We are examining hatred, the kind of hatred that fed and nurtured the 18 year old man who wanted to start a racial war by killing many black people in a Buffalo grocery store. And who readily acquired military-like guns to accomplish his evil task.
Resentment is a kind of simmering hatred that makes itself known in the present. We fool ourselves if we underestimate its power for destruction. Resentment happens when we hold hurt in a long time and it festers and rots and seeks expression in hatred and violence.
Resentment is ripe for projections. Resentment represents an advanced state of ire and anger, a situation that develops readily into bitterness and rancor and violence. This anger lodges in the heart chakra when it has not been purified and redirected in the third chakra.
Resentment builds up and up over time if it is ignored and not dealt with. This is why it gives birth to so many forms of hatred and revenge. I met a man from Bosnia who told me that the entire war and all its awful genocide in his country was due to one thing: the politicians who tapped into the resentment among the three different groups in his culture—the Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, and the Muslims. All three had long-standing complaints against the others, and the politicians, with their own agendas, exploited this resentment.
Hitler developed an entire political rhetoric and movement built on “resentment” and it formed the energy that fed policies of genocide and violence, sadism and barbarism. Politicians today are not immune from whipping up resentment to forge their way to power as well.
In today’s politics in America, resentment seems to play a major role ever since Trump came down the escalator and denounced immigrants as “rapists.” Brown people and black people and often Jewish people too are the objects of resentment and projection in the white supremacy movements of today. The movement in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us” was once called “fine people on both sides” by an American president.
Exploitation follows on resentment because Resentment is such a powerful force and stems from love energies that are denied us—it bears all the power of love behind it as a giant thrust against that which we hate. Being a great misdirection of love energy, resentment will eventually not be denied and those who exploit it know this.
Politicians and their media mogul enablers who spread resentments appeal to citizens’ resentments and often they respond in kind.
Adapted from Matthew Fox, Sins of the Spirit, Blessings of the Flesh: Transforming Evil in Soul and Society, pp. 287-289.
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Queries for Contemplation
Do you see Resentment on the rise in our time? And politicians exploiting it and the media fanning it? And projections and scapegoating resulting from it?
16 thoughts on “Hatred and Resentment: Evil Forces in Our Midst”
Matthew, In our Queries for Contemplation today you ask us: “Do you see Resentment on the rise in our time? And politicians exploiting it and the media fanning it? And projections and scapegoating resulting from it?” Yes, yes, yes to all of the above! But let me restate what you have said about resentment.
“Resentment is a kind of simmering hatred that makes itself known in the present.”
“Resentment happens when we hold hurt in a long time and it festers and rots and seeks expression in hatred and violence.”
“Resentment is ripe for projections.”
“Resentment represents an advanced state of ire and anger, a situation that develops readily into bitterness and rancor and violence.”
“Resentment builds up and up over time if it is ignored and not dealt with. This is why it gives birth to so many forms of hatred and revenge.”
I see all of the above ways that resentment is active in the world today–and it ain’t pretty !!! But where is Original Blessing in all of this? It sure looks like the results of Original Sin–with sinful people doing evil to others and especially to the anawim (the voiceless ones). We are all poised and waiting to see how you make Original Blessing shine through all of this darkness! Bad news prevails but people need hope to hang on too. Hope that there is goodness still inside people; hope that peace will ultimately reign, and hope that humans are not really as depraved as they seem…
I agree with you Richard…it is staggering to witness humans causing abominable suffering to other humans…a recent example being Putin’s war and recently witnessing brave Ukrainian men and women loaded on buses to be taken to Russia…and some kind of infernal abuse…
It is not consoling to rely on the seeming platitude that ‘it is always darkest before the dawn’… or the promise that ‘darkness won’t overcome the light’…
BUT as we can see, there are lights shining ever brighter in those who are risking their own lives to face off with such darkness as well as those who continue to share the ‘Good News’ every day as you do…
If it was my daughter or son being tortured or raped in a Russian prison my capacity to forgive and bypass resentment could be bolstered seeing others risk their own lives to prevent such abominations…
But a deep abiding sorrow would follow me to my grave…
I appreciate Matthew’s insightful comment… defining resentment and hatred as “the misdirection, the misappropriation of the heart energy, the human capacity for love”. This human capacity for love, as Mathew states is apart of our Original Blessing, our inheritance… yet this gift also comes with responsibility… which is the ability to respond to God’s vision of this heart energy, this capacity for love and its original intention as well.
Resentment often is tethered to revenge… a seeking to pay back… any other… by inflicting one’s own inner pain that is associated with the resentment and hatred onto another… rather than choosing to pay this inner pain forward, through the transformational power of forgiveness, love, compassion, and mercy… the latter, the Cosmic Christ through Jesus walked the talk of… exemplifying this in the greatest measure.
In yesterday’s comment, I spoke of deep soul pain being the core root of hatred… as an energy intensified, that will not be contained and how it either explodes or implodes… or both… violently expressing and manifesting itself… being either inwardly or outwardly directed, or both.
Our society, our culture, our religions… in general, have not taught humanity how to deal with deep soul pain in a responsible, healthy manner. Many self medicate in various ways in an attempt to numb themselves of the inner anguish residing deep within their souls… others unconsciously attempt to release this pain through violent acts… and yet neither of these choices actually alleviates nor heals the root core cause of the inner pain that resides deep within the soul. Only the unconditional love, compassion and mercy of God’s love… and the power of this… can alleviate, transform, and heal such deeply rooted soul pain… and God’s vision and intention is for each one of us to administer this… to ourselves, each other and the all and the everything of creation.
Jeanette, Today you write: “I appreciate Matthew’s insightful comment… defining resentment and hatred as “the misdirection, the misappropriation of the heart energy, the human capacity for love”. This human capacity for love, as Mathew states is apart of our Original Blessing, our inheritance… yet this gift also comes with responsibility… which is the ability to respond to God’s vision of this heart energy, this capacity for love and its original intention as well.” Thank you for bringing in Original Blessing in this context.
Thank you, Matthew. The evil of resentment surfaces on many levels. We visited the Dodge County Detention Center recently and talked to young immigrant woman who is not experiencing fresh air and the joy of spring. Her only contact with nature for several months has been a ceiling window.
For those of us who identify as followers of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of Divine LOVE (God), this is and should be a deeply unsettling truth! We witness evidence of it every day in so-called Christians and the church too.
https://cac.org/daily-meditations/redeeming-our-religion-2022-05-22/
Yes, Patrick. Father Richard nailed it this morning. “Our religion is not working well.” As he says, at San Damiano, St. Francis was told Francis, “Rebuild my church, for you see it is falling into ruin.” This is what needs to happen. This is what Matthew, Father Richard, and others are trying to do–and what Marcus Borg was trying to do when he was alive. God bless them.
Media reports of the Buffalo shooter repeatedly refer to him as a man. At age 18, that may fit the legal definition. While bearing full responsibility for his heinous acts, he’s a misguided boy acting out his pain in tragically vengeful ways. Seems out collective outrage and cries for swift justice keep us from recognizing same. Behind every criminal deed there lies a secret. There are many disenfranchised boys like him out there, and a quick look at their histories reveal the absence male mentors to guide and initiate them into manhood. In the absence of same, they spend time in isolation on the Internet seeking affiliations with other angry souls who project and act out their rage full love aches similarly. And they do so largely unaware of what they really need, and are errantly in search of. There is much talk in the media today of aliens from other worlds. Yet today there are more souls on this planet who couldn’t be more ‘alien’ and alienated from themselves, others, and their sacred identities as God intended them to be. Thankfully, the good does exist in this world, mainly as salt and light amid a norm of dark, divisive, and repulsive evil inherent in matter that is inveterately resistant to spiritual awareness and ascent. A global spiritual pandemic requires a global spiritual solution, one of an apocalyptic kind that even the best of mankind, however enlightened, cannot overcome in its own and grace-given energies. Climate change isn’t the only thing that has reached irreversible proportions. It is only one symptom of global disorder created by a species run amok by its own self-defeating ways.
Joe, well said. Let us pray that we can somehow be part of a global spiritual solution, that enough people wake up.
Joe, I appreciated ;your whole comment but the following lines really spoke to me of the origin of the problem were dealing with these boys or young men who are doing these mass shootings: “There are many disenfranchised boys like him out there, and a quick look at their histories reveal the absence male mentors to guide and initiate them into manhood. In the absence of same, they spend time in isolation on the Internet seeking affiliations with other angry souls who project and act out their rage full love aches similarly.” Matthew has spoken at length in his books about the need for mentors for young men, and the need for initiations into manhood. That is what he was doing in his in his book, THE A.W.E. PROJECT: REINVENTING EDUCATION, REINVENTING THE HUMAN. Matthew was also involved in an afterschool program in Oakland that provided education in a way that worked for these young people–for instance this book included a rap CD by Professor Pit! So, what I am saying is I agree wholeheartedly with you.
Matthew, thank you for your deeper analysis of the roots of resentment, hatred, and evil in individuals and society historically up to the present day, and the deep interrelationship/inter-influences of our psyches and society. Carl Jung and James Hillman, depth psychologists, have written about this psychological phenomenon in their studies of the ‘shadow’, that you described as misdirected heart energy. Another more recent dangerous example of this insidious phenomenon (besides Hitler’s catastrophic influence on the people/society of ‘civilized’ Germany in his time) is the corruption of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill (see NY Times article of May 21, 2022).
🔥❤️🙏
Like everyone commenting here, I have been struggling to understand the intense evil amongst us–in Putin, in this most recent mass shooter, in tRump, in others in government here and in other countries, the shameless talkers on TV. We are facing more evil and division than most of us have encountered in our lifetimes; and, as one reader said a day or so ago, “Our souls are frayed.” Yesterday, I opened the book I quote below and read the chapter on Jesus’s encounter with the man who responded as “Legion.” (Mark 5:1-13)
From Adyashanti’s book: “[W]hen Legion says, “for we are many,” what are the many? Our modern interpretation would be that Legion has a completely fractured psyche. When the psyche fractures, it’s like a pane of glass dropped on the ground; it shatters into many bits and pieces. Someone to whom this has happened is literally lost in the unconscious; that becomes their reality.”
― Adyashanti, Resurrecting Jesus: Embodying the Spirit of a Revolutionary Mystic
I offer his exposition on Jesus’ encounter because I can’t explain it the way Adyashanti himself does. If you can find the book, you might read the chapter, but these people are shattered like glass and all kinds of “demons” have taken over. It isn’t just their Christ nature that has been lost. It’s the person they hope to be. It’s the person they wanted to announce themselves to be. When they scream at those around them, when they spew lies on TV, when they send soldiers and weapons of war to terrify others, metaphorical demons have completely taken over. They are not themselves. They are Legion.
It does appear that some people are possessed by evil.
Henri Nourwen and others have noted that resentment stems from thwarted expectations. Tyrants work on the principle of divide and conquer, and ramp up people’s resentments by the creation of or encouragement of false expectations, for instance that white men “deserve” to be in power and are under threat by ———you name it, women, Asians, Jews, Muslims, Black and brown people, indigenous people, LGQBT+ people, ad infinitum. False problems are identified: here in Florida, people were wound up to believe that critical race theory was being taught in the schools and needed a bill to prevent teachers from discussing anything to do with race or LGQBT+. Trans children are targeted as the enemy here and especially in Texas where their parents are subject to being reported for child abuse. And so on. One answer, of course, is to vote these folks out–oops, the voting restrictions and, here in Florida, the creation of a police force around voting might prevent this, as they are meant to do.
I do take hope and encouragement from the outpouring of grief and offers to help from so many different sources, whenever we suffer yet another tragedy like that in Buffalo or California. The trick is to be able to harness all this good feeling and love.
Sue, Thank you for these words: “I do take hope and encouragement from the outpouring of grief and offers to help from so many different sources, whenever we suffer yet another tragedy like that in Buffalo or California. The trick is to be able to harness all this good feeling and love.” AMEN !!!
Thank you Matthew. We have so many people who have not been loved well and do not know how to love. I think part of it is our system of corporate capitalism that maliciously exploits with a cold heart. Many in our country are easily misguided because they have been exploited by the malicious forces of capital, religion, and corporate politics. Even the liberals are exploited by corporate forces to some extent. We have no imagination of what a different world might look like and how to work for it. We are caught up in the web of despair.