The Psychology of Hate – Sikh Gurdwara Massacre

Wade Michael Page on 5th August 2012, undertook a mass shooting that killed six people and wounded four others. The possible reason - Hate! Hate has been the reason in past for organized and individual acts of violence. One common reason for hate has been envy. Envy has long been held to be a harmful emotion involving the desire to deprive others of the qualities or possessions that they possess and we covet (Belk 2011). Envy at its extremes is of two types - Benign envy and Malicious envy. Benign envy aims to level up. For example when our friend gets a good boss, we usually end up saying - "I am envious of your job". This is not destructive. Malicious envy on the other hand is destructive.

Hatred is active, and envy passive dislike; there is but one step from envy to hate. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Due to different governments, different backgrounds and other factors, every person does not get every good thing in life. Hate related violence as experienced by Indians in Australia or other countries has been due to the envy of locals. Locals found the lives of Indian immigrants much better. They were envious. When this envy was benign, it lead to healthy competition. When this was malicious it lead to unhealthy destruction or hate crimes. The massacre in Oak Creek, Wisconsin is an example of malicious envy against Sikhs who have been doing extremely well. Hate crimes have happened in India against Indians. A political party in an Indian state launched an entire campaign of hate against Indian migrants. The anti-migrant sentiment was again due to loss of jobs of locals to "outsiders". If Indians can consider other Indians as outsiders and can be envious, it is quite possible for other migrants to face similar situations. At the end of it what we get is heinous crimes and in worse situations as sometimes experienced in India - political support. To explain the reason in a simplistic manner, the hater says,

If my world is a living hell,

How can you live so well?

If you've taken my space,

I'll make you feel my pain.

The case of Wade Michael Page is isolated and I really appreciate the present social system in the United States that despises any racial discrimination. But in future to make this system better we would need economists to work on reducing the collective malicious envy of a population. It makes more sense in a country like India, which is highly sensitive to communal riots and communal agendas of political organizations. Equal opportunities will reduce malicious envy of one race,cast or religion towards the other. It will also reduce migration. If people are living well, why should they participate in a hate movement at all? I'd like to express my condolences to the deceased and their relatives in this massacre. May their souls rest in peace.

Giving the finger to a scripted life!

It's crazy to take jobs just because they look good on your resume. That's like saving sex for your old age. ~ Warren Buffet. You have plans for your life, career etc. You've built an entire script but what is this based on? Scott at Ted talks about how almost 80% of the people around the world don't like the job they do. In his career, he found one day that most of the job he did was automated by his competitors. Building the resume was clearly not way forward. It was during that time he he heard the quote by warren buffet, " It's crazy to take jobs just because they look good on your resume. That's like saving sex for your old age ". This was when he left his job. While there are know universities, which talk about finding your passion, Scott talks about a lens that can help in finding the job we love.

Twitter and the world of hate - Delhi Gang Rape

Common wisdom says that venting out reduces frustration. Twitter, Facebook, and blogs help us achieve the same. While what normally starts as a "venting out" experience, I suspect is turning out to be an anguish enhancer. When I look at trending topics on twitter all what I see is a world of "Hate". Small pieces of hate messages turn out to be a big collective bunch of hate. Take the case of Delhi gang rape and some ill-minded comments of politicians and spiritual gurus. What started as scattered bickering remarks against a comment made by "Asaram" has now become a full fledged ball of rage. This rage was "non-directional", had no agenda and was oriented towards sarcasm and wit. While Delhi gang rape highlights poor governance, societal problems and problems of law and order, venting out on a forum that accumulates the frustration by many such people only adds to the low well-being. It is time we use some discretion and post messages that...

Twitter vs. News - Effectiveness in building relations

Social Media has been termed as an effective way to build relationships. Brands are trying to harness this capability by building social presence on this new media. Celebrities today account for the maximum amount of followers on the web with twitter being a fine example for this. But is this new media effective in creating relationships with this vast list of followers, which celebrities often tend to have? In an interesting research by Lee and Jang , they explore the effectiveness of celebrities in building social presence on new media. They compare twitter and a news website to check the relative effectiveness of enhancing social presence. While the traditional PR machinery used by celebrities might give them news coverage, they contend that their tweets can reduce the barrier of relational development as compared to a news website. Their findings are counter-intuitive and very interesting.

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