The Culture Of Hate

The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even if you will eccentricity. That is, something that cant be feigned, faked, imitated; something even a seasoned impostor couldnt be happy with. Something, in other words, that cant be shared, like your own skin not even by a minority. Joseph Brodsky, Less Than One: Selected Essays.

Few days ago, I ran into my neighbour, Anna. Anna is 40, mother of two, and rather on the joyeuse side. Yet, few days ago, Ana was heavy-hearted. The sorrow in her eyes was so deep and salient I couldn't contain myself not asking whats wrong.

Her oldest daughter, now a freshman, was diagnosed with PTSD after being severely bullied. Her hair was cut and she was offended right in front of her classmates. The author of the crime was another girl of the same age.

Upon asking why she did such an awful thing, the girl replied: Because I hate her.

Next, not only wasn't she impressed by the intervention of parents and teachers. More, she started harassing my neighbour's daughter on social media, by throwing threats to cut her face open, with a razor blade.

According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services via stopbullying.gov , 28% of U.S. students in grades 612 experienced bullying. Another 20% of U.S. students in grades 912 have been bullied at least once.

Approximately 30% of young people admit to bullying others, while 70.6% say they have seen bullying in their schools. Another 62% witnessed bullying two or more times, and 41% witness bullying at least once a week or more.

Yet, with the advance of social media and the growing online interconnectedness, we are now stepping into what seems to be bullying 2.0: cyberbullying. Which means verbal aggression, spreading rumours or harassing through electronic means.

The risks of being intimately exposed without consent or having our identities stolen are dangers we have to learn to actively mitigate.

Still, our hypothetical readiness doesnt save us from severe emotional or brain damage. And among the many outcomes of cyberbullying, the shattering of personal and collective identities could be the worst, indeed. On the short and medium run, this leads to anxiety, depression or even personality disorders. On the long run, it steers hate and increases the risk of irrational and violent behaviour.

Over 15% of high school students went through a cyberbullying episode at least once. And the numbers are increasing.

Tribalism, short term thinking, wishful thinking and all the narcotic desires of our brain are stirred up by the vivid delusion of a lawless universe.

Despite its many benefits, internet is genuinely granting free pass to the culture of hate. And, as Mr. Sartre expressed it, hate is a faith. You either believe in it or not. And when you do, you are ready to go all the way.

According to an FBI report released in 2015 , the hate faith whipped up over 15,000 crimes motivated by bias against race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender, and gender identity.

Violence against women, a bleeding wound

Even after decades of active feminism, marches and women empowerment movements, violence against women is still a bleeding wound.

Women are harassed. Women are sexually, emotionally and culturally assaulted. At school, at work, in pubs, on buses, on the street, on social media, in the magazines. And while many countries have laws or provisions to address such violence, their impact is still limited. In the European Union, 55% of women have experienced sexual harassment at least once since the age of 15 . Additionally, according to the U.N. , another 1 in 10 women reported having experienced cyber-harassment since the age of 15 (including having received unwanted, offensive sexually explicit emails or text messages, or offensive, inappropriate advances on social networking web sites).

Physical and emotional violence banishes our social potential, also having a traumatic impact on our emotional and mental health. More, trauma has a deep trans-generational potential. By disrupting our wellbeing it also influences the emotional and physical health of our children.

How can we beat this?

How can we banish the culture of hate?

How can we teach our daughters that bullying other girls is the worst thing they can ever do?

How can we teach our sons that bullying another child is a harm they can never take back?

How can we teach our sons and daughters that labelling, judging, harming, looking back or even turning their back to another being is an absolute crime?

How can we teach our sons and daughters that hate breeds hate?

And how can we create an alternative to the culture of hate?

How can beauty win over evil?

These are still open questions. And the answer cannot be deduced from conceptual terms alone.

But we can still do this. Hold on to respect, solidarity, empathy and take full responsibility to dismiss any intermediate or exhaustive assumption that might give birth or breed hate.

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