Okay, when I go on my little rants on my blog once a month or so, I like to think that it is because I have something that would further educate anyone who read my blog. or encourage those who already share my views. I have recently come to the conclusion that this is far from the kace, a good excuse and hopefully perk, but not the cause. The true reason is because when I listen to some people talk, on the street or in an interview, on occasion, the speaker will make me want to smash a head thru a brick wall. Needles to say, this is a good alternative.
anyhow, on to the matter at hand. tonight it is tolerance. I have spoken about this before but now I will do so in greater detail. Many people ( at least the ones who get on TV. and the subsequent ripple effect. ) have some funky notions about the word tolerant, and I want to take the word back. first of, I will start with the definition of tolerance from http://dictionary.reference.com.
1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion,nationality, etc., differ from one's own; freedom from bigotry.
2. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own.
3. interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, undogmaticviewpoint.
4. the act or capacity of enduring; endurance: My tolerance of noise is limited.
5. Medicine/Medical, Immunology .
a. the power of enduring or resisting the action of a drug, poison, etc.: a tolerance to antibiotics.
b. the lack of or low levels of immune response to transplanted tissue or other foreign substancethat is normally immunogenic.
My personal favorite is the fourth one.
and now that we are all on the same page, the false hood. The way some people talk, being a tolerant person means to believe or accept what others say, no matter how they differ from their own beliefs. now, if they would spend five seconds and look at the part where this definition says "opinions and practices that differ from one's own", they would get it straight and I would not be typing at one in the morning ( that is probably a lie, some other ignorant quirk would get on my nerves and I would be typing about that instead.).
So, I try to tell someone that Jesus loves them and wants them to go to heaven, and that person starts yelling at me saying that I am an intolerant hump( in so many words), and I say." well what is your opinion on things?" and she has little more to say than that I am an evil intolerant heater.
now this is Oober abridged, and happened awhile ago, but you get the jist.
who is the tolerant one? the one willing to hear an opposing opinion, or the one who is too busy crying intolerance so loud she can't hear a fog horn?
I am sorry, that is leading the witness, but it should be blindingly obvious, I just thought that I would make it even easier. it is obviously the first one. (palm to face.)
Okay, now that we all know what tolerance and intolerance is, what is so bad about intolerance anyways? Have you ever thought about why it is such a bad thing to be intolerant?
Tolerance has its place, but it should not permeate everything. If we started tolerating everything we would live a short and miserable life. Merder, no problem, that is what you want to do, if it makes you happy go for it. Just do not make me do it( even that statement is intolerant.). you do what you want, and I will do what I want.
Yes, this is an exaggerated situation, but it holds true nonetheless, and I hope it makes the point. not everything can be tolerated.
actually, the only ones that really have a problem( other than the ones having to deal with the people with the problem) are the people calling for tolerance themselves. think about it, if I say "you keep your opinion and let me keep mine," I have just said," I do not care what you believe I believe that you should not tell me what you believe. so do not tell me what you believe, even if what you believe says that you should tell me, respect my belief that you should ignore your belief."
In effect, they have broken their own code. The philosophy of " tolerance" is fairly sound, until you tell someone about it. if you go up to someone and say" you should be tolerant of everything" or "I will not tolerate intolerance", you have pretty much shot yourself in the foot. both sentences say that you should tolerate everything but intolerance.
This is Dillon V.M. Richard. God be with you all, and may he tolerate our presence on earth just a little longer.
amen.
