There is a line in an old film, Becket. Henry II (Peter O’Toole) says he just can’t think why his fellow Normans hate the Saxons so much. Becket (Richard Burton) answers in a nonchalant, rather off-handed manner. Paraphrased, it’s something like this: Well, Sire, you invaded our land, murdered our fathers, raped our mothers, and pillaged our country; therefore, you just naturally hate us. The actual quote that accompanies the paraphrase, if I remember correctly, goes, “One always hates most those one has wronged, Sire.” The audience has to smile and even chuckle a bit. Mostly, it’s Burton’s glib delivery that evokes the sardonic humor, but the line is memorable also for the dark truth it contains—unacknowledged moral culpability “just naturally” produces hate.
I thought of this on reading Kevin’s post reporting the furor of anti-Catholic bigotry in the UK Telegraph comment section, following a news article reporting that the Vatican had said there was little doubt Shakespeare was Catholic. That the Vatican said no such thing is irrelevant. (UK journalists are not famous for their accuracy in reporting.) Why the furor over a minor article in Rome’s daily newspaper? I mean—who cares? But the comments are so illogical they border on insanity. The kind of stuff that spews out of raging hatred. Three centuries of English persecution of Catholics appears to be insufficient. Why? Because, “One always hates most those one has wronged.” And the greater the wrong, the greater the hate. That’s why.
Is it lawful to make a comment on one’s own post?
Dunno, but–
Answer to an email from someone who’s “too shy” to make a comment:
Yes, I do mean those whom one has wronged, and not those who have wronged one. (No, I didn’t make a grammatical error twixt active and passive voices.)
Those who have wronged you can be forgiven; how do you forgive those who have been wronged by you? All you can do is hate them for it….