tanhaZero Tolerance for Tolerance!
October 19th 2006 11:02
Tolerance, as I understand it, means putting up with something you don’t really appreciate, having patience with it, being permissive.
Mostly I remember the word used in the sense of people not tolerating something which was in poor taste. It was never set up as a virtue. Many people would not tolerate bad language, or children being rude, or excuses for avoidable weakness (such as always being late).
Why has tolerance become such a virtue today? We tolerate ethnic differences, different points of view, different lifestyles. If we don’t allow everyone to do whatever they do we are called intolerant, which seems to be the latest finger-pointing swearword.
Some things are worth tolerating. More than that they are worth embracing, which is a much more positively flavoured action verb. If it’s tolerable then it’s worth embracing. If it’s not worth embracing, then is it something we should tolerate? This is where I begin to have my doubts.
Tolerating something means that it puts my teeth on edge but I put up with it. Now, is this wisdom? I have a feeling this is not necessarily wisdom at all. I have a feeling there is something insidious about it, something that is making me accept poorer standards, greater weakness, something that is bringing me down, depreciating my lifestyle.
I have put up with many things in my life – inadvisedly. I have changed my mind on many of them. I expect certain standards of behaviour in my house – not “men behaving badly” or women for that matter. What is funny about that? I can have lots of fun without lowering standards to accommodate stupidity. I put up with abuse in relationships. Not any more! Oh, I want to teach young people what not to tolerate, how not to be in abusive relationships, how to recognise danger signals and call it quits. We need to do this at a national level too. Permissiveness was a 70s phenomenon. That doesn’t make it wisdom for the current times. Personal values and standards are in and tolerance is out!
Mostly I remember the word used in the sense of people not tolerating something which was in poor taste. It was never set up as a virtue. Many people would not tolerate bad language, or children being rude, or excuses for avoidable weakness (such as always being late).
Why has tolerance become such a virtue today? We tolerate ethnic differences, different points of view, different lifestyles. If we don’t allow everyone to do whatever they do we are called intolerant, which seems to be the latest finger-pointing swearword.
Some things are worth tolerating. More than that they are worth embracing, which is a much more positively flavoured action verb. If it’s tolerable then it’s worth embracing. If it’s not worth embracing, then is it something we should tolerate? This is where I begin to have my doubts.
Tolerating something means that it puts my teeth on edge but I put up with it. Now, is this wisdom? I have a feeling this is not necessarily wisdom at all. I have a feeling there is something insidious about it, something that is making me accept poorer standards, greater weakness, something that is bringing me down, depreciating my lifestyle.
I have put up with many things in my life – inadvisedly. I have changed my mind on many of them. I expect certain standards of behaviour in my house – not “men behaving badly” or women for that matter. What is funny about that? I can have lots of fun without lowering standards to accommodate stupidity. I put up with abuse in relationships. Not any more! Oh, I want to teach young people what not to tolerate, how not to be in abusive relationships, how to recognise danger signals and call it quits. We need to do this at a national level too. Permissiveness was a 70s phenomenon. That doesn’t make it wisdom for the current times. Personal values and standards are in and tolerance is out!
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Comment by Joy
Comment by Helen's House
I think we need to look very carefully at what we tolerate culturally also as many cultures have built-in violence to dissenters. There are cultural practices that are quite intolerable and I think, as a nation, we should state clearly what these are and stipulate laws that make such practices unrepeatable. For example it has become illegal to physically punish a child, because a sector of the population were doing this to excess. There are a number other practices that also require qttention.
People are the important thing. The Australian dictum of a "fair go" derives clearly from the Christian ethic of love for all individuals - much of the Australian culture derives directly from the strongly held Christian teachings in early days. This ethic has provided us with a very desirable society, and we should be in no hurry to dispense with that, because our lifestyle will deteriorate accordingly. Faith is again being seen as needed. A vision very much bigger than one's own personal development is necessary for a growing nation. Let us not throw the baby out with the bathwater in efforts to tolerate the unacceptable..