I would like to turn aside, unfortunately, a currently relevant experience: hatred. It blooms and smells, but what to do with it is the question …
At the same time, hatred does not refer to elementary human emotions (such as fear or joy), it is a cocktail of several emotions, which, in a certain combination, gives out one of the most powerful and explosive human experiences (and the behavior corresponding to it).
The foundation for hatred is disgust, one of the primary emotions. Disgust has a pronounced physiological component and the task is to protect a person from contact with a harmful (poisonous) object: it is not for nothing that nausea and vomiting are frequent companions when confronted with something disgusting (like excrement, decaying organic matter, mucus, and the like – everyone will pick up for himself…).
Nutrient medium
So, the main function of disgust is to reduce contact with an unpleasant / dangerous object to zero: in disgust we become numb or run away. Therefore, by the way, people often confuse fear / fear with disgust. In external manifestations, they are similar, but still have a different purpose: fear is a contact emotion (we are attentive to the object of fear), while disgust (as the word itself says) helps to reduce this contact to zero (as far as possible).
When the disgusting object disappears from the field of possible contact, we calm down. Psychological disgust (“secondary”, as opposed to “primary” physiological) is associated with values or behavior of other people that are completely unacceptable to us, acting as an analogue of poison in the natural world.
It tells us in the language of emotions: “If I become like this person, I will get poisoned, I will die for myself as a person. And he is already poisoned, he stinks of terrible thoughts / values uXNUMXbuXNUMXband behavior. The natural reaction to psychological disgust is the same as to physiological, that is, the removal, the maximum increase in distance. We simply withdraw from contact with people who exhibit such behavior, which is in sharp conflict with what we consider acceptable.
Explosive cocktail
If we add a few ingredients to disgust, we get hatred (however, hatred is not only born out of disgust – it has many sources).
Most often, hatred is born from a combination of disgust with fear and disgust with resentment, flavored with the inability to move away from the object of disgust.
The more limited and narrow the worldview of a person, the more reason for hatred
This is a very important point: with hatred, a person seeks to destroy what causes hatred, because coexistence in the same space with the object of disgust is impossible, but it is also impossible to get rid of, so there is only one thing left – to destroy. This feeling is characterized by posing the question: “Either I, or he / she / it”, there can be no intermediate options in hatred – being an extremely strong experience, it burns all the halftones. Disgust puts the question differently: “Do whatever you want, but don’t get in my eyes and don’t bother me!”
For example, a person thinks gays are disgusting. If at the same time he is afraid that these “terrible creatures” can threaten his world and there is no escape from them, then anger is born from this mixture, which grows into hatred that requires a way out. Hatred of parents is more often born out of disgust and resentment.
How to generate hatred where it seems to have never been seen before (and there is no objective threat)? The recipe is clear: give some people (or a group of people) disgusting moral traits (Jews drink the blood of Christian babies; all Muslims are terrorists; Russian barbarians can only drink and rape …) and add fear / remember resentment: “They are coming to you, they will make you live your way!” or: “Remember how they humiliated you?!”
In fact, the nationalist cult of historical grievances, which is very popular in the world, especially in the post-Soviet space (the Baltic States, Georgia, Ukraine, Russia …), is the most fertile environment for the formation of hatred, you just need to add disgust to the appearance of neighbors (and if the neighbors really serve for this reason – so generally a fairy tale …). It is very important to suppress empathy, because the ability to see the good in a disgusting person greatly interferes with hatred.
The more limited and narrow the worldview of a person / community of people, the more reason for hatred. And then hatred narrows the picture of the world even more, drawing attention only to what causes disgust – and so one causes the other. In order to destroy the hateful, one must come into contact with the disgusting. And thus get poisoned.
Is there any benefit in hatred?
A useful function of hatred is the release of energy to destroy a deadly threat that cannot be fenced off. The problem begins from the moment when deadly threats begin to multiply where they do not exist. A person obsessed with his own fears and weaknesses is most susceptible to hatred, but, due to weakness, he will not realize his hatred himself, but will join the one who still dares. Then hatred is accompanied by gloating in the style of “And the neighbor’s cow died” or “So they should, they deserve it!”. And tolerance becomes a dirty word: what kind of tolerance can there be in a world where there are only monsters, and you are a weak, trembling creature?
As long as we are focused on the “enemy”, his actions and failures, we are in close contact with him.
I personally know well the feeling of hatred when I once realized that a group of sectarians intended to make an attempt to pulverize / discredit me using information warfare techniques that disgust me. I entered into opposition, responded with blow for blow, but it gradually became clear that the forces were unequal, and I definitely would not be able to defeat the sect. The combination of hatred and impotent rage as a result of the inability to destroy the enemy is a poisonous cocktail …
“She insulted me, he hit me, she defeated me, he robbed me … In those who harbor such thoughts, hatred will never fade away … For never in this world does hatred stop with hatred … “Lines from the Buddhist “Dhammapada” fell very handy. If you can’t win and have met in a powerless clinch with someone you hate, you can endlessly wish the enemy troubles, but this will not make him worse.
At the same time, hatred, as I realized most clearly, connected me with those whom I hated, with almost the same strength as love (which is why I do not consider love to be the opposite of hatred), – I followed and read what my ” friends ”(and this is frank and disgusting dregs) – and it seems that he did it with no less zeal than they did. Poisoned – and read, the gag reflex was suppressed by hatred. I managed to escape when, immensely tired of the clinch, I simply focused on what I was doing myself. And I let disgust take over anger and fear, drag me out of this field and turn away from it.
As long as we are focused on the “enemy”, his actions and failures, we are in close contact with him. In a real war, this is justified. But in virtual wars, where damage is measured not by corpses, but by nerve cells, the winners, as a rule, win Pyrrhic victories.