To hate, or not to hate...

Y'know what I hate? NOTHING! That's right, nothing. There's nothing I hate.

No wait, that's not right. There's nothing I DON'T hate. That's better. Yeah, I hate everything.

Except, when you think about it, while the two statements, "I hate nothing" and "I hate everything", are semantically opposed, in functional terms they're pretty much the same thing. Since the level of affect is flatlined in both cases, there can be no contrast, and no way of providing determination between responses to various elements on the same line.

In other words, it doesn't matter which tone you choose, monotone is monotone. An all-black picture shows as much detail as an all-white one. If everything tasted like distilled water, it'd be the same as if everything tasted like Naga Jolokia peppers. (And, seriously, can you really say that one would be better than the other?)

So, hating everything and hating nothing are, from a emotional perspective, the same. Regardless of which statement is the truth, someone in either state would be unable to actually appreciate his or her emotions and responses, since that person would have nothing to which to compare. In fact, either such person would be considered a psychopath.

Really, I'd be better off deciding to hate only certain things. Even if I took only one thing (or group of things) off the list, I'd be infinitely further ahead. If I decided to not hate, for example, butterflies, then I'd have a reference point by which I could compare my other responses. I'd then be much better equipped to quantify, or least relate, how much I hate clouds, or ice cream sundaes, or politicians. (Oooh, and compared to butterflies, I really hate politicians!)

Note that not hating butterflies is not the same thing as loving them. The jury's still out on whether actually loving something provides a valid response point for comparison against hate levels.

Speaking of love, loving everything is equally as monotonous as hating it all. Again, loving everything sets up a situation whereby you have no method of determining what that love actually feels like. It's kind of like when you're immersed in water that is exactly the same temperature as your body, and when you close your eyes, you can't really tell if you have a body any more. (Kind of, only infinitely moreso.)

So just like it's important to not hate everything, and for same the reasons it's important to not hate nothing, it's also important to not love everything, and not love nothing. In other words, it's okay to love and hate, and not love and not hate, all at the same time.

Oh yeah, and you can tell me I'm full of crap on this whenever you want.

Except, I hate it when people tell me that.

Or do I? It's so hard to tell sometimes.


Hg