Hate Man

Career

Hawthorne was from Stamford, Connecticut and graduated from Stamford High School in 1954 and from the University of Connecticut in 1958 with a Bachelor of Arts in English. While at UCONN he was Managing Editor of The Daily Campus, the University newspaper. Hawthorne was also a member of ROTC and received his commission in the United States Air Force upon graduation, subsequently serving at a Strategic Air Command base in Morocco. He also served as a Peace Corps volunteer. He started at The New York Times as a copy boy and worked as a reporter in the Metro section from 1961 to 1970 before he quit his job, divorced his wife, and "started being downward mobile".

Philosophy

Hawthorne created a philosophy he called oppositionality, which is centered on treating people kindly even though one is in a bad mood. He created his own following. The group has a practice, initiated by Hawthorne, of pushing one another for what they want. Hawthorne indicated that this is about feeling out the other person's energy and communicating something to the other person about "where they are coming from". The idea is to avoid negative conflict by bringing such differences out in the open, rather than creating situations where people rob or con one another for what they want. He used to initiate a nightly "hate camp" on Sproul Plaza, where local people released their animosity. "Hate camp" was known as the camp that formed around him. Camping there made you a "hate camper", with a "true hate camper" being someone who believed in the camp and took an active role in helping the community it created.

Personal life

Hawthorne was married, but later divorced. He was homeless. He died on April 2, 2017, at the age of 80.