We have, for no good reason, become extremely quick to pounce on and condemn hatred. But there is a great deal to be said for an emotion without which we would be profoundly lost.
Contemporary consensus seems to be that an opinion cannot possibly be backed by evidence or rationality if its advocate feels passionately angry – or hateful – about the subject. Consequently couched in euphemism are sentiments that all too often deserve to be aired uncensored. We must resist pandering to this form of restriction as it is so often an attempt to isolate those with passionate criticisms to voice. We give hatred such a bad press because of the high esteem in which we correctly hold love. But the inclinations toward both are by no means mutually exclusive; quite the contrary, they feed off and are dependent upon one another. Love would mean nothing were it not for our acute awareness of hatred, just as light would mean nothing without the presence of darkness. To believe that someone is incapable of love because they are bristling with hatred is to misunderstand the nature of each emotion. One would for example hate any individual who committed grave harm to one’s partner; this hatred would be a rational hatred and it would be an inhuman voice that labelled it inappropriate.
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