My dad once demonstrated to me just how subjective our language is. He asked me to find a single word that could be described with non-comparative words, and I couldn’t do it. He then showed me that, in most of our languages, we can only explain what we know by comparing it to other things that we have experienced. Thus we cannot define the taste of salt because nothing else tastes like it. Everything we experience, therefore, loses its uniqueness simply because we must compare it to something else in order to share it. If we cannot find the experiences or methods for explanation, we must transform our definition in order for others to relate to it.
This same concept has become the common way for us to define everything; even those things that should not be subjective. We have leapt from the parapet of global definition, and created instead the idea of, “well, that’s what it means to me.” And that is ridiculous. This has resulted in so much confusion that we really don’t know what each other is talking about; even in the most glorious and outreaching comments we make.
For example, take the phrase, “I love you.” I have sought someone to describe or define that statement for many years, and all I receive is flowery imagery followed by phrases like, “it isn’t something you can define,” and “there aren’t words to express,” and the famous “you know what I mean.” Well, I don’t know what you mean. I never have, and unless a global standard is set, I never will. So my response to each inquiry has always been a resounding “bull crap!” When someone tells me they love me, damn it, I want to know what they mean.
So I spent a lot of years searching a true definition of love, and I found it. The reason for all of this that goes far beyond any discussion with my father, and perhaps I will explain it later, but for now it will have to suffice that I can now give an absolute standard definition for both love and hate. Taking out all emotion, all mental imagery, all situational subjectivity here are the definitions:
Love: The edifying force of being.
Hate: The destructive force of being.
And now, I’ll explain them.
The answer to your fatheris: “Define.”