Any Difference In Using Love Or Hate...

[Paradox]

I hear people say sometimes that they fight out of love for their people or country, not out of hate for some enemy. Does saying this really make a difference in the outcome of the struggle/war, or have any effects on how hard a person fights? When I think about this, Che's statement about hate being useful in a revolutionary struggle comes to mind, how he said "one cannot vanquish an oppressive enemy if one does not feel hate for that enemy" (not the exact quote, but you get the idea). Though I'm not particularly big on being hateful about anything, I think that it's not the emotion evoked, but the cause being fought for that matters. Like if your cause is fighting to free your people from oppression, then it doesn't really make a difference if you fight out of love for your people who are being oppressed, or because you hate the enemy who is oppressing you/them. Either way, you exhibit strong emotional feelings in your struggle, though perhaps you'd be more cautious if you weren't fighting out of hate. I'm not sure that it would be the case, but perhaps fighting out hate would make one a bit more reckless, leading one to take unnecessary risks which might cost one's life. :huh: I'm not sure about that though. What are your thoughts?

['Discourse Unlimited']

Interesting question.

I'm not sure if you can really distinguish the two, in many cases... If you "love" freedom, you'll most likely "hate" oppression. On the other hand, you can "love" your country, and fight a national war of liberation, without really "hating" your enemy... (Apart from the fact that it was them who invaded!)

Perhaps you could introduce the idea that "love" is more constructive... To return to the example of 'freedom' - if you aspire towards this, you're probably going to have an ideal of what 'freedom' is... But if you're fighting against (i.e. "hating") oppression, the focus might simply be on removing the source of the problem.

I don't really know! :P

[Organic Revolution]

my reason for wanting to fight a revolutionary war is because i 'love' the people, and 'hate' the state

[Severian]

Nothing human is alien to me. Both love and hate are part of the complete human being. (Love for the oppressed, hatred for the oppressor, and being the most complete human being one can, are all things Che spoke about.)

Even the Bible says so, it one of its more humanistic and Hellenistic-influenced books:
"For every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under the heaven:....
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace."

[Redmau5]

I'd say alot of soldiers in Iraq don't hate the country they are occupying, but love their own country, which is why they joined the army in the first place.

[Clarksist]

Originally posted by rise [email protected] 3 2005, 05:55 AM
my reason for wanting to fight a revolutionary war is because i 'love' the people, and 'hate' the state
That is basically the easiest way to sum it up.

Anarchist and Communist revolutions are multi-faceted, and thus the spectrum of emotions is much broader than just "love" or "hate".