There is a scene in one of the later chapters of The Lord of the Rings where Frodo and Sam witness and encounter between two orcs that ends in one killing the other. Sam remarks that if there was more of that going on, life wold be easier for everyone else. But Frodo warns that, for all the orcs hate each other, they hate everyone else more.

Reflecting on this led me to think that perhaps the haters (racist, sexist, homophobic) are the way they are because, really, deep down, they hate themselves and each other. So rather than destroy themselves, or explore the reasons why they feel this way, they transfer their hate to the ‘other’.

So whatever strategies we can come up with, they will only be effective if we can make these people actually look into themselves. Why aren’t they comfortable in their own skins? What went wrong, where did they learn to hold themselves so low that they must create a system which reduces others to less than human?