Have you ever wished that someone you dont even know never existed?

I hate to say yes.
It’s so weird how someone you have never met and whom has no idea you even exist, could cause such negative feelings from one. I really dislike thinking that way towards this or any individual. :/

What about you, biggun1981?

I think it all depends on the context, and how they’ve impacted your life. For example, I hate Adolph Hitler. Who doesn’t? But my hatred is intensely personal since I have had family killed in the holocaust.

In a more day-to-day interactions, it seems that people can hate people they don’t know or have never for met for other reasons. Once again, this depends on the context but one pattern I have seen in hating a phantom adversary, is that these feelings can stem from the projections of your worst insecurities onto this person. Or, maybe you’re having to deal with their irresponsibility. Without further detail, it’s hard to tell what your situation may be?

Yes, I find myself wishing that often. I feel that way most when dealing with murderers, pedophiles, and drug suppliers.

But John and Mary Q. Public don’t inspire hatred. I just laugh. Loudly. ;-)

I wanted to scream YES at first reaction, but then my brain kicked in. Even those I feel deeply negative about have probably impacted my life in a positive way. You see, every time someone/thing bad affects me or someone/thing I care about, I make it a point to find the lesson in it. So even in my darkest of days I’ve learned or recognized something about myself. So in the end, I would have to answer your question with a No. Great Q.

bythebay, you’re absolutely right. Contrary to most religions, there is nothing that is totally bad or good. To set up one’s psyche to categorize everything in terms of black & white is a form of mental suicide. Any categorization creates its opposite. There would be no beauty if not for ugliness (to compare it to). If there was no pure goodness, there would be no evil. Reality is more like the Yin Yang symbol where white has a spot of black in it & vice versa.

@psyla: If any categorization creates its opposite, that means it’s entirely possible for something/s to be completely black and white. Annoyingly technical, I know, but I couldn’t resist. ;) I’m philosophical, sometimes it’s my downfall… But oh, what a paradox.

To answer the question, though… Generally, I only hate people who hate other people, for no good reason – as you’re already well aware. Or I hate people who have bad intentions, who willingly and purposely harm others. As someone else already pointed out – like Hitler. And I don’t even have to have family killed by him to hate him, he was just that bad.

But for other things, there are so many gray areas that hating people becomes difficult for me. Maybe someone did something that affected you negatively, but at the time they honestly couldn’t see the harm in it. Maybe, somehow, they were actually trying to help in one way or another.

I can hate outcomes much more easily than I can hate people, in certain situations. (But I am good at hating people, as I already said. Like racists, homophobes, sexists, pedophiles, etc.)

DrasticDreamer, it is possible for things to be either purely good or completely evil. People who live in this sort of self-created reality are the same people who are unwilling to look for at least one good thing about each person they meet. This perspective on life leads to such preposterous things as hating people that the person doesn’t even know, a major cause of much world misery currently.

I see what you’re saying and sometimes it applies. But I do also believe that there are people in the world where even if something good can be found about them, it doesn’t mean that good thing is enough to compensate for the bad that can also be found in them. Just for example, since he was already mentioned: Hitler. He loved dogs, would never consider hurting one. Good, for sure, but we all know it’s not enough considering all the reasons he gave everyone to hate him, instead.

On a smaller scale though, I do know what you mean. The paths we take and the choices we make while on them, are generally not so easily categorized as black and white. It can seem that way to someone on a different path… But it’s all a matter of perspective. Life is difficult… Choices are hard. Intentions matter, which is why I agree that sometimes, nothing should be looked at as black and white.

I hate to say it but the prosperity in the US following the great depression was largely due to the fact that Hitler destroyed Europe & Europe was buying every commodity we could manufacture. Maybe we were dogs for enjoying such a booming economy created from such a holocaust.

The prosperity America benefited from after the holocaust was an outcome though, based on the horrible decisions a single, purely evil person made. Outcomes are inevitable – created by someone good or someone evil.

So you do subscribe to the concept that pure good and total evil each exist! I don’t believe that either of these things are real so I’m curious… It’s a rare opportunity to be at this place in a conversation and I don’t mean to convey any negativity by asking, but… Can you see any cause-effect relationship in your life in general – effects of having these beliefs?

My first response was “George W. Bush”.

W

Martha Stewart, and a priest in France no one has ever heard of but me – nothing terrible about him but his very existence annoys the fuck out of me.

palin’s gotten me to that point numerous times.

@psyla: In my own sense of both words, yes I believe that some people are good and some evil. There are certain things people do that define them as being good or evil, or somewhere in between. I don’t believe, however, that you can define every single human being as purely good or purely evil. Because I’m philosophical, I have many weird beliefs, some of them very hard to define.

I’d love to hear some of the more weirder beliefs! Perhaps we share some weird beliefs!