We all know what hate is, and how popular it has been getting lately. So, what is the best counter against hate? It needs to be something strong and effective for people to overcome their rage.
I recently read a poem in Turkish that helped me see clearly what hate fears the most. In the brilliant poem “The coming spring” by Fethullah Gulen, the poet is describing a transition to a world of peace.
He describes what replaces things in the new world. Although this short poem is extremely comprehensive for its small length, one line stood out to me the most. The literal translation of this line is, “love and respect is surpassing hatred”. This poem is in Turkish, so in order to enjoy the genius of the poetic language, one must know Turkish. However, the meaning behind the words was meant for all people around the world.
Diving into deep thought upon reading this, I can now say without doubt that love will exceed hate one day. All we have to do is fill ourselves with love so that there is no room for even a small grain of hate to possess us.
There is a new trend in the world that has been getting more and more popular recently. This new “trend” is hate. Though there has always been hate in the world, some factors that exist today make it more violent than it had been before.
Innocent people are being bombed in Syria and Yemen, nerve gas is being used on civilians in Syria, including kids, and terrorist bombing attacks havoc the societies. The world is filled with hate and violence.
It is really sad that there are new generations that have to grow up in this environment of hate; it is sad to think about how these new kids will grow up. These kids might be affected by their environments and become hateful people themselves. If these kids will be hateful the future will also be one full of hate; scenarios of racism and discrimination that we see in dystopian novels like “The Hunger Games” might actually become realities. Imagine all of the hate and violence that we see today snowball and become bigger. The world would be a horrible place to live in.
Though there is hope. All of these dystopian scenarios can be easily avoided with minor social changes. Parents can teach progressive ideas to their kids and prepare them to be more tolerant. They could also teach them to be more open-minded and that even if they don’t agree with something, they should learn how to respect it.
I don’t think that everybody has to agree with everything, but hating a group of people because they are different, or hating an idea because it is different from one’s is very immature and is a main driving force of hate.
A big factor in countering hate is teaching the youth, the future generation, to be more tolerant and “thick-skinned.” Not only should the new generation be tolerant of others’ ideas and opinions, they should also be able to handle racism thrown towards their way and not make small things into such big deals, no matter how hard everybody tries. There will always be hate and that is a fact, but having less hate and not being affected too much by hate and standing up for the hated will make it seem like the hate doesn’t even exist.