My Life After Hate Quotes

“I’ll never truly understand what it’s like to be anyone but a white man in the United States. For all of my self-imposed distance from the status quo, I’ll never be able to get my head around being the product of generations of hardship. The most brutal chattel slavery in human history. I’ll never comprehend being penned up in an impoverished reservation on land that was once sovereign domain. I’ll never know how it feels to be denied because of the color of your skin or because of where you came from. To have to watch your children suffer the same fate.               But I still try to understand—by studying the history that the victors didn’t write, and interacting with my fellow human beings. Finding out what their favorite color is. Asking what they daydreamed about as a child. Sharing laughs. Discovering the person.               I”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“I have the power to do something different. Feel something safer. Think something better. Be genuinely nicer. Live my day brighter. Because hope is in my heart. The knowledge is in my mind. And compassion for my human family is in my soul.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“We armed ourselves with pistols, shotguns, and assault rifles.

We knew that the government had us impossibly outgunned but nevertheless felt obliged to not only prepare ourselves for the upcoming collapse of society as we had known it, but also to do whatever it took to speed the day when that collapse occurred.

The government was illegitimate; a puppet regime manipulated by a shadowy and sinister force that was hellbent on our destruction. The supposed democracy that seated traitorous politicians had been tainted by mass media that poisoned the minds and souls of our people to not only blind them against what was happening, but also to con them into complicity in their own downfall.

Our guns served many purposes. In addition to the simple purpose they were designed for-to kill people-our firearms endowed with us a sense of destiny befitting an epic struggle against fearsome odds.

The deadly seriousness of the situation was underlined, italicized, and emboldened by the smell of gun oil and the clack of magazines sliding into position as we recruited new soldiers into our movement. According to the founding Fathers, it was not only our right, but our duty to bear arms against the tyrants who had usurped our beloved nation.

I spent 7 years immersed in that world. A reality where I was constantly looking over my shoulder to reveal the handiwork of the enemy. Every aspect of our culture faced a relentless assault. Everything that was good about America-Life, Liberty, And The Pursuit of Happiness-had been denigrated and disparaged by those that sought to impose Marxist equality. I hated them for that. I hated them with the passion of a patriot. That hate was fueled by what I truly believed was a love for my race.

Oops! Did I say "race?" I meant a love for my country, Or was it a love of Christ? Or Allah? It could have been any of a number of allegiances-any number of ways to identify myself-that I built walls around and bristled at those outside, and it was all in the name of love.

Roads to a lot of really bad places are paved with that kind of bizarro love. A vampiric, soul-depleting love-substitute that beckons to those who never know the real thing.

I was very lucky to realize the true love of a little girl-my daughter-otherwise I'd likely be dead or in prison like so many of my former comrades. Simply by playing with other children, she taught me that the walls and guns and hate that had seemed to give me purpose were in fact unnecessary constructs that threatened to separate us. The children she shared toys, laughs, and smiles with also shared the same need for love and compassion that we all do-regardless of the color of our skin, our family's choice of spirituality, or the part of the world we come from.

I made a decision to cast aside the fear that masqueraded as love, and to live my life in wonderful affection for diversity instead of scorn for it.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“There is a certain personality type that demands living a life where boundaries aren't set by society but by the individuals. It's an outlook where making your own rules seems as natural as breath. There's nothing inherently evil about that type of personality; it's the same mindset that has spawned scientific discoveries and schools of thought that have made the Earth a much nicer place to live. Great heroes and heroines throughout human history have all shared a dissatisfaction with the status quo and the will to do something about it. Anti-fascists during the Spanish Civil War and WWII, as well as activists of the Civil Rights and anti-war movements were all inspirational examples of rebels who refused oppression and organized against it.

But when that kind of person makes certain mistakes in certain circumstances, things as atrocious as the aforementioned things were wonderful can be set as in motion. Just as Buddha, Jesus of Nazareth, the Prophet Muhammad, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were all examples of people who made their own rules and who had a positive impact on society, there is unfortunately a perhaps even longer list of people who had horrific impacts on the world-stemming from that same core need to dictate reality and motivate others.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“...is there ever an excuse to become someone who would attack another human being because of the color of their skin? I don't believe there is. Every one of us has the ability to react to the world around them with compassion instead of aggression. That decision invariably lies with the individual and there's no amount of bad treatment that can justify perpetuating aggression.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“Every minute you spend hating someone is a hole in your life.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“Aspiration is the engine of human life. Aspiration in the biological sense of breathing and cellular activity that connote fundamental life, but also, and as importantly, aspiration in the sense of hope. Hope for peace. Hope for compassion. Hope for the Earth. A solid belief in the basic goodness of humanity.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“All of those years I looked upon black people in the ghetto with disgust and blamed them for turning once-nice neighborhoods into shit, I had of course never stopped to think what it would be like to be born into those conditions. I had lived in those conditions myself, but I did so by choice, spurning the privilege of being born white and middle-class to take on a twisted mission. Listening to Ruth I was struck by an empathy not only for her and her children but for all people living in impoverished drug-riddled violent places. What right did I ever have to pass judgment on people who endure waking nightmares every day? I had no right whatsoever, but back in the day that didn't matter because I didn't look upon Ruth, Mary, Epossi, or anyone else who wasn't "white" as people. I saw them as threats that must be eliminated. Now, thanks to Charlie Dee's English 201, I had learned that they were people indeed, ones that were more genuine and caring than the superfluous suburb-dwellers that I had grown up with. They were people who not only prevailed against imposing odds on a daily basis just to eat and keep warm, but also people who when presented with my miserable past chose to forgive me.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“The act of facilitating another person's learning was incredible. As I went from workstation to workstation, I felt as much as saw people's beautiful and individual souls as their respective light bulbs snapped on heralding the comprehension of a new bit of knowledge. Those light bulbs were all the same color. The shine of learning and accomplishment was a pure and universal element, one that happened to emanate from every possible skin tone, sexual preference and religious persuasion or lack thereof. From my weekend hedonism to my studies and everywhere in between, I was deliciously stunned to reveal one after another of the tell-tale and absolutely indisputable signs that within all human beings exists a core of common needs and hopes.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“In the absence of love's light, hate can be exciting, seductive. It beckons you and sends torrid, empty power coursing through your veins. At first you think you can dabble. Just for kicks. Just a bit of entertainment to ripple the excruciating monotony of your disdain for the world. You blink, and you're covered in someone's blood. another blink and the doors of your cell are slamming shut. A blink later and the image of your best friend's mannequin looking corpse as cold and wooden and wrong as the open casket it sits in is seared into your brain forever. You rub your eyes in response to the blink and the tears of your family run down your face. The tears of the parents of the people you battered beyond recognition. The tears of survivors who feel their children torn from their arms and their parents murdered all over again at the sight of you.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“Maybe I was looking for something to believe in when the planets aligned to set me down that path. I was drawn to racist ideology because I felt like white people were getting shafted. We were the underdogs. It was us against the world in an epic battle for forever. Such romance! Getting back in that moment, the taint we cast upon reality definitely had that saga feel. Hitler did it with the torch-lit ceremony and iconic swastika. It felt like you were Beowulf, Siegfried, and Conan all rolled into one. Just a big fucking game of Dungeons & Dragons, till death and prison inevitably show up. Then the shit is real. Then comes the real challenge, the true test of will. Do you back down then? Are you a coward? Or just a fool? That's when you gather all the suffering you can endure and produce and you devour it, because it's the only thing that nourishes you anymore. And you let that fire rage on till it's all you can see. You damn well can't see how burnt and disfigured it makes you-how it scorches your life. It's impossible to see how the hurt you emanate feels on the receiving end, because you no empathy for other humans. Even your own crew is barren of empathy for each other. You would die for your brothers and sisters, but you are unable to put yourself in their shoes. You don't really care about or understand their individual hopes and dreams, because like you, they have none outside of the movement. Your feeling for them is one of primal pack-mentality. Survival melded with a perverted sense of honor that won't permit you to suffer insult to them any more than to yourself.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“I know where racists are coming from, and I pity them as much as I pity their victims. Hate takes a terrible toll on life. Fear is indeed the mind-killer. We all have the option of living a life of love and compassion, and I'm here to say that the world really is as beautiful a place as you care to envision.

You will find what you're looking for, so think deeply about what it is you seek.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“Being a guy with an imposing presence and a lot of tattoos, I face more prejudice than most white people. I realize that I'm a bit of an eyesore. But beyond the surprised first glances, my appearance tends to evoke vibes of fear, disgust, disdain. People have corralled their young children at the sight of me, as if I'm likely to eat them. The other day an old man stood glaring at me and shaking his head as if I were a mangy stray dog who had just shit on the floor of the grocery store. Even though all of my skinhead ink has been well covered, there are those who still pre-judge me as being a racist. Within a span of seconds, many people make up their minds that the world would be a better place if I weren't in it.

But I volunteered for my tattoos.

You don't volunteer for a skin color.

I'll never truly understand what it's like to be anyone but a white man in the United States. For all of my self-imposed distance from the status quo, I'll never be able to get my head around being the product of generations of hardship. The most brutal chattel slavery in human history. I'll never comprehend being penned up in an impoverished reservation on land that was once sovereign domain. I'll never know how it feels to be denied because of the color of your skin or because of where you came from. To have to watch your children suffer the same fate.

But I still try to understand-by studying the history that the victors didn't write, and interacting with my fellow human beings. Finding out what their favorite color is. Asking what they daydreamed about as a child. Sharing laughs. Discovering the person.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“Human beings will never be free from pain, nor should we ever be. Pain is an invaluable teacher as well as a builder of character and vehicle of spiritual growth. But not all pain is necessary, or necessarily constructive. We can acknowledge the painful nature of life and embrace the opportunity it presents. The "good pain" can be sorted from the bad. The pain of others can be soothed. Or we can remain in constant and futile flight from pain with no regard for who gets trampled along the way.

It would be a constructive process if I could learn from the pain itself. By tweaking the focus of the lens, I can learn how to recognize the occasions when pain is necessary and how to make better choices in the future. So often I find myself getting upset about things that aren't important. The situation worsens as ire saps available energy for things that are vital. Thought, love, and empathy gird against pain, making it much easier to endure and examine.

That's one of many crucial lessons that are finally starting to take root for me. When we are hurt by whatever, we should be patient and thoughtful and learn from the experience instead of simply making other people hurt. So easy to say, yet difficult to deliver-at least in the beginning. Once the nourishment of constructively coping with pain is realized, the process becomes consistently easier and more rewarding.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“The typical self-centered goals of a young Midwestern white man were absent. I had no interest in McMansions, Rolexes, or Range Rovers. I just liked to get fucked up and fuck things and other people up.               Maybe I was looking for something to believe in when the planets aligned to set me down that path. I was drawn to racist ideology because I felt like white people were getting shafted. We were the underdogs. It was us against the world in an epic battle for forever. Such romance! Yes, I have a tendency to make it sound that way, which I guess is really just getting back in that moment, because the taint we cast upon reality definitely had that saga feel. And that was by design. Hitler did it with the torch-lit ceremony and iconic swastika. It felt like you were Beowulf, Siegfried, and Conan all rolled into one. Just a big fucking game of Dungeons & Dragons, till death and prison inevitably show up. Then the shit is real. Then comes the real challenge, the true test of will.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate

“When we are hurt by whatever, we should be patient and thoughtful and learn from the experience instead of simply making other people hurt.”
― Arno Michaelis, My Life After Hate