"Fear"

Is it hate that is the opposite of love? Or is it fear?

My money is on fear, because it is from fear that hate finds its breeding ground. Why bother hating something unless on some level you feel threatened by it--either it physically or psychologically frightens you, or it makes you feel guilty about either something you've done or simply because of who/what you are.

Someone once told me that the two biggest human motivators are fear and guilt. But really, guilt is just another manifestation of fear, so it seems that it really all goes back to fear. Every choice we're faced with is either a choice between love and fear. Every second of every day, every thought we think, we're making that choice. The choices may SEEM to be much more complex than that, but I believe that's just an illusion.

Sometimes I feel saturated in fear. I go out into the city and I look around me, and I feel like it is everywhere. And it's not even so much that I'm becoming MORE fearful; I think I'm becoming aware of how fearful I've always been. And that's REALLY scary. :)

But it seemes like that in love, there is some sense of peace. When one rests in love, there is invulnerability. When a deed is done or a word is spoken that originates in love, fear has no place, because love denies all condition and all expectation and all need. Love merely is.

Fear-based love demands that it be given in exchange for something else. But why does this pass for love in our world? Haven't people always said that unconditional love has no equal? So why do I settle for less all the time?

"Of course unconditional love is a nice idea," one might say, "But there's no basis for this in reality. People have needs that have to be met, and besides, unconditional love would leave us all open to all kinds of attacks."

And this is true. If you think about it, all those who have ever preached and practiced unconditional love have been crucified in one form or another. So what's really happening here? Do I constantly reject the idea of unconditional love because I'm AFRAID of it?