The world doesn't need more hate.
The definition of hate is an intense and enduring feeling of deep aversion or hostility toward someone or something.
I feel like our world has a lot of hate lately, and it hurts my heart. I think that is why I have been feeling a bit out of sorts. The balance is tipped from love to hate.
Provincial premiers hate the feds. The feds hate them back. The premiers hate each other. The mayors hate the premiers. The political parties all hate each other. Parliament spews hate. Each one cheering and clapping at the demise of others. The country feels divided on most issues, and now in Alberta, we’ve brought our kids into it with the latest teacher strike. Everywhere you look, it feels like we’re swimming in tension and outrage.
But here’s what I’ve learned as someone who spends a lot of time listening and learning about human behaviour and emotion: hate is rarely the root. It’s the symptom. It doesn’t trigger you. It reveals something from within you. It’s what grows when fear goes unchecked, when stress runs too long, when people don’t feel validated (unseen or unheard). It’s the language we use when we’ve forgotten how to speak from the heart. Authenticity feels like a grain of sand that is hard to find.
Are you feeling this too?
My analysis of it all is that the only way to hate less is to love more.
And yes, I know what that sounds like in today’s world.
A bit naïve, maybe even tone-deaf.
But I promise you, it’s not.
Because love isn’t soft. It’s not blind optimism or pretending everything’s fine. Love is choosing restraint when you could lash out. It’s listening when you’d rather argue. It’s remembering that the person on the other side of the issue is still a human being.
Side bar: Every single human on the planet shares about 99.9% of the same DNA. The differences we spend so much time noticing (or fighting about) are built on the tiniest sliver of biological variation. 0.1%.
The truth is, hate doesn’t make us strong. It just makes us tired.
Hate drains. Love sustains.
And maybe that’s what we need more of. Love.
Not louder voices or harsher opinions, but a quieter kind of leadership that starts inside each of us.
My ask of you is two-fold. One is to love yourself.
And the second is to always love more than you hate.