Hate's role in Animals, Palestine, Spirituality

A surprisingly short essay on how the Covid Crimes tie them together

Animals

Australia’s West Coast contains a contender for cutest animal on earth - the Quokka.

These little guys concern us here because they apparently have not a single ounce of aggression or hate in their bodies. They would happily let you walk up and grab them to put in your dinner pot. Hordes of predators have done just that, and now they barely exist on the mainland Australia, and are protected on a small island off the coast.

Quokkas are not unique. They can be grouped with Giant Wombats, Giant Koalas and a host of other reportedly docile creatures who were killed and eaten by the earliest hominid arrivals to Australia. (Laying this blame on mankind is controversial according to some ‘historians’, whose arguments I find moronic. If you find merit in them, we can use Seals, Aurochs or Whales or as an example instead.)

Adorable as they are, such evolutionary pressures must, eventually, lead to either a change or extinction. All species face the same options. Evolution is an expression of game theory, and games are regularly zero-sum (For one to win, another must lose). This can extrapolate to groups within species, such as the Argentine Ant schism, all the way down to individuals, such as a fish who must learn to hate imposters and love cleaners, or else suffer.

Palestinians

It is at that junction which I currently feel empathy for Palestinians (among many other groups). When asked about hate, Mohammed El-Kurd responded:

“If I didn’t feel a certain way ……. I would be concerned for my own dignity”

He is describing the dignity in defending yourself against extinction, in fighting, even though you are losing, in hating that which clearly deserves it, then using that human emotion to resist that which would end your existence.

Jordan Peterson gives the same advice, especially when it comes to dealing with psychopaths, or other predators in our midst. Peterson advocates for wisdom found in religious texts, and I have no idea how his philosophy on ‘being a monster’ to protect oneself is reconciled with Jesus’ ‘turn the other cheek’, or ‘the meek shall inherit the earth’ suggestions. Here’s Peterson again on how being angry, yet articulate is our best weapon - another contradiction to spiritual messages of tolerance and peace.

Spirituality

As the Covid Crimes unfolded, I felt the same contradictions. Though a poor student, I have been offered huge amounts of spiritual advice in my life. None of it recommended Hate, and I had very little of that emotion in my heart. Yet with what was occurring, hating felt the best option to maintain some sense of dignity, some recognition that any description of ‘spirit’ is still experiencing life from a very physical perspective, which clearly has zero-sum aspects to it.

In the face of overwhelming evidence of genocide, doesn’t it feel like the people supporting or ignoring it are at least a little bit pathetic, or spiritually … lacking?

If pure tolerance is only available to Quokkas and saints, the rest of us will have to wade into the next round of lockdowns and mandates with some human emotion. Am I alone in feeling that hate is a useful and positive emotion in such context?