Is Fear the Opposite of Love?
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**Going forward our events are starting at 4:30pm PST to account for people on the east coast, 7:30pm EST. I will still not be on until the usual 7:30pm PST time but the room will be open for anyone wanting to come on earlier.**
This idea randomly comes up sometimes in our discussions; that the opposite of “love” is “fear”. When this is said I immediately think of the scene from Donnie Darko (picture above). I remember finding the scene hilarious and the idea ridiculous, but apparently a good number of people hold this idea to be true. Am I missing something in this understanding? Or perhaps I am trapped in a tangent universe.
Is Fear the opposite of Love? If I love something, then if I were to do the opposite I would fear it?... I always thought “Hate” was the opposite of Love. And I suppose there is no direct opposite of “Fear”… perhaps “confidence” or maybe even “indifference”.
This ties into ideas like “Homophobia” or “Xenophobia”. People that “hate” other types of people are put into these categories with “phobia” at the end, which implies a “fear”. I do not think Fear and Hate are synonymous. They can certainly relate to each other; for example I hate when I feel afraid, but that does not mean I hate the things that I fear.
I hate mushrooms, but I do not fear mushrooms.
What are your thoughts? Come join us for a fun discussion and place your card on the Love/Fear spectrum. This is a casual discussion event open to all views and perspectives. Respect for others is a must (or at least try).
Rule Of Etiquette: The goal is to have a productive free-flowing discussion, while also giving everyone a fair chance to participate accordingly. When it is not a free for all, turns will be managed with a 3-minute timer going to hands raised, and Green Checks for people wanting to make a quick point or ask a question between turns. We will only do 2 Green checks at a time between turns, and each Green check only gets 1 minute. If a person's turn goes over 3 minutes we will not do any green checks. If the turn goes all the way up to 4 minutes they will get a hard mute so we can keep the flow going. These rules will arbitrarily fluctuate with certain people as I am not ashamed to play favorites and give more time to the people have proven to be respectful and mindful of their time.
Hope you can join us!