The Never Ending Cycle of Hate

Being a high school student, I am presented with a variety of people and a variety of conversations every day. Walking through the halls, I hear snippets of hundreds of conversations within a five minute interval, seven times a day. Conversations range from “Can you believe that test in math, who does Mr. Smith think he is?” to “I went to Buckle yesterday and bought two pairs of jeans for three hundred dollars, they are so cute!” I also hear conversations like “Did you see what Jane Doe was wearing yesterday? Ew, that b**** has gotten so fat it is disgusting.” Now, I have no problem hearing my first two examples of conversations, but when I hear my last example I can’t help but try to hide the disbelief in my eyes while trying to sneak a peek at the person that said it. What is wrong with people these days? What would propel someone to say such a horrendous and hurtful thing?

It takes me back to my AP Psychology days when we were learning about development. Hate is not a characteristic that people were born with. You would never see a baby perform a task or action that would intentionally hurt someone else. They may cry and yell or bang on something when they are out of food or have a soiled diaper, but their hate does not extend beyond simple necessities. What happens to this baby that causes them to become a disrespectful, dishonest, and disliking human being?

Obviously it has to do with how the child is raised and what they experience. When the child is growing up, it observes its surroundings and the people’s actions around it. This is where and when they learn these horrible traits. The meanness and hatred begins to immerge around elementary school. This is not a proven fact, just my observations. Kids start to decide the social hierarchy of their class in elementary school. Friendships will be made and people will start to be ignored and avoided. This simple hatred then progresses and peaks at high school age. After high school and maybe college, this crude hate dies out and becomes more complex when people grow into adults. Some people grow out of it because they begin to understand certain situations. For instance, adults do not normally verbally abuse someone based on the clothing they wear or the makeup they out on as they do in high school but they might ridicule someone for their actions or words.

            My only question is why do people start this cycle? What provokes people to be so despicable to one another? It might be stress, lack of sleep, or maybe jealousy contributing but there is absolutely no good reason to be mean and hurtful to someone. All I can ask is that people stop this cycle, even go a day without saying or doing a single mean thing could make a difference. End this horrible cycle. Please. (500)