Hass
Author: Seyda Jurt
Publisher: Harper Collins, Germany
In the philosophical book Hass, the Turkish-German journalist and moderator Seyda Kurt writes about hatred as a resilient form of action, as a reaction to contemporary oppression, as self-defense, and as a necessary means for justice. Hatred, she argues, is both feeling and action at the same time.
In her previous bestseller Radikale Zärtlichkeit (2021), she wrote about radical tenderness in relation to love and why love is political. In Hass, she focuses on the hatred that gives rise to tenderness.
When her publisher asked if she would consider writing this book, Kurt’s immediate reaction was that she did not want to. She hated the thought of writing the book. However, after pondering over the summer, she concluded that she would write about hatred or there would be no book.
“I really hate writing books
Midway through the book, there is a sudden paragraph about her hatred for writing books: «I really hate writing books; it makes me nauseous. It’s not the writing itself. I hate having to be creative under time pressure, under pressure from the market and consumer society.»
Unfortunately, it also becomes apparent that she did not enjoy writing this book. This is especially evident in the form.
The book is divided into three parts. The first part consists of a prologue. The second part comprises the chapters «Hatred”» and «Haters.» The last part consists of one chapter, «Darkness.»
The parts feel messy, as they consist of concise essays without connection to the following essay and any clear red thread. Each essay ends with a curved dash.
Kurt writes about personal events from her childhood where hatred recurs. Or about various philosophers’ thoughts on hatred. Or about various selected events in the world with hatred as a theme. Why she has chosen these stories feels a bit random to me.
After all the short essays and different events she describes, it therefore becomes more comfortable when she writes lists, such as when she writes, «Who or what do we really want to hate?
The capitalists or capitalism?
The whites or racism?
Cis-men or patriarchy?
The people or the system?»
Some paragraphs are repeated. For example, the paragraph that stands alone before and after a curved dash, in different variations, where she adds some extra words or sentences: «(I try to imagine a world without punishment, I don’t know if it’s possible, I only know that when I hate, that policeman in my head barks, punishment, punishment, punishment).»
«I can not breathe!»
She mentions, among others, a Syrian refugee named Amed Ahmad, who was burned to death in Kleve prison in Germany for unknown reasons. He was imprisoned on false grounds. His parents and friends are still fighting for justice in his case.
In 2020, the police in Hamburg arrested the 15-year-old Kadir H, she writes. In this case, a woman films the incident. She even tries to intervene. Repeatedly, she asks the police officers to remain calm. But they overpower him against the wall and lay him on the ground. Kadir gasps: «I can’t breathe!» Behind him on the wall is graffiti with the words «Please, I can’t breathe.» The incident happened just a few weeks after the black American George Floyd was choked to death by a police officer in the USA.
Where does this hatred come from? Hatred often stems from racism, misogyny, xenophobia, prejudices, and so on. This is old news. Yet, it needs to be addressed, as history seems to repeat itself. Police brutality is not a new phenomenon, but due to social media and smartphones, it is easier for the general public to make it visible.
Rojava in Northern Syria is a society where hatred against oppression is transformed into a collective tenderness policy despite the bombs raining over its citizens.
Reactionary Hatred
«And the bombs continue to fall over Rojava, » she writes in the essay on whether one can imagine a society without hatred. What would a radically tender society need? Rojava in Northern Syria is a society where hatred against oppression is transformed into a collective tenderness policy despite the bombs raining over its citizens. There, one talks more about ‘strategic hatred,’ a concept where one asks where hatred is needed and where it should be buried. ‘Reactionary hatred,’ on the other hand, is about self-defense and revenge.
For many, Rojava, with a Kurdish majority, is described as a socialist utopia. There, work on women’s rights has come a long way. Because only when the woman is free is everyone free: Jin, jiyan, azadi (Woman, life, freedom). It is this utopia that Seyda Kurt is inspired by in her utopian society.
Ever since the Arab Spring in 2011, Rojava has developed a society with direct democracy led by women organized in three self-governing cantons modelled after Switzerland. There, the ideas about democratic autonomy have been most fully practiced. Their fight is not about forming a nation but about respecting and including Arabs, Assyrians, Turkmens, women, as well as men.
