The opposite of love is not hate. Hate is a feeling just as love is. I've always thought of love as a verb not a noun. Love is something you do. Hate is also something you do. It's based in jealousy, resentment, and anger. In a lot of ways, hate cares about what happens to something or someone - even if they want that something or someone to suffer. And sometimes - hate arises from love. I don't think it's Love's opposite though.

Indifference is lack of concern. A lack of care - a lack of anything. There is no passion in indifference. There is no feeling in indifference, there is no real thought for something held indifferent.

I think indifference would hurt far more than hate - because in some ways, it implies a virtual non-existence. At least someone who hates you carries 'something' for you. If someone hates you, you have power over them in a way that you could even drive their hate even deeper into them. You could make them hate you even more.

But indifference - that's a whole other story. A person who's indifferent to you won't even register anything you do on their radar. I imagine it would be hard to consciously be indifferent to someone. There's no such thing as a practiced indifference - that would be an oxymoron. Indifference just happens. Indifference (just as love, or hate, or anger, or fear) in some ways is a choice, yes, but its a choice to put something down - to stop feeling one way or the other about it.

Indifference holds no positions pro or con. It feels no affection or anger. It holds no resentments - and it holds no hope. And unlike hate - indifference truly doesn't care what someone thinks. If someone is indifferent to an individual, an issue, or anything for that matter - those things have absolutely no power in the indifferent person's life.

To me - that's the opposite of love . . . .

Ref: http://3minutewindows.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!5EE2154D23E6D87D!843.entry?wa=wsignin1.0&sa=250290791