Hate! It's an Irrational Thing


Driving home from work, I was listening to my local sports channel, which an ESPN radio personality was talking about Tim Hardaway's anti-gay rhetoric, given in response to some interviewers questioning him, following retired NBA player John Amaechi "coming out of the closet". Mr Hardaway said that he "hated gay people". He was pretty up front and straight forward about it. One even has to admire his honesty, especially in this day and age of politicial correctness.

Anyway, the female radio personality commented, rightly, that hate was an irrational response, and that it was wrong because of that, and that hate had no place in the NBA or anywhere else. Now, I am not quoting her, but basically paraphrasing her intent her. In one way I do agree with what she said, in that hate is an irrational response, which it is. However, her following comments meant it to sound like you could logically dictate within yourself what you feel in regards to hate. I disagree. Emotions is not a lightswitch which you can flick on and off.

Indeed, later on Tim Hardaway did make further comments which distanced himself from his previous "I hate gays" comment. But that had more to do with his agent(s) and the NBA and his sponsors then because of any change of heart. He hates gays, and he will for a very very long time.

However, this is just the backdrop to what I mean to speak about here, as I really do not care about the NBAs stance on homosexuality or Tim Hardaways personal views. I am more concerned about people thinking that you can rationalize emotions, changing them from one thing to another via logical thought processes.

As much as we like to think that is possible, it really isn't. As much as those that profess to be socially conscious in a liberal sense in regards to political correctness, they are being naive and fooling themselves if they believe that one can give up on a irrational and deep-seeded ideal of bigotry and hate. If that were the case, we would be a much safer and more polite world after a 15 minute public service announcement, or would of been weeded out of our society after one generation of PC schooling.

But, guess what. It hasn't! Why is that? It is because you cannot teach another person how they MUST feel or believe. People will always hate others. That is life and that is the way things are. It has nothing to do with "ignorance" as the female sports commentator said, because as much as we would like to think that "diversity education" would make this world a better place, by making everyone respect and love each other ... once we came to "understand" those people that we personally hate. That is nothing more then a way to request social-research grant monies! Facts and education and "being right" never made much of a difference in the larger sociological framework of our world. Otherwise, the Nazis would not of hated the Jews, the Catholics would not of hated the Protestants, the Democrates would not hate the Republicans, the Whites would not hate the Blacks, the Poor would not hate the Rich (not all, mind you... just those of the radical fringes where things are always seen in black and white). I can go on and on about socio-political-economic groups that hate other socio-political-economic groups, as there are many. Heck, look at people nearby that hate someone from another neighborhood, or that went to another school then they did! Most saw such rivalrys as a way to booster school-pride, but there are some that TRUELY have felt a deep seeded hatred for such rivals, and many still carry it to this day, even after 20 or 30 or more years!

Is that rational?? Not at all. Is it real? You betcha your ass it is! Is it something that we can dictate out of the hearts and minds of those that feel it through PC legistlation? Heck no!

So, what is the wizard trying to say here? Only that you cannot dictate emotions. Just as you cannot say WHY you love those people that you do, you also cannot start or stop emotional feelings on a dime. You cannot make a person stop loving gays and start loving them, just because "it is the right thing to do". There is a reason why the psychiatric health industry is as big as it is! If there was a magic pill or super-couch for people to lay upon that instantly makes them peaceful and nice and everything nice, we would be using those, wouldn't we??

We would also be living in a VERY BORING WORLD as well, wouldn't we??

(Originally posted February 17th, 2007 on my Yahoo 360 blog)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mental Meanderings 5 of 12

Mental Meanderings

The Wizard's Lair is the DOWNFALL of the Superheroine in Distress Genre!