Thus Wolfe Tone, Irish nationalist of the 18th century, described his feelings towards England.
I was much struck by these words, and what they might mean. I was further struck by the thought that they sum up very well the feelings that many of us have, whatever level of eduaction we might have attained, however learned we might be.
Is the first step to overcoming such animus an admission that it’s an irrational, instinctual thing, or are there any people of whom it can be said that they escape such a state entirely?
The only problem with that is that hate isn’t always instinctual. So of can be legitimately developed through experience. A hatred of Germany or Japan during WWII would be completely justified IMHO. Likewise, there have been some groups that I have come to truly hate even as an adult based only on experience. I don’t think those feelings are irrational and certainly not instinctual.
There is a common type of hate that is instinctual and arised from the fear of the unknown or fear of people different from oneself but that isn’t the only kind.
roger, even if the hatred is instinctual, the object of that hatred surely isn’t. Would the great majority of those Irish nationals who have instinctual hatred of Englishmen just happen to have been born in Ireland or Northern Ireland?
Isn’t it possible that what 18th Century men considered to be instinctual isn’t now often readily controllable brain chemistry or hormonal imbalance?
Supposing someone hates homophobes (as the word is generally used and understood). Is the argument that those hating the homophobes are motivated by a justified and principled hatred, and those they hate are motivated by an instinctual and irrational hatred?
The interesting thing about Tone’s words are that he appears not to be condemning his hatred of the English by calling it instinctual. He appears to be looking in at himself as if from the outside and recognising the feeling as non-rational while at the same time validating it. The hatred appears to be sidentified by the sunject himself as one of various factors that underpinned his activism, along with his training as a lawyer, his experiences on both sides of the Irish Sea, etc.
Hate isn’t instinctual, but fear is. Chemically, rage is hormonally similar to fear, with higher levels of norepinephrine secreted along with epinephrine, but not more than something like a 1 to 7 ratio. If Wolfe Tone had chosen to make an honest statement, he’d have added “but what really sets me off are spiders, especially the big, hairy ones.”
Or maybe since St. Patrick banished the snakes, the snake-receptors in the Irish brain were converted to English-receptors. But more likely it was seeing bushmasters being drag-hanged in front of their pupils, or the succession of heads displayed at Dublin Castle, that produced hatred. Dark and deep, but cognitive nonetheless.
Yes, all true-- but isn’t hate reflexive in nature …transitive. Reasons for hate eminate from hateful perpetration. I find myself on the borderlines of hate when I watch Pat Robertson. I am tolerant of religion but his imposition and propaganda riles. I find my hate rather natural and native to my conscience and its abuse.
In my opinion, both misunderstand their own hatred and both probably think that they are motivated by justified and principled hatred. I think that none of it is instinctual and all of it is irrational.
It is none of my business what someone else thinks of me.
I wonder why women are less homophobic than men. At least it seems that way to me.
Well, if we assume that’s true, and if we also assume that women have more contempt for lesbians than men do, it could be something to do with an aversion of the majority to the different.