I read once that the opposite of Love is not Hate, but Apathy. Hate is, at least, engagement (negative and destructive, to be sure, but still engagement and acknowledgment). Hatred can even possibly be turned to Love, as long as that engagement takes place. Apathy — ignoring someone, failing to express interest in them or their plight, failing to acknowledge them as a person — is diametrically opposed to Love, though, and cuts more cruelly than even Hatred.
As an example, on a macro scale, it’s best to say, “I feel great compassion for the people affected by the AIDS epidemic in Africa. I want to help them.” It’s not good to say, “Well, they brought it on themselves by their sinful lives and poor governmental choices, and, besides, they’re all Africans, you know,” but at least it’s recognizing them and having a reaction. And it’s better than, “Oh, AIDS in Africa? Huh. Hey, did you catch the last episode of Lost?“
On a somewhat related note, Anger is a dodgy thing (to frame it in a Christian sense, in its extreme it’s one of the Seven Deadly Sins), but Despair is worse (in Christian tradition, again in its extreme, it is the one unforgivable sin). And, indeed, there is in fact a relationship between these and the above — think of Anger is Hatred at the world or a situation, whereas Despair is Apathy about it, a disengagement from everything.
So to that end, it’s better to rage at the world (or one’s situation in it) than to give up on it. (I’m not sure, in that relationship, what the analog to Love would be.)
Don’t ask … my mind’s wandering over these sorts of things of late.
I always thought of anger as a form of fear, and the opposite of love being doubt.
I think anger is sometimes a result of fear. If one is … serene? … there is lack of fear and of anger.
Not as sure about love vs. doubt. Though it would seem hard to have the former with the latter.
I don’t think I would have phrased it the same way, but I see what MTFierce is saying about love and doubt. Maybe. It’s hard to have love without having some kind of innate, inassailable (illogical?) understanding or faith. With doubt, you can only think about understanding someone or believing in someone, and the minute something comes up that undermines that thought, the illusion of love is gone. Jealousy comes out of doubt. “I will love you no matter what you do” doesn’t.
That is a lovely thought De.