When two people cannot sit down at the same table and actually listen to and try to understand each other, then we have a problem. Most political discussions are competitions to win an argument, rather than an attempt to learn and cooperatively pursue the truth. Polemics may be exciting, but reasoned, humble debate is much more likely to produce policies and cultural changes that will improve our society.

Joanna Bourke explores many of these issues in her book, An Intimate History of Killing. Bourke defines hatred as, “an enduring organization of aggressive impulses toward a person or class of persons …. Composed of habitual bitter feeling and accusatory thought.”

In military combat, atrocities frequently arise from leaders invoking hate. During the Vietnam War, hate and hate speech played apart in the My Lai massacre; one of the worst atrocities of its kind committed by American troops during the war. Hate speech can be seen in terms of the use of terms such as “gook,” “slope” and “dinks”, derogatory and dehumanizing terms. Poor leadership by the platoon leader was a major contributing factor to the atrocity.

Burke notes that, “It is much more desirable to kill for positive than for negative emotions. Hatred might actually reduce ‘combat’ effectiveness’ while love might enhance it.” Reflecting on earlier times, Bourke wrote, “… hatred reduced the civilizing sense of chivalry in combat. Killing chivalrously meant avoiding ugly feelings of hatred and acknowledging the humanity of the enemy.”

Many of the same points may be made about hatred seeping into other kinds of conflicts. From the outside, it appears to me that hate has worked its way into the current situation in Wisconsin. I hope that I’m wrong. If it has, then I think we need to understand how it is being generated and by whom and for what purposes.

Hate frequently destroys the cultural underpinnings needed for democratic processes to emerge and thieve. Fundamental to building collaborative relationships issues of fairness and trust must be resolved. I think that John Rawls actually had some interesting thoughts on this.

If we think that hate and hate speech has worked its way into the current rancor in Wisconsin, then I think that the institutions involved and their leaders must be examined carefully.

In all the work that I have done over the years in terms of worker empowerment, achieving fairness and trust were foundational. This is made very difficult when institutions and their leaders are resistant to change.