Hate

It interests me that every time I get on Facebook what pops up in my news-feed each time is at least one story of kindness and caring. Sure, I guess it's possible that I just have a very positive group of friends but I really hope that's not the case. I hope that's the norm. I think people are tired of hate. They're tired of feeling like they're practically required to harbor hate towards others, and they're tired of watching this play out daily practically everywhere they look.

Now, don't get it twisted: I'm not saying that everything should be rainbows and unicorn farts, or that we should delude ourselves into some false worldview where compassion is the only answer. In many scenarios, it's not even an option. I'm saying that when we have the choice to break away from the division and connect with people, that's exactly what we should do. What I'm saying is that the amount of emotional energy, and time, that is getting invested into hatred of the 'other' right now is very literally exhausting.

We see it on the news. We see it in movies. We see it in politics. We see it everywhere. How can anyone consume that much negativity and not grow weary of it? And, for anyone that knows me, I'm not necessarily an optimist. Even pessimistic people are latching onto the good news stories that manage to cut through the darkness in our culture to make it onto their screen of choice. They crave it, and they try to get some joy and inspiration from it.

Today is election day, and with each cycle the vitriol and poison gets stronger. The mud slinging gets a little nastier, and the lies that get told to inflict harm become a little darker. People become more and more political and partisan, and less and less informed. This cycle has been no different; why are we doing this to ourselves? Some of the comments I've heard from people close to me just over the last year are proof positive of this. We're suffocating ourselves daily consuming and entertaining this garbage, and then wonder why it's hard to breathe.

I don't know what the answer to it is for sure. Honestly, the only answer I see lies with the individual. People have got to stop rushing to hatred and division through extremes every time something pops up in the narrative that sets them off; individuals have to decide to come at things a different way-like adults. We've got to start talking to each other again, and stop talking at each other. We've got to build up the ability inside ourselves to entertain a different viewpoint without accepting it as truth or allowing it to color our perspective of other people.

The division we have based on hatred has pretty successfully killed any type of dialogue possible on an entire slew of topics, and we've done little to stop the march of this trend. I believe that we do have an enemy in this country, and that same enemy is the one stoking the flames of dissolution and discord. These parties don't necessarily have a partisan affiliation, and these parties can't have us having conversations because if we're talking then why do we need them? They want us divided, and the want us ready to submit. They want us so emotionally shredded from the infighting that we want to just hand it over to someone and say "fix it". They want us to unplug and not care, because the apathetic are easily ruled.

The horrible part about all this? We're falling for it-hook, line and freakin' sinker. If you don't believe me, just take a look around you. We're fractured as a people. I'm not saying everyone's opinion is valid; it's not. I'm not saying everyone's world-view is acceptable; they're not. I'm not saying that we shouldn't fight as hard as we can for what we believe in; we should. But we have to do it a better way. If we don't change how we attack our issues, we're in a world of hurt.

People are craving the conversation. They're craving positive movement. We need to stop focusing on what everyone else is doing, and start paying attention to how we conduct ourselves, because if we don't than who the hell are we to criticize the opposition. I'm not a Lincoln fan, but he had one thing right.

This idea was just as true in Lincoln's time as ours. Words are the weapon used to divide, not violence. We need to be good stewards of our liberty in that regard. We need to use our words to unite instead of divide. What good is our right to Free Speech if the only thing we do with it is abuse it?