Aristotle, viewed hate as distinct from anger and rage, describing hate as a desire to annihilate an object and is incurable by time.
You get angry for a reason, but hate could be for no apparent reason. It can descend upon an individual in a relationship or a family, or a whole nation like the Germans. anti Semitism could be the warning sign for the holocausts.
Hatred doesn’t stop until it reaches one of two stats; either disconnection from the object of the hate, or a wish to destroy this object. (If you cannot disconnect – you wish to destroy).
We can see that hatred, is not like other negative emotions – it is total, and will not decrease until it reaches one of these two states.
If we compare them to weapons, then negative emotions are like bow and arrow, while hate is more like a hydrogen bomb.
If we go back to Anti-Semitism, we can observe that it was mostly a strong antagonism against a minority of few peaceful communities of scatters Jews on exile– but hatred erupted in Germany -all of a sudden a total distraction of all Jews, one by one, murdering all of them, the Germans, were the executing ‘hand’ that actualized the hatred
into mass killings (6,000 000) of Jews. (And it happened only 80 years ago, some survivors are still alive).
(My mother, Rozi, was 17 when arriving at Auschwitz, seeing both her parents sent to the gas chambers).
The Jews needed close to 2000 years to wake up to the approaching hatred, Zionism happened before the holocaust, it emerged in the late 19th century in Central and Eastern Europe as a national revival movement, (returning to the state of Israel). In what i could only be protected from the forecast for the holocaust.
People talk about anti-Semitism, but anti-Semitism is only a forward to the worst yet to come: hatred.
Hatred is not a normal emotion. It is not an integral part of the natural emotional system. It is more a poisonous influence, or an illness that infects the hater. It happens upon him, while he is passive.
And if there is no disconnection (from the object of the hater) or a destruction of him, in one form or another – the hatred could become uncontrolled.
One of the main factors in any hatred is the dehumanization of the object of the hate (or treating him as an enemy).
When in a dynamic of hatred is in full swing – it is impossible for the hater to feel compassion or empathy towards the victim.
Hate does not emerge or bursts from us, we are ‘invaded’ by it. It is an influence looking for a person or a nation to nest upon.
It could be said that a hating person, or a nation, are possessed by it.
And lastly: In a couple relationship or in a family, if the atmosphere is of unconditional love – no hatred can exist.
“Stronger than lover’s love is lover’s hate. Incurable, in each, the wounds they make.”
― Euripides, Medea