Hating Is Easy But Devitalizing

By CHARLES M. GUTHRIE
Of the editorial page staff
Published by the StarTribune
January 7, 1961


   DESPITE all our attacks on sin and our prayers for tolerance and peace, we seem just as sinful and intolerant as ever--and peace is just as elusive.
   It's all the fault of the Communist conspiracy. If the Russians and Red Chinese would see the light and abandon their evil designs everything would be dandy. The millennium would be at hand and the lion would snuggle up to the lamb.
   This is just too cozy a rationalization. The threat of world war would diminish, of course, if the Communists became agreeable. But since man is imperfect even under a democratic govermnent the little office, church and neighborhood wars would continue and backbiting would not cease.

   WE HAVE just been through a season which emphasizes the virtue of goodwill and brotherhood. But its message too often is forgotten, scorned or submerged by prejudice. We all know that hate is a monstrous and self-consuming thing, but we keep on hating regardless, usually for picayune reasons.
   We hate someone's looks or his tone of voice. We hate him because he's too aggressive or too patronizing. If he's aloof it's not because he's shy but because he's conceited. If he has a ready laugh he's not an affable fellow but a phony.

   I'VE ACQUIRED an imposing list of hates in my time but am not as good a hater as formerly. I lack the strength for it. It's robbed me of sleep, composure and rational thought. And as I ponder the list, it shames me to realize that most of my hates have sprung from envy.
   A lot of people throw themselves into hate with missionary zeal and abandon. They cling to suspicion, gossip and grudges as though they were meat and drink. They are constantly being slighted, constantly having their feelings hurt and constantly plotting revenge.

   THOSE WHO have immunity to hatred are as rare as sand hill cranes, and the irony of it all is that we so often hate without reason. You sometimes meet a person you dislike on sight and whose faults you magnify in subsequent encounters to bolster your nonsensical notion that you are "a good judge of character."
   Then this social misfit does something that opens your eyes. By act or word he reveals himself as a solid citizen and may even become a bosom companion.

   YOU CANNOT honestly hate anyone unless you know him. And if you know him you seldom hate him. There are some genuine jerks in the world but the good guys far outnumber the bad. For every one who would hold your head under water there are thousands who would pull you to shore. Despite his faults, his frequent ill humor and his parsimony, the other fellow is basically decent. Anyone who doesn't think so either has a persecution complex or is letting hate destroy him.
   If I had the capacity to keep a New Year resolution I'd make this one: "Be charitable, compassionate and patient. Avoid snap judgments.

Be good to those you hate. If you find this too tall an order, avoid and forget them."

   Copyright 2017 StarTribune. Republished here with the permission of the StarTribune. No further republication or redistribution is permitted without the express approval of the StarTribune