Hate vs. Tolerate

With the political debates going on, the stories of bullying, the fight for gay marriage, and the conflicts in the Middle East, there seems to be a lot of hate being slung all over the place. I am not sure why as humans we are too stupid to figure out the damaging effects of hate. It is something we are not born to do. It is something we learn.

I read I great article by Shawn Blackburn talking about this thing we learn, hate. There were so many points that were amazing that I think it would be worth others reading as well. But what I want to know is why do we still hate? We are smart people.

I have a friend from high school that posts her political views very intelligently on Facebook, no different than others post. She had friends argue with her and ultimately "unfriend" her there. Is this a hateful action? I think it is. Instead of realize that her views were different then theirs and understand that everyone thinks and believes differently, it was easier to argue and then not talk to her anymore. THAT IS IGNORANT!

I was sorrowed to hear of another teenager resorting to suicide over being bullied in school. I wonder if this happens because the bully feels bullied at home and needs to regain power, so bullies at school. Is it a power issue? Or is it just pure evil? I don't think it is pure evil. I think they learned how to be bullied elsewhere by being bullied. But why? Where does it stop? When will it end? Is it worse now with the open media outlets? or do we just hear about it more now? What makes it ok? and where the fuck are the parents?

Why can we not learn to just accept others for who they are, what the believe, how they act, and move on? What causes us to draw lines? The article mentioned above talks of ethnocentricity. I think this is part of it. We fear what is unfamiliar to us so we demonize it rather than try to understand and accept it.

I learned a long time ago that I was not going to agree with everyone or understand everyone. I will never forget when I was on my mission and I had a friend who talked about going nude at the beach with his whole family. To me I could not comprehend seeing my family naked. It was not my culture. Not how I grew up. To him, he could not understand why it was odd to me because it was so normal to him. It taught me a huge lesson. It taught me that the way we were raised is not the way everyone was raised and I needed to understand that to understand people and accept them.

I may just be babbling now, but can't we focus on learning and teaching to just tolerate rather than hate? I think that is something that will bring a lot more peace to the world; more than war and bullying (and I am not just talking in schools, but in politics, pulpits, foreign relations, etc.). I may be idealistic in my thinking, but hey, isn't that where the best things begin?