Humans evolved from hunter/gatherers. Because of our ancestry, we have what's called a "fight or flight" complex, which when presented with danger, heightens our senses, pumps adrenaline through our bodies, and prepares us to do what's necessary to ensure our survival, either to fight our opponent, or to flee from the danger before us. Because of this, when we see what we perceive to be a wrong-doing toward us, our instinct is to fight our aggressor, and win back what we believe to be rightfully ours.

Sometimes it really confuses me as to why humans fight over the most retarded things.

I mean yesterday, I saw this ghetto (no other term can describe these two as perfectly as this one) man and woman just screaming at each other for no apparent reason. I mean seriously, they couldn't even remember why they were arguing! It was just pointless yelling on the streets. =/

TO answer your question, I don't know why.

People aren't in tune to their emotions anymore because being blatantly angry at anything and everything is completely acceptable these days. There's people whining and bawking about every single thing imaginable, whether it's appropriate to be upset that much (or even at all) about it or not. It's just changing times, I suppose. It doesn't help that an increasing amount of people have very unhealthy relationships with parents/significant others, etc. and it breeds contempt.

But as much as the media likes to hype up and exaggerate how everything is all anger and hate nowadays, if you take the time to look around and notice everything as it actually is - although it may not be completely balanced, there's a lot of love and good in the world as well. The negative is just a lot more noticeable now because people are obnoxious about being angry and hateful, instead of keeping it to themselves and dealing with it.

Simple. Because that is what we saw others do all our lives. People learn from other people

It's also a factor of how your parents raise you. Just saying... I won't get into that subject.

First thing I want to mention is that I wholeheartedly believe is has to do with our sin. I am not going to get into detail unless others do want to hear it. Aside from that, there is a wide variety of reasons people will go on hating something or someone. Sometimes it may actually be a legitimate like having been lied to. Other times it came be for no reason at all, or just because they can.

Hatred can begin when seeing someone do something that does not fit the status quo, and vice versa. Hating someone because of their religion, skin, nationality, etc., is for someone to try to feel like they are in the right and are superior. No irony intended, but I really do hate to be spitting out what we already know. I will at least finish by saying that I agree to an extent with what tRIUNE and KG said.

Lazlo Falconi : that sounds like what animals our whenever they fight over territories haha

death_nation : That's pretty much what I'm getting at. These tenancies toward violence, selfishness and anger are the most animalistic traits that humanity still has. We haven't quite over come the fact that, as enlightened as we believe ourselves to be, we're still just scared little animals destroying this planet and each other. It's sort of like Agent Smith said at the end of the Matrix, "Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet."

Okay so maybe we're not that bad, but you can clearly see what he's getting at. For all of our technology and advanced morality and what not, we're still just a bunch of animals who can't take care of ourselves.

Lazlo Falconi : see this is why i have this name but its fit you more then it does me you dealt with many deaths on both sides not me

maybe some people find it easier to be angry than to be happy
I do not know why

also, through our lives, we have to "prove" ourselves, whatever it is - work, school, relationships.
people are more and more stressed because we demand more and more from others and by doing so, we make the rules for ourselves.

it's like that story about a bird on the roof who can't fly away because when he stands up, his tailfeathers get stuck on the roof and when he bows, his peak gets stuck.

I'd say the fight or flight response is a good explanation, but I think there's more to it than that. It takes a lot of strength to be happy despite hateful and stressful situations. It's simple to just be angry all the time, and most people prefer to take the easy way out. It's just human nature to choose the path of least resistance. There is also one big word that fuels hate: ignorance. No one person can fully understand another person. The inability to understand something brings with it fear. Fear leads to anger, which leads to hate. So in a sense, ignorance and fear are the root of all hate. That's the best answer I can give you.

XxChaosxX : That's actually a very insightful answer that goes way above and beyond what I had posted earlier, and makes me want to rescind my previous comment. Having read this, I do have to agree with Chaos that most of the anger we see in society stems from ignorance.

Also, I liked how you slipped the Yoda quote in there. Very classy.

I actually do not believe anger is a basic animal instinct that we haven't overcome. I don't really think it is a primal animal instinct to begin with. I have had to study animal behavior a lot for my biology teaching field, and anger as we define it is something that came from our intelligence. Animals do not experience anger in the sense that we define anger. Their behaviors that seem like it is out of anger is more out of fear, threat, territorial defense, etc. Basically, the things that are a part of survival. These 'lower animals' do not do things out of revenge, pride, or a sense of social entitlement. I believe that our anger stems from the fact that we have grown to have a sense of social entitlement and get upset when someone makes them feel different. Part of it is the time we live in. My grandparents talk a lot about how back then, it just wasn't proper to lash out at other people in such disrespect. Back then, acting that way looked worse on you than it did the person who made you angry. Now, we live in a time where everyone is told that you have to stick up for yourself and take crap from nobody. Though it is important for self esteem issues to stick up for yourself, people have quickly taken that to the extreme. Not, the slightest things are apparently appropriate grounds for exploding. Like tRIUNE mentioned, it is how you are brought up. Not some primal instinct. Sense of entitlement is anything but primal.

Lazlo Falconi :   I quoted Yoda? Where? I seriously didn't know I did that. I feel like a boss now. XD

I don't know why. I'd hazard a guess that it's because humans are complicated, as well as other factors, such as emulating what example is set for us and listening to what is taught to us. I think Rcarter explained it quite well, as well as Chaos.

To add to this thought, I don't think people should lose hope in our species. I strongly believe
that despite what humans are capable of, we have redeeming qualities.
And if we can't have
hope and love for our own kind, then what do we really have?

Humans are tribal creatures. That is why we often find happiness in having company, and why strong emotional ties exist between parents and children, family members, and familiar friends. When you are flourishing, then others around you will too, and the entire community benefits. Because of this community existence we can experience empathy and love - We can understand what it means for another individual to be in pain, and thus we feel a responsibility to help others. We can show devotion, trust and affection towards those we love, and receive love back. In order to
ensure that there is hope for the community (at any scale) we have to
practice love and compassion for one another.

rcarter2 : Ahh, though you're contradicting me, you're actually saying what I wanted to say in a much more eloquent way than I could ever put it! Although I said it is a holdover from our more animalistic instincts, perhaps I didn't mean that exactly, because while I do believe it comes from the fight-or-flight approach, I completely agree with you that it is due to our intelligence that we feel these emotions. It's the mix of the simple primal "in-the-now" responses to stimuli and our unique ability to conceptualize and understand the order of events and cause and effect.

Which is basically a long way to say, you're right, I'm wrong. XD

XxChaosxX : Oh my, I thought it was quite intentional when you said, "Fear leads to anger, which leads to hate," which is pretty close to Yoda's line in the Phantom Menace, "Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."

Not every person bullies, fights, kills, hates, and so on. People are shaped primarily by their environment and their nature. If a child grows up with a loving and open family with a good nature, then I can't imagine a person becoming a bully, criminal, or what have you. This is not to say that just because you were born in the hood or something that you'll turn out into a less than admirable person. The other half of the equation involves the individual's essence. I believe that at their core, an overwhelming majority of people are good and that they've been a victim of their environment. It's never too late to change. For some people, it's just a matter of being patient with them and giving them some love. 

However, regarding the hate, that's a product of ignorance. When something or someone or a group of people are misunderstood, it is very easy to make assumptions and arrive at a wrong conclusion. When you really think about it, we're not so different. Every culture has their own mores and folkways, their own language, food, customs, and we typically strive for the same things. 

For the short answer, I say the root of hate and anger is ignorance and/or the environment that some of us are born into.

Well to quote directly from The New World Translation of the Holy scriptures from 2 Timothy 3:1-5 it says, "3 But know this, that in the last days critical times hard to deal with will be here. 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, self-assuming, haughty, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, un thankful, disloyal, 3 having no natural affection, not open to any agreement, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, without love of goodness, 4 betrayers, headstrong, puffed up [with pride], lovers of pleasures rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godly devotion but proving false to its power; and from these turn away."
   So the bible foretold that this would happen. After everything happens though there is something to look fore ward to. In Revelation 21:4 it says, " 4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away.”

Since we are in 'the last days the thing in Revelation will happen very soon. That is why so much hate and anger. Because it is the last days.

Quite honestly, I have no clue why anger is a part of humanity; but why it is present in such excess today I more-or-less attribute to lifestyle and ignorance. Attributing the negative emotion of anger to lifestyle is not hard to see in the slightest, considering the human tendency to emulate those around us from birth. We first learn to respond to negatives with anger from our guardians, but the use of anger stems from how often it occurs and why it occurs within specific households. Specifically, the norms regarding anger at youth have an effect how often we use it as adults. I believe what NotJon stated to be true, but I add that ignorance can stem from those wanting to take control of others. In other words, ignorance allows some to take control of other people for their own benefit. Control is often taken by spewing lies about a third party to which the controlled now have newfound negative emotions toward. A literary reference would be John Felton's ignorance of fact leading him to kill the Duke of Buckingham in the Three Musketeers. This is my take on this topic.