Love and Its Opposites
Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 7:36 pm
I came to a few realizations last night, which I would like to share. Overall, this post is about human emotion. It is usually thought that the opposite of love is hatred, but that is not really the case. The opposite of any emotion/feeling is really the complete lack of the said emotion/feeling. This is my thesis. The opposite of sadness is not happiness, it a complete lack of sadness (and this does not necessary imply happiness). There can exist a large gray area when it comes to emotions, especially when one possess mixed feelings. However, it is generally the case that basic emotions are unique in themselves with similar emotions forming links to the more different feelings (i.e. joy, sadness, anger, fear, excitement, etc.). Love exists outside of one's emotions. The feeling is more constant and permanent than mood swings.
Love may create certain emotions and some emotions may temporarily bring the individual to love something to a greater or lesser degree. This range which is impacted by current thoughts or feelings is what I will call the range of sensitivity. It exists on a love scale. On one end is a kind of apathy, on the other is a level of unconditional love I find hard to measure. Since the love of God is infinite and our future growth is near-infinite, it is a difficult thing to map on a finite scale. In any case, it is impossible to use a numbered scale, so this is merely a visualization to help one understand what I have imagined to support the essay.
As stated before, it is often believed that the opposite of love is hatred, but the real opposite is a complete lack of love. Hatred is the desire to love something less, the act of moving lower on the scale towards a form of apathy. However, one cannot be both hateful and apathetic. Hatred actually becomes this mental barrier or check to keep them low on the scale. You could imagine it as a safety valve, keeping pressure (or love) at a low enough level. This "safety level" is different for the individual. It is also possible to both love and hate something, and in this case the individual desires for that level of love to decrease past a certain point on the meter. So what is the opposite of hatred? It is the desire to love something more. The opposite of love is no love. The opposite of wanting to love something more is wanting to love it less, which is hatred (or at least a byproduct of it). I am not quite sure what to call this opposite of hatred, but the closest words are adoration, captivation and desire. Extreme levels of hatred, such as what Lucifer felt for Michael of Nebadon, cannot bring one into a negative number on the love scale. It is simply the act of making it evermore impossible for that love to be greater than zero.
What brought me to this analysis? It was the topic of name-calling. It was nothing on a personal level, I was an observer, but I found out that this is a form of rejection. Calling someone a name to insult them is a temporary act of hatred, or rejection of love for the individual. It is incredibly difficult to love someone unconditionally and judge them. Calling someone an idiot is a form of judgement. It is also an action with a temporary impact: dissociation. Both individuals become more separated from each other as well as the Whole. If I am in a position where I cannot love another, it becomes harder for me to be one with everyone and everything. My relationship with the Whole is stressed because I distanced myself from part of that Whole. Put differently, when people decrease their love for specific people, it impacts the capacity they are able to love everyone. The repercussions are temporary, but can be long-lasting if there is constant rejection. Emotions also play a part. They can create this result and they can result from it. Both anger and sadness (or depression) can create this rejection, though the first form involves pushing away while the other is running away. Love also has its own impact on emotions. Greatest of all possibilities, it creates a great and unyielding sense of joy.
It is true that love has a lot going for it. It is very desirable. However, when one is not always conscious of their behavior, the level of love one may express slowly decreases (or is unable to expand), creating noticeable consequences over time. Thus, accepting everyone for who they are becomes a necessary step for personal growth.
Love may create certain emotions and some emotions may temporarily bring the individual to love something to a greater or lesser degree. This range which is impacted by current thoughts or feelings is what I will call the range of sensitivity. It exists on a love scale. On one end is a kind of apathy, on the other is a level of unconditional love I find hard to measure. Since the love of God is infinite and our future growth is near-infinite, it is a difficult thing to map on a finite scale. In any case, it is impossible to use a numbered scale, so this is merely a visualization to help one understand what I have imagined to support the essay.
As stated before, it is often believed that the opposite of love is hatred, but the real opposite is a complete lack of love. Hatred is the desire to love something less, the act of moving lower on the scale towards a form of apathy. However, one cannot be both hateful and apathetic. Hatred actually becomes this mental barrier or check to keep them low on the scale. You could imagine it as a safety valve, keeping pressure (or love) at a low enough level. This "safety level" is different for the individual. It is also possible to both love and hate something, and in this case the individual desires for that level of love to decrease past a certain point on the meter. So what is the opposite of hatred? It is the desire to love something more. The opposite of love is no love. The opposite of wanting to love something more is wanting to love it less, which is hatred (or at least a byproduct of it). I am not quite sure what to call this opposite of hatred, but the closest words are adoration, captivation and desire. Extreme levels of hatred, such as what Lucifer felt for Michael of Nebadon, cannot bring one into a negative number on the love scale. It is simply the act of making it evermore impossible for that love to be greater than zero.
What brought me to this analysis? It was the topic of name-calling. It was nothing on a personal level, I was an observer, but I found out that this is a form of rejection. Calling someone a name to insult them is a temporary act of hatred, or rejection of love for the individual. It is incredibly difficult to love someone unconditionally and judge them. Calling someone an idiot is a form of judgement. It is also an action with a temporary impact: dissociation. Both individuals become more separated from each other as well as the Whole. If I am in a position where I cannot love another, it becomes harder for me to be one with everyone and everything. My relationship with the Whole is stressed because I distanced myself from part of that Whole. Put differently, when people decrease their love for specific people, it impacts the capacity they are able to love everyone. The repercussions are temporary, but can be long-lasting if there is constant rejection. Emotions also play a part. They can create this result and they can result from it. Both anger and sadness (or depression) can create this rejection, though the first form involves pushing away while the other is running away. Love also has its own impact on emotions. Greatest of all possibilities, it creates a great and unyielding sense of joy.
It is true that love has a lot going for it. It is very desirable. However, when one is not always conscious of their behavior, the level of love one may express slowly decreases (or is unable to expand), creating noticeable consequences over time. Thus, accepting everyone for who they are becomes a necessary step for personal growth.