Opinion
School & District Management Opinion

Love and Hate in Social Movements

By Greg Jobin-Leeds — June 06, 2012 2 min read
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Here’s another guest blogpost by Bryant Muldrew, building on our previous hypothesis. What do you think? -- Greg

There are two major passions that can unify individuals or groups for a common goal. Commonly, people are bound together by a uniform hate towards someone, something, a group, or an idea. Conversely, love for someone, something, a group, or an idea can be a similar bond.

Unification through hate is a temporary solution to any injustice people wish to eliminate. More often than not, the bonds of hate are broken with the disappearance of the object of the hatred which makes room for the injustice to manifest again. Love, however, can be a permanent solution to any injustice provided that this love is genuine and towards to community at large.

Saulo and Greg pose an interesting hypothesis about love and its connection to strong social movements:

Hypothesis 2: Love and Boldness: Transformative change requires self-assured, daring tactics that are, at their heart, driven by love for the community of fellow humans and rage against the denial of human rights and against the system that perpetuates exclusion.

When this hypothesis is applied to the education transformation movement in America, it clears the smoke of separation that divides education advocates, educators, students, and parents. If there ever will be change in education that will endure the test of time, then the education transformation movement must rooted in love. The results of hatred towards education policy, curriculum, systematic underfunding, and like has proven not to be a sustainable source of energy for change. Typically, the hatred of these dissipates with the establishment of small policy changes. Then the injustices are incrementally reinstituted years later.

Tragically, many are subject to the influence of unified hatred because of popular propaganda. And even those who love dearly rarely speak in the language of Love and Boldness. Instead they respond to hatred and injustice with urgency. I urge that we all urgently assert opposition in love--the love for all mankind.

Truthfully, the National Student Bill of Rights movement desires to transform the education system into an institution of just practices. Each right in the National Student Bill of Rights embodies the ideology of love for youth. We boldly assert the need for students’ and youths’ right to a quality education to be protected by the federal government.

The opinions expressed in Democracy and Education are strictly those of the author(s) and do not reflect the opinions or endorsement of Editorial Projects in Education, or any of its publications.