Hate and Reconciliation

Book excerpt: Every day the media confront us with the many forms and excesses of hatred: cyber hatred, hate speech, bullying, hate groups, religiously inspired violence against dissidents and genocides.Hatred is human and current. It is an intrinsic part of what can happen between people. Personal experiences can lead people to hate someone. In society and even on a global level, hatred is again and again the motor of misunderstanding and often also of violence between people. Sometimes hate smoulders almost unconsciously; at other times he is furious and serves as a flag for serious violence. Hatred has many faces and seems omnipresent, that much is clear. The term "Erida complex," after the Greek goddess of hate, symbolizes the common and deeply rooted nature of hatred.Hatred is mighty as a destructive force. He knows how to motivate individuals and large groups of people to bring out the worst in themselves. He turns life among people into a desert. However, he cannot compete with Irene, the goddess and the symbol of peace. After all, he is unable to correct what went wrong. Nor is it a ground for building a peaceful society. At the same time, hatred is impotent against the positive freedom of people to transcend the negative. Those who are open to this will see many connecting, and therefore Irenean, initiatives. Hatred does not and should not have the last word. Opposite the well of Erida is the Irenese, the way to peace.After examining the nature of hate, this book focuses a wide-angle lens on its many faces, in individuals and groups as well as peoples. Facing the negativity of hatred, this book presents constructive approaches to fostering relationships between people and peace.