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"Hatred, a basic concern in Nietzsche’s resistance to the concept of evil, is probably directed oftener at persons than at deeds. Hatred appears to be what he found dangerous about judgments of evil. Although one can hate without moral judgments and judge morally without hatred, it may be that to judge something evil is to regard it as at least worthy of hatred, as deserving of hatred, if anything is. Nietzsche apparently wished to be free of the impulse to hate, however deserved the hatred. Although I am not persuaded by his genealogy that evil is a concept to be transcended, that is not because I am eager to justify hatred. I remain ambivalent about hatred, as I am uncertain how dangerous it is. Sometimes the danger seems to lie, rather, in the inability to hate where hatred is earned.
[...] It can be a sign of progress to hate rather than worship an oppressor or to hate the oppressor rather than oneself. Castigating ourselves for hating men is one of the patterns of sexism. How much mythology surrounding hatred in a society shaped by Christianity comes from those who have earned others’ hatreds ? Consider the myths that hatred consumes the hater, that it wastes energy (wishful thinking ?), or that to hate is to indulge in tabloid thinking and demonizing. These things are not true of all hatreds. Hatred of rapists, for example, need not consume us. We need not dwell on it or wallow in it. But when we do think of rapists, far from a waste of energy, as Nietzsche saw, hatred can be energizing. Nor need we demonize or make oversimplified judgments of character. [...] Hatred distances us from what we hate. It asserts a profound rejection. To reject is not to annihilate. Rejection can be good, depending on what is rejected by whom and how. Ironically, in his horror of hatred, Nietzsche may have been more of a Christian than he wanted us (or himself) to believe." (p.49)
-Claudia Card, The Atrocity Paradigm. A Theory of Evil, New York, Oxford University Press, 2002 , 284 pages.
