I recently had a conversation on another blog, whose author was asking the question:
‘Which is stronger, love or hate?’
Stripped down, the dialogue, in essence, went like this:
Me: ‘Hate appears stronger because it is extreme. Mostly, (although maybe not in all cases) it is similar to anger in which it is relatively short lived and channelled. The strength shows in the initial burst. But love endures, it has a constancy that stretches on and so does not appear extreme. It’s strength is in the longevity of the emotion. It can outlast hate, I think.’
Blogger: ‘I agree with what you say. I have never thought of hate being similar to anger before. I wonder if holding grudges has any role in this one? Love, yes-I see. But what about infatuation? Can that be classed as love?’
Me: ‘I would say that infatuation is akin to obsession. Love is, or should be, selfless, whereas infatuation is all about self.’
Blogger: ‘That is a new thought, too. So are infatuated people aware of their own ‘selfish’ behaviour?’
Me: ‘I would say that they are aware of what they are doing, because they are feeding their own needs so are not acting subconsciously, but are perhaps confusing infatuation for love. They see only from their own perspective.’
Blogger: ‘Ah, there we go!’
In considering the question set by the blogger, that of which between the two is the strongest emotion, I took this to mean not as the strongest emotion felt, but as an observation in an almost abstract, disengaged manner. I gave my answers as above, but this cannot be definitive. Context, experience, and circumstance must all play a part.
We cannot help but bring to the question our own preconceived perceptions and prejudices.
Also, how we view our life here colours our view. If we see ourselves as living a spiritual life, and our time here as just the beginning of a long journey, then love must be our default setting. Any straying from this core essence is but an aberration to be corrected.
If we view our existence as purely physical, and temporary, then the process of living leaves us prone to the whole, reasonable gamut of emotions, each as valid as the other.
But back to the original question: which is stronger, love or hate? What do you guys think?
City Jackdaw 
Reblogged this on I Prefer Deep Blues and Sea Foam Greens and commented:
Epic. Go read this.
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Z see reply below.
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Kk
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Love is the strength that endures us at every stage of our life, love is like a tree the older it is the deeper the roots are and then most likely to be stronger and more flexible, hate is a mind set created by ourselves we are not born with hate we born with love, for me hate only exists if we let it,
(This was a reply given by a friend on my FB post)
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😀 excellent response! And I like the imagery with the tree example 🙂
But with hate, there are times when deceit and poor behaviour of others sink too deep; thus, it being a feeling inflicted by others. And we didn’t want this to happen, but no matter how hard we try, it gets to us, and we become hateful..
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Great question, Andy. Hate never caused anyone to die for someone else. Love, to me, is the strongest.
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A perfect example. For a cause maybe, but not someone else.
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Yes. And even then, that person might still love the cause for which he or she is dying.
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I believe that it can’t be concluded since they’re like two sides of a coin. It depends…
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It does, that what I meant when I referred to circumstance and context. Thank you for reading.
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🙂
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I have loved AND hated in equal measures. Hard to quantify. I don’t think one is stronger than the other.
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You could be right. It is like when people say they love someone more than so and so. Is true love an absolute, attainable peak, or can we love by degrees? Thanks for reading.
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Interesting piece. Initially I was drawn to it thinking it was an actual dialogue between the two as personified emotions… good and evil, archetypes etc. but instead it was a brief exploration of their power. And how they can overwhelm a person, consume them. Remember, too much love has been known to kill too. Just putting that out there…. Great discussion.
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