According to the definition, tolerance means the acknowledgement, the admittance and acceptance of other persons’ or groups’ way of life. This supposes the deliberate choice of not interdicting, impeding or interfering in a person’s or a group’s behavior, even if we do not agree with that kind of behavior and we have enough power to interdict or impede it.
At the level of individuals tolerance requests the acceptance of individual differences, no matter how different our values may be. At the level of institutions and our relations with them tolerance supposes that we listen to the ones who have different opinions and we analize their arguments fairly. We should also sustain our own opinions with strong arguments and accept the fact that sometimes our opinions can be wrong and that the others’ opinions can be valuable. In addition, we should not consider that the ones who have different opinions are our enemies. At the level of society, of the whole community around the world, multiculturalism represents an esential condition of the manifestation of tolerance.
In a word, the caracteristic traits of tolerance are: the respect towards diversity, the respect towards the freedom of choosing, solidarity, social dialogue and responsability.
The opposite attitude of tolerance is intolerance, its manifestations being either in relation to race, religious beliefs, political options, or opposite sex. The negative character of intolerance can express itself through the violation of the person’s liberty and dignity, the deprivation of liberty, marginalization, persecution or even physical retrenchment. Intolerance is synonymous with discrimination.
Here are some steps that we can take in the fight against intolerance. First of all we should find out what the other person’s story is, listen without emiting opinions and double check if the things related are accurate. A second step is represented by the identification of the similarities and differences between our system of beliefs and the other person’s system of beliefs. Another important thing that we should do is to evaluate the differences and establish, with solid arguments, pro and con if the system of beliefs belonging to one or the other person are open to revision. All these being said there should always be found a way towards tolerance, but for this thing to happen we need to be open and accept the others as being different individuals.
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About Me
- Andrei Vlad
- Stafford, Virginia
- I am a simple man who walks on the road of opportunity because I want to do something with my life.
2 comments:
I completely agree with you, until I heard myself say something shocking to my husband the other night. I told him I was "intolerant of intolerance," of course I was speaking out about how some people become almost obsessively focused on the goings on of others, going completely against tolerance itself.
And yet I wonder if this is possible? The problem is that, as you state in the last line, we have to be "open and accept the others as being different individuals." But we don't. Humans are flawed, and even I don't want to accept people who won't accept me. This is such a huge issue, especially in America, when people say, "love it or leave it" and "keep the war over there so it doesn't come here," forgetting that there are people "over there," too, and that actions can be construed as country-building on one end can be seen as murderous on the other.
I commend you for being bold and in my opinion, contraversial. There are many topics that people will talk about in small groups, but when put in a large forum, find it difficult to truly express themselves. I think this is one of those topics that is not just black and white, but has a lot of gray area that some people just dont understand.
Being tolerant is one thing, being completely submissive is another. I agree that people have the right to their own beliefs,actions and desires, but at what cost to those around them?
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