Necessary hate?

My friend used that term today. We were talking about the bombings in London, and the tragedy of it all. And then she said something along the lines of unecessary hate making her sad. Is there such a thing as necessary hate? That seems very wrong and very sad. Maybe it was simply a case of improper word choice. Maybe she was referring to hatred of, I dunno, poverty or injustice. I hope so. When would it ever be IMPERATIVE that you hate someone? I can't even fathom that.

I mean, I understand rage, anger, jealousy, and extreme dislike. I accept that these emotions are inescapable and are part of human nature. What I don't get is why some people can't look past that and just be rational, compassionate, and empathetic. I learned the golden rule (you know, treating others as you'd like to be treated) in kindergarten, and I still remember it. It still makes perfect sense to me: Would you like it if someone was mean to you? No? Then don't be mean to other people. If everybody did it, then we'd all be set.

But I guess it's a Prisoner's Dilemma, huh? If you screw over the nice people, you benefit. Everybody understands that cooperation is the pareto optimal solution; we could all be at 3. But, everyone also wants to maybe get that 5, and no one wants to be the fool who gets the 0. So, we all end up at 1. I wonder if the urge to take advantage of others if it somehow benefits you is part of human nature. I just don't get it.

Then again, some people think I am a liberal, hippie idealist. Maybe I am, but in my opinion, it could be worse. I don't think it's bad that I want everyone to get along, or that I can't understand why they can't.

Man, I'm depressing myself ...

Silver lining: I used game theory for something for the first time in over a year. Too bad it's just a blog ...