Fri 30 Jun 2006
Tolerance
Posted by Fiacharrey under Pagan Community, Philosophy
I had been composing a nice long article about tolerance and modern paganism. Then I came across this article published on Witches’ Voice and written by Karl Lembke almost six years ago. I can now reduce my article to a single word: “ditto.”
It’s kind of frustrating, really.
He even mentions a tag line of his that I had said myself before and thought I had an original thought: “It is very easy to be tolerant of things that don’t matter.” Maybe I heard it from the same wise source neither of us can remember. Maybe I read his article years ago and don’t remember. Who knows. The point is that I think his observations on the highly intollerant version of “tolerance” the pagan community has is problematic.
A few tidbits of what Mr. Lembke has to say that I wish I had said first:
Many people seem to believe tolerance is the same as approval, and that if anyone expresses any disapproval of someone’s choices, then that person is being intolerant. This is not the case.
Implicit in the definition of tolerance is, that which is tolerated is tolerated not because it’s a good thing, but in spite of the fact that it’s a bad thing. Any time tolerance comes into play, it implies a belief that something – that which is being shown tolerance – is bad. Things that are good (or at least widely believed to be good) need no grant of tolerance.
The notion of tolerance also carries with it the idea that there is an ideal thing or situation which is used as a standard for comparison. A machine part may never match a specification perfectly, but as long as the match is close enough—as long as it’s within tolerances—the part is accepted.
Now if I can only find lots of other articles saying everything I want to say, I may never have to really write again.
July 1st, 2006 at 7:15 am
In my mind, tolerance equals acceptance, but has no relationship to approval. I had a long discussion at another site about the notion that tolerance should be “replaced” by patience, but I never understood that concept. Tolerance probably comes after a disagreement. Ideally, it follows a free exchange of viewpoints until the participants reach an area of mutual disagreement. At that point, tolerance of ideas becomes necessary for peaceful co-existence. The other type of tolerance is acceptance of human physical differences, which should be a no-brainer. However, in both instances, tolerance is the same as acceptance in my mind.
July 15th, 2006 at 4:01 pm
It’s been interesting to watch radio talk-show host Dennis Prager practicing his dictum of “I value clarity over agreement”. Yesterday, for example, he was taking a call from a fellow arguing over the merits of the current war between Israel and Hamas (and now, Hezbollah, too).
He asked his caller, “do you believe Israel has a right to exist?” The response: “It doesn’t matter to me if Israel is destroyed.”
End of issue. In the caller’s mind, Israel has no particular right to exist. This implies no particular right to self-defense. He and Dennis will never agree on the merits of the current battle, because they don’t agree on basic premises.
Once you have clarity over the central issue, you can decide whether it’s worth pursuing a debate, or whether you can agree to disagree (tolerate that point of difference).