[whitecrow]

What a great thread. Whenever I start feeling a little disappointed in Avalon, along comes a great sequence of thoughts and counterthoughts that challenges and informs me, and I'm excited and grateful all over again.

Hate is a powerful passion, and in many ways is an analog of love. I think many things that we attribute to hate don't proceed from that passion at all, but rather from coldness and ruthlessness.

A lot of what we mistake for evil is in truth the consequences of our own choices.

Hatred of others is really hatred of self. On the other hand there really is evil in the world, and it must be opposed. But not with hate, that just feeds it.

We can stop hate in the world, but not by hating it. We stop it by making it obsolete. That can be done only with love.

The bottom line is what Gandhi said: We must BE the change we wish to see in the world.