We should probably talk about hate, dear reader. Yeah, I know…it’s a weird thing to want to talk about in these hypersensitive and pussified times. But that is sort of the point. I am not at all advocating hate or hateful behavior any more that I’m endorsing any other emotion. But that is also rather the point.
Here’s the deal: I was educated by Jesuits. And my absolute favorite religious philosophers is St. Augustine. As such, I was taught (and firmly believe) that there can be no good without evil. There can be no virtuous behavior unless it is chosen as opposed to sinful behavior.
And love cannot exist unless hate also exists. It is an existential imperative.
Back in the hazy days of the 90s, when I was Truly Raising Hell, I was an all-black-leather-clad bastard who listened to some very angry music played by German guys with mohawks and shit. And I kinda got along with everybody. Because of that, when I moved to San Francisco, I was hanging out with anybody and everybody. I fell in with a group of ravers. They were great. Another subculture that lived and breathed electronic music. I had dreads and facial piercings, they had dreads and facial piercings. Brilliant. Let’s do this. And we did that. We did a lot of things. And it was fantastic. For the first couple nights, then I’d have to take a bunch of Xanax and drop out for a few days and recover. But they were just raving their ecstatic asses off. And they were just so positive. Like constantly positive. And I would actually talk to some of them about it. “You know, everything is not always positive and good all the time. You need to acknowledge your Dark Side a little bit. Otherwise, it’s going to build and grow and break out of whatever cage you were trying to house it in and it is going to immediately kick your ass.” And they would always look at me as if I was really annoyingly harshing their buzz, and I would just shrug it off and wait for the Hammer To Fall. Which it inevitably did. Hard. They would end up in rehab, jail, or just “a really dark place” that involved them spending a lot of time rocking back and forth on their shower floors, trying to Figure Things Out.
That didn’t happen to any of my people…we had long been receiving mail on the Dark Side, so when the shit eventually and inevitably hit the fan, we were prepared, psychologically. The Shiny Happy Ravers were not. And when they fell, they fell hard.
Okay, look…it is simply existentially impossible to be able to love unless you are also capable of hate. My opinion (which I acknowledge is shared by not many people at all) is that all emotions are equal. They are basically silly and pointless things that should never ever ever be used as a basis to make any significant decision. But one is no better or worse than any other, in much the same way no cloud is any better or worse than any other. But just as good simply cannot exist without the presence of evil, so love cannot exist without the presence of hate. Acknowledge that you are capable of hate. And if you feel it, let yourself feel it, then same way you let yourself feel love.
This rant may or may not have made sense to you. I will try to clarify tomorrow. Right now there is music to make.
N.P.: “On Top of the World” – Mike Patton
