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Why Do We Love To Hate?
RAVNEET KAUR SANGHA
We are a strange lot, the homo sapiens.
We love with passion but we hate with a greater passion.
We will hate anything, anybody … a human being, an entity, and an organization. Just because we dislike it or them.
This strong and vehement sentiment is increasingly rearing its ugly head all over the world. What disturbs me is the reaction of people just based on color, caste, creed, and religious beliefs, or whatever.
Just because one reminds you of a Muslim; it is okay to bash him up, hit him, leave him for dead? To not look beyond the flowing beard, the turban on the head, to be so short sighted and blind, amazes me.
What is even sadder is the reaction of the people around me. Read the newspaper, stack it away among the older newspapers, or use it to shine the windows, using a bit of spray. But, when will the dirt and grime stacking up in one’s soul lessen? When do we start recognizing the dark abyss we all are sinking into?
The recent beating up of a Doctor / Associate Professor just because he appeared, in the warped minds of the assailants, to look like a Muslim, is testament of a world that is getting narrower by the minute.
Why were all the wars fought? If this isn’t a return of oppression, then what is? Love and hate are two sides of the coin and are inseparable.
A doctor is beaten up, left with a severe jaw fracture, beard ripped, and beaten, just when he is taking a walk … and he himself had taken an oath to serve humanity (being a doctor and all).
Should he also choose now as his hate is justified now?
Where does it stop?
People, change your mindset, tomorrow it could be you, me, our kids, anyone, just because we did not conform to a mind picture the other guy had?
This tolerance needs to start very young, when the child is growing up and systematically the lost trait of empathy and tolerance needs to be taught again.
Simple.
Stop hate, before you become a victim.
September 24, 2013