Scattered Aurora

What is hate? or rather who is hate? Is it just an emotion that we mortals feel or is it an entity in itself. Is hate the being who broke us down, who disillusioned and disappointed us to the extent of shattering us into a thousand little pieces? Or is hate the one who took away all our hope, and left us in the proverbial tunnel where the light at the end is a train. Or yet again is hate the one who told us the truth; who shook us up and thrust the bitter truth into our face; who slapped our faces with realizations that we are worthless and not fit to enjoy this world or the next even. Who is hate? Is it just a simple emotion that we feel with an intensity towards something we dislike or is it something more. Or is it just an unwillingness to do something, an excuse to wriggle out of a chore. Or is it a repulsive mask behind which we hide our true feelings, cliched as it sounds?
I looked up the meaning of Hate and the first thing my eyes centred on was the word passionately. It seemed strange to me to see this word here in connection with such a negative word for I've always viewed passion in a very positive and strong light. I don't know why but somehow i revere this word: passion. To me it denotes something that is undescribeable, a feeling so strong so intense so powerful that it is unmatchable. Even till today I've yet to really use this word in its true glory, where this word would unleash its fervor and breakout in a paraoxysm of rapture in the mind of the reader.
But when i think about it can you really feel that passion for someone and say its hatred? Hate is never completely hate until you stop feeling even a teeny-weeny bit of any other positive emotion for that being. Hate, I believe, is too strong a word to just throw away in any context. In the normal usage of this word, it is initiated typically by anger, or disappointment, or the need to hide behind a mask.
We hear so many true stories of years of hatred dissolved in a moment of helplessness. But was it really hatred? or was it just some sort of a way to keep your distance, to erect barriers between yourself and the ''hated''. Are we humans actually capable of hating each other? Is it just another of our socially-bred etiquettes of survival? Is it all a farce?
I'm still searching for my answers...