I was so tempted to write a lofty article about the need for men and women to stop hating each other, and in some cases their own, and just get along because we’re human.

But the fact is there has never been a point in history in which people have always got along. People hate people and that is true humanity.

To get a little philosophical — and perhaps, depending on your stance, quite a bit fictional — you just know that Adam and Eve were probably at each others throats at least a few times in Eden. Maybe that sneaky serpent found Eve easier to convince because Adam had neglected to tell her that he was going to spend the night down by the lake, kicking it with his animal buddies. And I bet Adam was pissed that he ever trusted food from someone who stole his rib even before he met her.

Hating another person openly is not the sign of a corrupt or degenerated society — not when that person is hated by another because of his or her own core values and personality. However, hating a group because of ignorance of the individuals within that group is the sign of a society in moral distress.

Most people hate Hitler. We don’t hate Hitler because he was a fan of narrow mustaches or Volkswagens but because of everything that he stood for. His entire essence is deemed evil and abhorrent, a soulless man causing irreversible damage to humanity. That kind of hatred toward an individual is OK. It is the kind of hatred that actually brings about change, that liberates and changes the world, the kind of hatred that makes us say “never again.”

Hating for good reason is not negative, but determining a good reason to hate is the difficult part. Civil rights movements around the world have taught us that race, religion and gender are not good reasons to hate. Even if a person is incredibly annoying, offensive or in opposition to your personal beliefs, there is no reason to hate. We simply dislike these qualities. Hatred on the other hand is the only option when a person is so inexplicably and radically at odds with the values that all of humanity holds dear including that of peace, truth, justice and love.

Love and hate are two sides of the same coin. Condemning true and positive hatred equally condemns true and positive love.

If we work so hard to find reasons to love, if we demand so much from love and understand that love is not easy to maintain nor is it common or unjustified, can we not expect the same from hate?

Is it not harder to truly hate than it is to truly love?

Hatred takes eternal passion, resolve and deep knowledge of another person, including the intricate details of an individuals morals, ethics and beliefs.

I doubt that true hatred is common, and if we feel that we truly hate a person, may we seek to justify this hatred by developing an understanding of this person? If after knowing a person and seeing them for what they truly are, hate remains, perhaps then it is justified and perhaps you will have the deep knowledge and valid reason to actually do something about the person you hate.

So instead of trying to rid the world of hatred, perhaps we should embrace it by asking people to put their hatred where their mouths are and see if they are willing to find out if they are as hateful as they appear to be. If we demand as many reasons to hate as we do love, perhaps the world will be filled with a little more understanding and a little less hate.