Hate is an elevated level of antipathy that has been rendered malignant by any or all of the carcinogens of anger, jealousy, irrationality and prejudice. Just as is the case for love, humans appear capable of hating just about anything they put their minds to... be it other humans, natural objects or subversive ideas. So uncompromising can the hostility become, that tolerating the very existence of the thing becomes unacceptable and its ultimate expression is to shatter and burn whatever seems to be the source in a rage of resentment and vengeance. Mythologies and literature are frequently drawn by the irresistible lure of contradictions and describe the status of hate by some such aphorism as Hate loves Murder and Death. Whilst such anthropomorphic fantasy can stimulate and colour the imagination and draw attention to the possible extremes of such feelings, nevertheless it is of little help in obtaining a clearer understanding of the nature and origins of such powerful emotions.

Hate is an emotional extreme and cannot be identified by poetic pronouncement as some sort of inverted love. The hater admits no place for the hated and would even sacrifice his or her own life to ensure annihilation of the despised. The fact that certain humans can oscillate wildly between different emotions is no reason to assume that those emotions are somehow similar just because they occur in the one individual. The terrorist can entertain an intense love emotion for a god or an ideal and at the same time have an intransigent hate for the presence of anything that threatens it. Just as an all-consuming love can attain a sufficient intensity to enable the sacrifice of the lover's life... in an attempt to benefit the loved... so an all-consuming hate can motivate the self-sacrifice of the hater in an attempt to destroy the hated. The political assassin is often prepared to sacrifice themselves in an attempt to kill a leader of the despised faction.

From a general and abstract point of view, elevated levels of hostility between individuals in any society is inimical to its ongoing survival and runs counter to the co-operative point of its existence. The pragmatic response from the administrative structure is to attempt to either mollify, dissipate or extirpate the sources. This may sometimes be appropriate and justified when the hate-driven behaviour originates from extreme, intolerant and disturbed religious and political groups. The distributed bulk of a democratic social spectrum has no choice but than to protect its middle centrality by taking positive action. Within an authoritarian social regime however, the regime itself will inevitably engender pockets of hate by virtue of its attitudes and procedures in suppressing individuality. In this oft repeated scenario, a hatred of the oppressive regime is eventually compelled to manifest itself by resorting to murder, terrorism and guerilla warfare, in order to foment the revolution which is the only ultimate consequence.