In 2017, a Ram Navami procession in West Bengal was a
disturbing site to many people. Some schoolgirls were seen marching with knives
and swords in their hands. Cut to 2022, Kerala, a video of a little boy raising
provocative hate speech rattled social media. These are just two examples, but
we have seen numerous hate-mongering cases in the last few years. These cases
stood out because there were children involved. And the obvious question
emerges is from where so much hate is coming at such a tender age. This
question demands a relook at hatred from a psychological sphere.
From Martin Luther King to Nelson Mandela, many scholars
and leaders illustrated hate as an acquired trait. The basic understanding is
that children internalize hatred because of several social-political-cultural
constructs around them. However, a deeper look into the people, especially
children around us, attests that this idea is somewhat flawed.
Carl Jung said, “The history of mankind is a
story of its collective unconsciousness.” We can continue this
statement with the fact that the history of mankind started with prejudices and
hate and continues to be a story of communal and racial hatred. Early stages of
human civilization started with man forming groups or clans for hunting and
gathering, and eventually, prejudice, hate, and rage toward other groups became
a primary condition for survival. This otherization, the feeling of “us” versus
“others”, is the precondition for any hatred and is embedded in our history of
civilization. What began as assumed superiority of one’s own group spread over
history, evolving into ethnocentrism across cultures. It starts early;
youngsters show a preference for their nationality around the age of six and
can grasp the notion of “nationality” even before that age. This can be
described from the theory of “Collective Unconsciousness,”; which refers to the
belief that a portion of the most profound unconscious mind is inherited
genetically and is not changed by human experience.
Both Freud and Jung agree that hatred and aggression are
leftovers from our “pre-cultural” past. “It is atavistic, the behavior of our
ancestors”. It is, according to Freud, the result of personal experiences,
which can be described through his theories on genealogy and the theory of
psychosexual development, prominently in the Oral and Oedipus stages.
Whether it is inherited or arises from personal
experiences, hate is natural. Nature made us hate our enemies and equipped us
to quickly identify ‘others’ as enemies. This natural instinct is, however,
induced by our environment, where, quoting Lennon, “...we have to hide to make
love, while violence is practiced in broad daylight.”
However, evolutionary psychology would never argue that everyone despises everyone else. We can plainly observe that some people are more inclined to hate, while others are more inclined to proactively combat prejudice and discrimination. So, “Not to hate” is a process; it is definitely an acquired trait and must be practiced every day.
It is not just you or me, packed with hate, aggression,
and resentment; it’s the reality of eight billion human beings on this planet.
So, let us look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “Is it too hard to love, to
forgive, to not to resent? Yes, it may be a hard thing to do. But as we
continuously practice our skills and work hard to excel in our careers, as you
are working hard to learn that complex cords in your guitar, we must practice
every day to be indifferent. Because the opposite to hate is not love, it is
indifference. Sometimes, you don’t have to love someone or something; you just
have to distance yourself but never hate. As Maya Angelou stated, “Hate has
caused a lot of problems in the world but has not solved one yet.”
