LOVE AND HATE

A COMPARISON-CONTRAST
Ryll Regine Santos
III Rutherford

What is the one emotion that has everyone mystified? What is the one emotion that has started as many wars as it has ended? What emotion has had more plays, songs, and stories written about it than anything else? Love, that one emotion that makes enemies into friends and friends into enemies. And what is that one emotion that makes you feel so angry at someone? To neglect him/ her and even do so many bad things to him/her, even though he/ she is your bestfriend or even your loved one. Hate, that one emotion that makes the world suffer. That one emotion that starts all things evil. Well, sometimes. Love, that one that sometimes nourishes hate. Two very different and contradicting words yet very connected with each other.

Love has many different meanings to different people. For a four-year-old, love is marrying her daddy when she grows up. For an elementary school kid, love is what he or she feels for his or her best friend, who also serves as a boyfriend or girlfriend. To a fifteen-year-old boy, love is what he should feel for his girlfriend of the moment; only because she says she loves him. But as we get older and wiser, love becomes more and more confusing. There is no true definition of what love is. Love is just merely a word in the English language but the real meaning behind it is something that cannot be expressed in words. The term love has a universal term and basically means someone or something that shows infatuation or affection to another person or object. The word love has different meaning in contexts and could be expressed in lesser or higher degrees depending on the person. The meaning of love could be different for every other person. Love is merely a word but it is the connection the two people or object makes of it. Love is something so powerful, that it is strong enough to take on any obstacles, including someone's life. If someone truly loves someone, they are willing to sacrifice their life for someone they love. That is true love when you are willing to give up your life so that your loved one can live on. The phrase, love makes the world go round is very true. It's is our driving force, for what ever reason it may be. We can only feel what that meaning is, and express it in ways only we can understand towards another.

Hate is a word that describes intense feelings of dislike. Some defines it as pain that is due to an external cause. For psychologists, hate is defined as a "deep, enduring, intense emotion expressing animosity, anger, and hostility towards a person, group, or object.” It can bring people into total destruction. It has the capability of starting a war. Best friends can be mortal enemies just by arguing and developing hate for each other. Husband and wife can separate just by developing hate for each other. Hate influences very much the emotional side of people and even their thinking. These particular examples are very similar scenes in today’s time. So, just like love, hate is also a very intense and powerful emotion that needs to be fully understood.

They say that love is the supreme good and that hate is the supreme evil. But as we read in books, good defeats evil, hate is defeated by love. For hate is not conquered by hate: hate is conquered by love. This is an eternal law. Just like Martin Luther King Jr. once said, love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. And yet, capriciously, love may also be a source of hate. The defrauded love is jealous and dangerous. “The frustrated love turns itself easily in hate” – wrote Morin. Defrauded love is a cause of thousands of violent crimes. At another level, some sorts of religious and political love are equally a source of many crimes and hatred. In the Middle Ages, the love of God, nourished many religious persecutions, and much slaughter. Millions of men dyed in fratricidal wars, or at the Inquisition stake. But that's not just a past issue. On the contrary: it's a very present question. We should not forget: present day terrorism and many aggressive political movements – with all the love of projects and ideas they involve – are a tremendous illustration of how love can be a source of evil and hate. Yes. It is true... Love nourishes hate. It has done it in the past. It is doing it in the present.