Love often makes people feel different things— Appreciation, gratitude and comfort are all emotions you may feel when you love somebody. But what about the opposite? Some might think hatred is the opposite love because hate and love are both strong emotions. However, indifference proves to be the true converse of love.
The traditional definition of indifference is not feeling anything toward the subject at all. You don’t agree, but you don’t disagree. One could also say you are neutral.
“I think the absence of love would be that you’re not feeling anything. It would be that you wouldn’t feel anything at all towards that person,” TuHS English teacher Kristin Cwirla said.
For example, your friend points out a pair of shoes that she ‘loves’. You might not agree, but that doesn’t mean that you hate them. It probably just means you feel indifferent. So the opposite of loving a pair of shoes is indifference.
Love is one of the strongest emotions humans can feel. But going from love to hatred is not a big leap. Hatred typically means you could never see yourself loving or feeling indifferent to the subject. To feel indifference means you don’t care at all, while to hate means you care enough to feel a strong emotion, even if it is negative.
“I think hatred is perhaps one of the strongest emotions. It’s the complete absence of any positive emotion. It’s like a vacuum. It’s very aggressive,” said Cwirla.
The definition of love has changed many times over the years. Loving something can be as simple as loving a song, but it can also be as complex as loving a person.
“I think there are different kinds of love. I think you can have love for something as simple as mac and cheese, but you can also love somebody. Not to say that they are less important, but it’s different,” said Cwirla.
So next time you find yourself saying you hate something, you might just be indifferent. Just because you don’t love something, doesn’t mean you have to hate it.