Opinion

Induced hatred

photo_camera atalayar_odio inculcado

To find out what this word really means, it is necessary to consult the dictionary of the RAE (Spanish Royal Academy of the Spanish Language) where only one definition appears: 'Antipathy and aversion towards something or someone whose evil is desired'. A definition that is perhaps too blunt and even limiting or oriented to the field of desired evil.

However, if we go to the dictionary of "Oxford languages" we see that the definition of the same masculine word is not unique and has or presents two different meanings, 'Deep and intense feeling of repulsion towards someone that provokes the desire to cause them harm or that some misfortune happens to them' and 'Aversion or violent repugnance towards something that causes its rejection' and cites as synonyms 'antipathy, aversion, repulsion, dislike, loathing and dislike'.

For once, and without this being a precedent, I prefer to stick with the information in the Oxford dictionary because, apparently, it is more complete, comprehensive and convincing and I believe that it brings together in its definitions and list of synonyms what makes the meaning of the word more comprehensible.

To analyse etymologically the origin, causes, derivations and ramifications of hatred would take us a long time and I do not think I am qualified to do so, nor is it the main reason that led me to write this little work.

Hatred, a sensation and attitude as old as humanity itself, is one of our old acquaintances and travelling companions or a very close member of the family; it is always by our side and ready to appear at the slightest circumstance; with the particularity that its containment springs are so fragile that they work with difficulty and not as often as they should.

Man in his evolutionary and creative process, in his eagerness to try to change things, at least in the face of the gallery and fundamentally when it comes to buying votes or followers, has found in this ugly and despicable attitude a vein of incalculable value. Since no one in their right mind can refuse to reject it from the outset, we have made its "apparent struggle to eradicate it" something to be exploited politically with great success, and as is almost always the case with movements or trends for agitation and propaganda, the left has made it its banner to fill the "terrible right-wingers who trample on and despise everything" with rubbish.

Thus, in many parts of the world in general and in Spain in particular, we have created the so-called "hate crimes" which are those that consist of a criminal offence or act motivated by prejudice against one or more people because they belong to a certain social group and which our Ministry of the Interior defines on its web page as:

''(A) Any criminal offense, including offenses against persons or property, where the victim, the premises, or the target of the offense is chosen because of his or her actual or perceived connection with, sympathy for, affiliation with, support of, or membership in a group as defined in part B;

(B) A group must be based on a common characteristic of its members, such as their actual or perceived race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, intellectual or physical disability, sexual orientation or other similar factor." (OSCE, 2003)'.

In Spain, its government and many of the parties that sustain and support it survive mainly on carrion, fake news and dirty propaganda; so this phenomenon of "official struggle for its eradication" should not only be reflected in its Penal Code, but is constantly used, manipulated and prostituted by the government itself, its president, several cabinet ministers and various populist and progressive parties or movements of various hues and unhealthy intentions.

As if that were not enough, to make the issue more official, the government has created a "Commission against hate crimes", chaired by the president himself, Sánchez; a commission which, despite the unwritten but oft-repeated rule of not legislating in the heat of the moment, has recently met as a matter of urgency to adopt measures under the protection of or motivated by a fake news story about a fabricated hate crime.

Hate and the broad panoply of hate crimes are a splendid weapon of war that the left usually brings up whenever an election is close or in the middle, when the government is doing badly - for which it does not hesitate to invent acts or threats that have all the appearance of being lies or fabrications and the serious statements and accusations are shelved after thousands of litres of ink and hours of publicity - or when there are clear indications that the right is rising in the polls and can put the right wing on the map, or when the right wing shows clear indications that it is rising in the polls and could endanger the continuity of a left-wing government based on lies, false promises and pettiness.

Many of the many allegations of hate crimes have been proven to be false, exaggerations or deviations and are simply a way of seeking notoriety or a crude way of baselessly attacking the principles and foundations of the right wing.

For the phenomenon to have repercussions and notoriety, it requires the priceless collaboration of media and networks sold to the highest bidder who subsist on the substantial handouts or subsidies of a government that does not hesitate to buy the desires and professionalism of any person or entity, however serious and worthy they may be or should be in terms of their work or their contribution to society.

Media and networks which, however, fall silent when time passes without the execrable authors of any such indignity having appeared, no matter how hard the police and society try to unmask them, or when, despite the efforts to hide it, the cake of ignominy and the falsehood of an invented, exaggerated and publicised fact is uncovered to the point of satiety.

Hatred and its crimes are not a phenomenon exclusive to environments or situations created around gender, sexual deviations or personal uses, race, place or country of origin or religion. It is even more serious when it is born, grows and develops because of or as a result of political movements of a separatist or pro-independence nature.

I insist on this point, because it tends to create serious and despicable situations that easily lead to bloody clashes, more or less bloody territorial divisions or even real civil wars; wars that are perhaps even dirtier if possible because they involve brothers against brothers or compatriots involved in false and invented ideals that have little or nothing to do with reality.

The concept is a double-edged sword; it covers or gives rise to a wide range of possible crimes under the general heading of hate crimes and thus opens the tap to "officially" try to combat them by all means, even before they actually occur. The use and abuse of this possibility easily leads to the imposition of a subjective tabula rasa that can result in the restriction of an inalienable right of individuals in any democratic country, such as the right to freedom of expression.

It is very easy to disguise or fall into such confusion, even unintentionally. Hence the danger in allowing governments to overuse or abuse this concept; it is a proven fact that many governments use it as a scythe to prevent free and healthy criticism or protest in situations of use or abuse of very dubious actions or decisions by the authority.

It is very easy to be influenced to make discriminatory use of this concept; the tendency to see the speck in someone else's eye, when the log in one's own eye is disregarded or ignored, makes many people think that those close to them, close to them or of the same political persuasion are free of any charge in this respect. Coincidentally, it is always those on the opposing side who practise hatred, extol it and, on the contrary, never see execrable and unworthy actions in their own. This is characteristic of the left, who often announce or even sincerely believe that it is the right-wing parties that are constantly and live in hatred of others.

Dirty tricks that, believe it or not, still work today because, in today's society, the degree of disinterest, the generalised lack of culture and the lack of application or ignorance of critical thinking for the analysis of what comes to us, is very great or total. So much so that in a few years it will be impossible to find anyone with the minimum capacity for discernment.

I must not end this brief reflection without condemning with all my might those foolish people who, for political reasons, manipulate hate crimes, in any of their versions, without realising - or do so knowingly - that the airing, false presentation and exaggeration of them, even in their presumed phase, supposes, in the majority of cases, an exaggeration of the crime, in most cases, a greater and very serious agitation of the people - which easily spreads to the masses - which quickly translates into creating much more individual and collective hatred among those who "officially" pretend to demonstrate or act as a repulse to combat it.

As a conclusion to this reflection, it can be stated that hatred is something evil, dark, which consists of a vehement aversion of one person towards another, or towards something more or less identified with that other or their group for various reasons of gender, region or country of origin, various customs and habits or conviction. It is so vile that many famous authors have devoted much time to its study and definition.

Already Aristotle strove to distinguish between anger and hatred. Nietzsche went so far as to say that 'The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies, but also to hate his friends'. Pope Francis himself assures us that 'Hatred, envy and pride defile life'. It 'soils the soul, the life of the hater and of all those around him'. In Nelson Mandela's view it is not an inborn tendency or defect, nor does it come out of nowhere, it is acquired over time or by the use or abuse of the customs of where one develops 'No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, his origin or his religion'.

Therefore, hatred as something inculcated is a self-generated, acquired or induced bad quality that is generally inoculated, more or less disguised, in the education we receive. We must always fight against hatred, but we must not allow ourselves to be dragged into it so that through excessive zeal, perversely directed propaganda or a lack of caution, its honest fight blinds us and we confuse clumsily where true principles and truth should be found.

Today, 9/11, marks the twentieth anniversary of one of the clearest examples of hatred that has ever witnessed and shaken humanity. Let us hope that this phenomenon will never happen again, not even in the slightest intensity.