Nobody hates polar bears

I had this thought recently after that post on hate recently.  If you were to do a poll on the feelings toward polar bears, people might even say that they love them.  But there's one thing about polar bears that is being overlooked perhaps. If given the opportunity, they will put you on their menu.  They are big, powerful animals and they are very dangerous. Yet, even though people have been killed by polar bears, and people are aware of this I am sure, they do not hate polar bears.

Why is this?  Before attempting to answer that, let's take a look at another hypothetical poll.  You could ask this in a poll:  Do you hate Rush Limbaugh?  I would bet that if the poll respondents were honest, there would be a great number of those who would say that yes, they do hate Rush Limbaugh.  For his own part, Rush says he's a harmless little fuzzball.  Whether or not you believe this, it must be admitted that he probably hasn't killed anybody and eaten them lately.

So, I think the answer must be that polar bears are a part of nature.  They are amoral.  There is no moral knowledge involved here.  The polar bears just do what nature has made them.  If you are smart, you stay away from them.  Or if you must, you take plenty of precautions, because you know what to expect.  People, on the other hand, do have a moral knowledge.  A man should know better than to kill another person, and God forbid, eat them.  But it has happened before.  Yet, if you ask if people hate cannibals, they may say "no"!  Could it be because those who do this are not morally aware and in a state of nature themselves?

So, why do people hate other people?  The worse that another person can do is to kill you.  Yet if a polar bear killed someone close to you, you don't hate them for it.  Or you don't hate a polar bear because he would kill you if he got the chance.

It is all a matter of choice.  You choose what to believe in.  If Rush clears contradicts what you choose to believe in, you can handle this one of two ways.  You can graciously accept his choices and move on.  Or you could believe that he is evil.  If you believe he is evil, the next step would be to hate him.  I think that is how it works.  But whatever you believe is what you choose to believe.  You also choose not to hate anybody, despite the fact that the individual may be of such a character that it incites hatred in those who are susceptible to it.

There's reason no reason behind hatred unless there something else at work.