2019 – Special Slam Winner

Dhruv Ganguly, Michigan.

Hate or Love: which has a greater impact on society

When Napoleon tried to conquer the world he didn't do it out of hatred. When Britain conquered India, she didn't do it out of grudge. She did it for the love of power. Sure, hatred has led to genocide aunt ironies, but love warps our perception of what is good and evil. Love and hate go hand in hand as they are two ends of the same scale, but each has yielded great as well as horrible outcomes.

Love makes us fight for what is good, and defend what we value. Without it we could never form societies that defend morality. Neither could we advance technologically or socially. Our love for communication led us to create the telephone which changed the world beyond measure. Love makes us defend our religion, country, and family. It is a tool of great construction. At the same time, love truly does blind us. It pushes the line of good and evil. It makes us selfish and question the greater good. Ideas like communism were founded on the love of equality. Love is always good, in the subjective view. Objectively, however, love can also destroy. Most wars seemed to be a product of love: a love for power, religion, rights, and more. Love creates and destroys, for the betterment or decline of society.

Hate destroys civilizations and makes us suppress ideas. Without hate, we would have prevented many wars and genocides and allowed ideas and creations to flourish that didn't. Time and time again we see hate forestall what may have been beautiful. Hatred for the Slavs and the “Asiatic barbarians” which included the Jewish people, fueled Hitler's ambition to gain world dominance. However, hate has also been a tool to humanity. It drives us to destroy what is evil, and prevent what is harmful. It protects US from harmful ideologies, governments, tyranny. Our hatred for death helped us advance medicine. Hate destroys both good and evil.
However, hate only exists in direct contrast to love. Hitler couldn't hate the “inferior races” if he didn't love Aryans. In fact, hate has no place without love, as love is a prerequisite for hate. We have no reason to hate anything without a love it opposes. Without something to hate for, to fight for, there is no passion. The converse, however, is not necessarily true. We hate pollution because we love nature. If we stopped loving nature, hate for pollution would be non-existent. However, not hating pollution does not diminish our love for nature. Office abolished, hate ceases to exist, but hate is abolished, love still remains. We can love without hate but not hate without love.

Love has a greater impact on society than hate does because love can exist without hate. Love has enabled us to take tremendous leaps in the furthering of society as well as in its regression. At his gotten us this far, and it will be the end of us.

 

 

 

 

 

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