Humans can be complacent creatures. We invented, "if it ain't broken, don't fix it" and "all good things come to those who wait", among other glorification of inaction.
We see problems, injustice or inequity and do nothing until an accident or disaster forces us to confront ourselves and meaningfully change attitudes, laws or policies.
Most of us see hate on the internet every day and do little or nothing. Only in the wake of horrific real world acts supported by speakers online do we finally begin to examine the impact and influence of the internet for ourselves.
Hate makes us better, it has the capability to stir us from our torpor. The first problem we confront in this over-the-shoulder looking is that hate is not the same for everybody. To some a new law, tax, policy or the exercise of individual civil liberties is a hateful act, but most of us have the social balance to perceive real hate and segregate it from mirages of hate.
Both real and imagined hate spurs us to action, but real hate motivates us constructively, where hallucinations of hate inevitably leads to destructive acts.
Hate is bad. It is corrosive, ugly and dangerous. It is hard to control and, like Frankenstein's monster, it often destroys its creator. However, hate makes us stand-up and say things we may have wanted to say, but hesitated. It forces us to look in the mirror and see the part of ourselves we need to improve.
Until we find some other way to make ourselves better, perhaps with morality or compassion, it looks like we will need to rely on hate to make us better.
