Our natural instinct to hate...

Chad, Phil, and I had a discussion today over lunch about a person's natural hatred towards "the other guy". We decided this takes two forms:

1. No matter what, we will hate our girlfriend's ex-boyfriend. It can't be helped. It has nothing to do with the type of guy he was. All that matters now, is that he is "The Ex," and that is basically equivalent to "The Devil himself."
2. Even worse than our girlfriend's ex-boyfriend is the next guy our ex-girlfriend dates. It is a known fact that despite never really meeting him, he has every dispicable quality known to man, if you can even call the scum a man.

Now what I find interesting about this, is that there is the possibility that in another life, either of the two guy types could have been your friend, potentially. But this means nothing in the current state of things. Another interesting thing is that most of the time, we refuse to use the other guy's real name. Instead we will use some derogatory term, or in the very least, just call him "The Ex" or "The New Boyfriend" (usually when you are trying not to offend the girl). Of course I believe this boils down to being a defense mechanism for our self esteem, but I still think it is interesting and slightly humourous.

Anyways, just thought I'd share these thoughts. I'm assuming women do the same thing. Let me know your thoughts on this.

Until next time.
- Jeff