothing good can come of you’. That is hate.
    To love is to let go. To love is to believe in someone to love you back.
    [[Which, Jus­tin, I believe in you]]