Indeed moral indignation and denunciation (put down) of others with punitive intent is often a masked form of violence, which in turn is an extreme form of hatred. War, executions, penal systems (in lieu of justice systems), social violence, unrestrained competition, and torture are simply gross symptoms of unrestrained selfishness and egocentricity, yet egos "like to think" that such people are "all good", hence chronic defensive denial of the symptoms through double talk and shifting the blame becomes reflexive. It is so common and institutionalized that it remains unrecognized and unconscious. Of course in reality we are all Buddha wanting to come out of the closet (of conceptual labeling), but when that good instinct becomes blocked or damaged, then what manifests instead is the repressive pain of that murder/inhibition, or blockage.
In short, ignorance which is the underlying problem, is nothing other than an inured denial as a process of chronic ignoring/denial. One symptom is the widespread denial of hatred in this culture. It's the elephant in the living room, the emperor that has no clothes, and as such has more than a tinge of self deceit (delusion) in it as well. In fact it is severe filter of the ego, in its need to feel good about itself despite the facts. It is the major mechanism which holds people back from waking up. In short egos do not desire to hear unpleasant or unflattering news about their "self", hence such attacks on egoic false identifications automatically are treated as attacks on "self". In an attempt to shield, isolate, armor, or protect oneself from that unpleasant, unflattering, or painful information. Hence one reactive egoic mechanism is hatred, when attempting to attack, demean, deny, void, or ridicule new information (or its messenger) that may contradict the ego's fixation.
The egoic sense of ersatz pride that tells "good" Westerners that we gave a superior religion and civilization to the native Americans (versus stole their land and murdered them), gave a superior religion and civilization to the African slaves, tried to give a superior religion and culture to the Vietnamese, and gave democracy and civilization to the Iraqis, and ... so on. We say that we "did that all out of love. not hatred" This kills two birds with one stone, in that it denies the new information as true or valuable discredits it, and its messenger; while at the same time elevates one's ego to a position of ersatz pride, superiority, rightness, and good. In that milieu, the more the "other" are proved to be wrong or evil, then by opposing "the other", the more one becomes automatically elevated to being good, right, or superior. Pretty smart, huh!
Of course, those who resisted were evil, so we saved them from committing any more sins by killing them. This is hatred, delusion, pride, fear, greed, and ignorance all tied up in one, but "who" is listening – "who" is open?
The same mistakes are being repeated in the name of good morally superior people, which is simply the deceit/self deceit justification of those who lack true meaning in life without inventing enemies to compare themselves with. Lack of true self worth, confusion, fear, and insecurity, and lack hence lending human beings vulnerable to demagoguery. Obviously that creates more problems than it can solve.
So when is it that people give up those dysfunctional conceptually based dramas and wars and begin to understand their mechanisms? Now is the time, always.
I found that it is easier to hate, than to go inside, because it helps people dissociate from their unpleasant feelings and discharge it (catharsis) upon an external ersatz target. just expressing hatred, temporary serves as a dissociation from pain as it discharges it. Sitting with kleshas when they may arise (say in vipassana meditation) in recognition, and giving it non-judgmental open attention, will eventually nullify its causal circuitry. Another gift of meditation. It's like deep sea diving, I never know what I will find :)
"The opposite of love, I have found, is not hate, but indifference. Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies."
Elie Wiesel
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