Why We Hate

Written in the painful aftermath of the September 11 Attack on America, Why We Hate reminds all of us that anyone can become an innocent victim of hate. Hate cuts across cultural, racial, gender, national boundaries. In the first chapter, the book's authors give an excellent overview of the changing meaning of the term "hate" since the 1980s. In its common usage, the term has shifted from its original meaning "an intense dislike" and has instead come to be associated with hostile feelings toward the members of some group of people based on race, religious identity, ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, or disability status. Due to this transformation of meaning, hate has become a useful way to interpret criminal acts in which the underlying motive involves hostile or biased behavior such as racism, sexism or xenophobia. Levin and Rabrenovic explore how prejudice and stereotype fueled by hatred can spur inter-group conflict. The two sociologists attempt to explain why hostile sentiments emerge between groups and the circumstances under which this hostility leads to violence. Simple but fundamental questions as to whether human beings born with a propensity for hate and violence are examined scientifically. The authors conclude that hating "the other" is learned behavior rooted in the environment, in psychological factors, and in the socio-economic characteristics of society. As it is highlighted clearly in the book hate also pays off in many ways for those who use it: Thus, "violence has benefits - psychological, social, and economic -for those who embrace hostile and vicious attitudes toward those who are considered different." Why We Hate provides us with a myriad of examples of the expression of hate from around the world--from the streets of Jerusalem through the long-term religious conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland to the stereotype-based racial offenses in the United States. Such examples are of invaluable importance for understanding the mundane character of hate violence as it differs sharply from depictions in movies or television series. The authors demystify hate violence tremendously and then offer undeniable evidence that "ordinary people" frequently play a major role in the most horrendous acts of hate violence under specific conditions. The deportation of Jews, Roma, Slavs, homosexuals, and mentally deficient people during the Second World War or the massacre in Bosnia a decade ago suggest strongly that seemingly harmless or trivial acts like hate speech, political propaganda, and pervasive stereotypes may over time escalate into large scale ethnic violence. Besides exploring the large variety of factors that cause conflict, the book also sheds light on the growing levels of impersonality and indifference as one of the precipitants of hate in our modern society. The authors discuss the role of the mass media in forming the basis of a hostile mindset in future generations of citizen