This resonates with me deeply .. I too do not understand… we can only control the way we show up in the world, and if we continue to show kindness, compassion, empathy, the hope is that it will trickle to the next person, to the next to and so forth. So one day everyone will treat people better. It isn’t just one event, one person, one party. It is each and every individual person and how they show up in the world that makes the difference.. Continue to do your part .. Thank you for your words…
Thank you for your heartfelt and thoughtful response. It's maddening, and none of this has to happen. I'm always going to try and do what's right and be kind. I'm only one person, but I can make a small difference.
Hate is the shortcut emotion. It asks almost nothing of the person who feels it. No patience, no listening, no re-arranging of the self. It gives instant shape to confusion. If the world feels too large, too fast, too unfair, hate offers a crude map: there is the enemy; I am not them. For many people, that relief is intoxicating.
There’s also a simpler truth we don’t like to admit: hate bonds faster than understanding. It creates tribes with sharp edges. Love and curiosity require time, exposure, vulnerability. Hate works immediately. It’s cheap. It spreads well.
And then there’s woundedness. Unprocessed pain looks for a place to land. When grief, shame, or powerlessness have no language, they often turn outward. Hate becomes a way to avoid saying "I am afraid, I feel small, I don’t know where I belong."
But hate is not inevitable. It’s learned, reinforced, rewarded. It grows where attention is scarce and dignity feels threatened. It survives because systems find it useful and because it spares individuals the harder work of self-examination.
The quieter counterforce isn’t naïve love or forced positivity.
It’s attention. Seeing without consuming. Naming without attacking. Holding complexity without demanding it collapse into slogans.
Hate insists on flattening the world.
The moment someone refuses to flatten it, hate begins to starve.
Yes change starts by using your voice!! I love this piece soooo much. Let’s spread kidness!!!
This resonates with me deeply .. I too do not understand… we can only control the way we show up in the world, and if we continue to show kindness, compassion, empathy, the hope is that it will trickle to the next person, to the next to and so forth. So one day everyone will treat people better. It isn’t just one event, one person, one party. It is each and every individual person and how they show up in the world that makes the difference.. Continue to do your part .. Thank you for your words…
Thank you for your heartfelt and thoughtful response. It's maddening, and none of this has to happen. I'm always going to try and do what's right and be kind. I'm only one person, but I can make a small difference.
Because fear is loud and effort is quiet.
Hate is the shortcut emotion. It asks almost nothing of the person who feels it. No patience, no listening, no re-arranging of the self. It gives instant shape to confusion. If the world feels too large, too fast, too unfair, hate offers a crude map: there is the enemy; I am not them. For many people, that relief is intoxicating.
There’s also a simpler truth we don’t like to admit: hate bonds faster than understanding. It creates tribes with sharp edges. Love and curiosity require time, exposure, vulnerability. Hate works immediately. It’s cheap. It spreads well.
And then there’s woundedness. Unprocessed pain looks for a place to land. When grief, shame, or powerlessness have no language, they often turn outward. Hate becomes a way to avoid saying "I am afraid, I feel small, I don’t know where I belong."
But hate is not inevitable. It’s learned, reinforced, rewarded. It grows where attention is scarce and dignity feels threatened. It survives because systems find it useful and because it spares individuals the harder work of self-examination.
The quieter counterforce isn’t naïve love or forced positivity.
It’s attention. Seeing without consuming. Naming without attacking. Holding complexity without demanding it collapse into slogans.
Hate insists on flattening the world.
The moment someone refuses to flatten it, hate begins to starve.
That refusal is slower. Less spectacular.
But it’s how things actually change.
Thanks for your thoughtful response.
Thank you for putting the poem out. It makes us think.
Absolutely. It feels helpless sometimes, but I still want to feel like I have a voice...a say in this messy world.
You have a voice. And much to say. Keep going.
Mark, your writing resonates deeply with the reason I started Substack in the first place.
I do recognize, though, that I may read Matthew 7 a little differently than many do.
I talk about this in my (somewhat embarrassing) essay A Blasphemer’s Confession of Faith.
In short, I found that I could begin to truly understand others only after becoming a friend to myself.
What troubles me is that modern society rarely teaches us how to befriend ourselves—and at times, it even seems to deny us the opportunity to do so.
Your writing contributes to making the world a more peaceful place.
Thank you for that.
I'm speechless. Thank you so much for your incredibly kind words
There doesn’t have to be.
https://open.substack.com/pub/georgeallenbooks/p/the-processes-of-binding-and-loosing?r=4pmgma&utm_medium=ios