A: No I'm really asking! What is it? This needs explanation…you said: "Hatred is just one of the human things that we don't put enough time into discussing because it's too close."

S: My theory? It's ancient animal aggression plus a thin veneer of self-persuading rhetoric slapped on top because our brains have gotten so big in 30 million years that we need justifications for our inexplicable urges. A dog's snarl is hatred in its pure form, I'd say. Sometimes it's fear-motivated but quite often it's just the opposite...it spills over from an excess of confidence...the sense that a clear and easy victim is present. You may or not recall that from the school yard.

A: An excess of confidence is not really confidence, though. I will have to think about this.

S: Well, I don't think the psychology of it is always that fancy. Bullies aren't usually afraid of the pipsqueaks they knock around...they don't do it because they're afraid, I think. They do it because they can and the weakness of the target demands some kind of punishment. They do it because the ratio of power to weakness is at a crucial value that just begs for action. Bullies fixate on certain vulnerable targets with this almost righteous disgust bordering on...ecstasy. This was probably part of the process that weeded the weaker humans out of the early gene pool. We probably owe our existence to it. Grudgingly.

A: What are the political or economic solutions, do you think?

S: Mood-altering drugs. The hippies were comically right, in a vague sort of way, when they suggested giving world leaders LSD.

A: Why does sectarian and/or racial violence subside eventually in a place like Belfast but burn so bright for so long in Jerusalem?

S: For some reason the young men in Belfast got bored with their hatred. I think that's a big story. Someone should analyze this. Making hatred boring may be the only hope. Or, I would check the demographic shift. The hatred hurricane probably requires a critical mass of young men to feed it. Did you get the package I sent?

A: Are you awake? What time is it there? Thanks for the package! Must have cost a fortune to ship but the tragedy is that we have Nutella at the corner store. Must be Germans in my neighborhood.