I should like to say two things, one intellectual and one moral:
The intellectual thing, I should want to say to them, is this: When you are studying any matter, or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only "what are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out?" Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or by what you think could have beneficial social effects, if it were believed. But look only and solely at: "What are the facts?" That is the intellectual thing that I should wish to say.
The moral thing I should wish to say to them is very simple. I should say: Love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world, which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other. We have to learn to put up with the fact, that some people say things that we don't like. We can only live together in that way. And if we are to live together and not to die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance, which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.
I disagree to an extreme degree with Russell about the moral lesson. From what I see, mental health professionals all around the world consistently say one thing about emotions: there's no bad...
I disagree to an extreme degree with Russell about the moral lesson. From what I see, mental health professionals all around the world consistently say one thing about emotions: there's no bad emotion. Whatever emotion one feels, including hatred, is not foolish. What we do matters the most, not what we feel or think. And acting on hatred or a "negative emotion" is not necessarily a bad thing either.
I want to elaborate on this a little more. Any emotion can be "corrupted", so to speak. Love can be fulfilling for everyone involved, but it can also bind someone to people who abuse them. Hatred can lead to impulsive or all-consuming acts, but it can also lead one to fight for their and others' rights, drive them toward righting a wrong, to do away with the stench of ancient evils that came to pass as morality. There's not a single person on Earth that should be told that they should love those who abuse them, or that they shouldn't hate them.
So, my "message" is different. There is no bad emotion, we have every right to feel the things we do. We can use these emotions to do good, both for ourselves and others. However, conflict is also part of the world. No matter the amount of love we have or the goodness we embody, there'll always be people who are willing to oppress or even kill us. I think, the better thing to do is, figuring out how this came to be and continue to be, how to overcome it, and then fight it. This fight is extremely complex, and I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all advice. If there was, there wouldn't have to be so many discussions, books, articles, stories etc. about how to accomplish it. But, in my opinion, there are roughly two things to keep in mind.
The first is that we learn a lot of our perceptions through our cultures, families, social circles etc. A lot of the learned "truths" and "wisdom" are, politely, nonsense. There's no good reason to think the people we love or the group we identify with know the best. We probably have inherited from these interactions values that should be questioned thoroughly. Furthermore, say this questioning led to a shift in ideology. This shift entails the danger of inheriting nonsense from the new group and people we identify with, too. There's not a point where we can ever reach a complete understanding of any complex topic, and there's always a chance that we are defending nonsense. Maybe the better thing to do, then, is to find the humor in the absurdity of realizing maybe you've defended nonsense your whole life, and then abandon it.
The second thing is that figuring out who and what deserve our hatred is imporant, and also remembering that they weren't born like this. Something made them like this, and without righting that thing, we don't have a chance of overcoming the said injustice. This takes patience, continuous effort (because we can always learn and question more), and a great deal of curiosity mixed with systematic criticism.
However, conflict is still part of life and change. Even if we figure out how to correct the underlying mechanism, we will still have to fight the people who defend it. There's no going around this conflict. There are no genius solutions, as if in stories, that fix such conflicts by bypassing the fighting part. The real thing is messy, and often takes such times that seem extremely long to a single human. And, funnily enough, sometimes the victory is in not letting the fight destroy your joy, and distancing yourself from it.
There are often no easy answers in life, especially when it comes to areas such as morality and ideology. For me, best I can do is continue to be curious. But I don't know if this would hold true for everyone. Anyone who confidently says otherwise is likely imposing some oversimplistic cover on something that is messy, chaotic, and scary. So, maybe that's my point: it is messy, and that's very much alright.
I disagree to an extreme degree with Russell about the moral lesson. From what I see, mental health professionals all around the world consistently say one thing about emotions: there's no bad emotion. Whatever emotion one feels, including hatred, is not foolish. What we do matters the most, not what we feel or think. And acting on hatred or a "negative emotion" is not necessarily a bad thing either.
I want to elaborate on this a little more. Any emotion can be "corrupted", so to speak. Love can be fulfilling for everyone involved, but it can also bind someone to people who abuse them. Hatred can lead to impulsive or all-consuming acts, but it can also lead one to fight for their and others' rights, drive them toward righting a wrong, to do away with the stench of ancient evils that came to pass as morality. There's not a single person on Earth that should be told that they should love those who abuse them, or that they shouldn't hate them.
So, my "message" is different. There is no bad emotion, we have every right to feel the things we do. We can use these emotions to do good, both for ourselves and others. However, conflict is also part of the world. No matter the amount of love we have or the goodness we embody, there'll always be people who are willing to oppress or even kill us. I think, the better thing to do is, figuring out how this came to be and continue to be, how to overcome it, and then fight it. This fight is extremely complex, and I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all advice. If there was, there wouldn't have to be so many discussions, books, articles, stories etc. about how to accomplish it. But, in my opinion, there are roughly two things to keep in mind.
The first is that we learn a lot of our perceptions through our cultures, families, social circles etc. A lot of the learned "truths" and "wisdom" are, politely, nonsense. There's no good reason to think the people we love or the group we identify with know the best. We probably have inherited from these interactions values that should be questioned thoroughly. Furthermore, say this questioning led to a shift in ideology. This shift entails the danger of inheriting nonsense from the new group and people we identify with, too. There's not a point where we can ever reach a complete understanding of any complex topic, and there's always a chance that we are defending nonsense. Maybe the better thing to do, then, is to find the humor in the absurdity of realizing maybe you've defended nonsense your whole life, and then abandon it.
The second thing is that figuring out who and what deserve our hatred is imporant, and also remembering that they weren't born like this. Something made them like this, and without righting that thing, we don't have a chance of overcoming the said injustice. This takes patience, continuous effort (because we can always learn and question more), and a great deal of curiosity mixed with systematic criticism.
However, conflict is still part of life and change. Even if we figure out how to correct the underlying mechanism, we will still have to fight the people who defend it. There's no going around this conflict. There are no genius solutions, as if in stories, that fix such conflicts by bypassing the fighting part. The real thing is messy, and often takes such times that seem extremely long to a single human. And, funnily enough, sometimes the victory is in not letting the fight destroy your joy, and distancing yourself from it.
There are often no easy answers in life, especially when it comes to areas such as morality and ideology. For me, best I can do is continue to be curious. But I don't know if this would hold true for everyone. Anyone who confidently says otherwise is likely imposing some oversimplistic cover on something that is messy, chaotic, and scary. So, maybe that's my point: it is messy, and that's very much alright.