Hatred Hit Hard Series

One of the most exciting books you can read is The Count Of

Monte Cristo. The hero of the book, Edmund Dantes, had been

unjustly cast into a dungeon. Fortunately, by means of a tunnel he

met an old man in another nearby dungeon. The old man told him

of a great treasure that was hidden on the island of Monte Cristo. It

seemed to be a worthless bit of knowledge, for he was just as

trapped as the old man. His chance for escape, however, did come

when the old man died. His body was put into a sack and was to be

thrown over the cliff into the sea. Edmund Dantes saw his chance

for escape. He managed to drag the body of the old man through

the tunnel into his dungeon, and then he returned and got into the

sack himself. He, of course, was thrown into the sea, and thereby

became a free man.

He was far from free, however, for he so despised those who put

him into the dungeon that he was a slave to hate. He spent the rest

of his days, and his great wealth in tracking down, one by one, those

who were responsible. He was clever enough to escape the bondage

of the dungeon, but he remained a prisoner of the chains of hate.

When one is intoxicated with hatred, he is not even free to chose to

how to respond to persons, but is compelled to be hateful, and therefore,

is among the least free of all men. None are so bound as

those who are wrapped in the chains of hate.

Catallus, the Roman said, "I hate and I love. Perhaps you ask

why I do so. I do not know, but I feel it, and I am in torment." He

was a victim of his own depravity, and though he hated to hate, he

knew of no way to escape. Hatred is just a part of the very being of

unregenerate man. John says if a man hates, you can be sure he is

still in the darkness. Even Freud, who was no great friend of

Christianity, recognized the truth of man's depravity. He said,

"Those who love fairytales do not like it when people speak of innate

tendencies in mankind toward aggression, destruction, and in

addition cruelty." Everyone who has their eyes open to the facts are

compelled to believe that hatred and hostility are basic problems of

our world. In the United States alone there are on the average every

hour 15 persons who are stabbed, clubbed, or shot. The daily news

could appropriately be titled-who's hating who.

The big question is what can be done? Is there any escape, or will

man's hatred eventually be the force that brings down the curtain on

the stage of history, and then blows up the stage to boot. Bombs and

missiles are not the problem, for it is the hatred of men that makes

them so dangerous. The most popular panacea for overcoming

man's hatred is education. Herbert Hoover once said, "If we had

just one generation of properly born, adequately educated, healthy

children, developed in character, we would have Utopia itself." This

is the view of numerous leaders, but it is unrealistic. Even though it

is known that hostility is not inherited, and, therefore,

you could presumably begin with a generation of unhateful babies.

But there is no way to raise them without them learning to hate, for

they must grow up in a world where hate is always on the loose.

Their parents hate; their relatives hate, and their neighbors hate. It

would not be long before these potential utopianites would be

responding as J. Petit-Senn who said, "We are told to walk

noiselessly through the world, that we waken neither hatred nor

envy; but, alas! what can we do when they never sleep?"

You cannot educate men out of hatred when the most powerful

influences in their lives are teaching them to hate. Men are born

with the tendency to hate, but the actual hatreds they acquire are

learned from their parents, relatives, and associates. Dr. Leon J.

Saul a professor of Clinical Psychiatry at the University of

Pennsylvania School of Medicine says in his book, The Hostile Mind,

that studies indicate that very definitely that hostility begins in the

home. Man is depraved, but the expression of that depravity in hate

and prejudice are not in the child. These things have to be taught,

and so the very cause of man's hatred is evil education. Oscar

Hammerstein II captured this truth in poetry:

You've got to be taught to hate and fear,

You've got to be taught from year to year,

It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear,

You've got to be carefully taught.