ACCEPTING TOLERANCE

“Human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue; It makes it a requirement for survival.”

These thought-provoking words were contained in an enlightened essay entitled “The Dangers of Tolerance” in 1974, by Dr. Rene J. Dubos, Ph.D. He was an internationally respected French-born, American microbiologist who devoted his later life to the study of, and writing on the environment and human behavior. He was the author of at least 20 books on various subjects, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1969. In his paper he raised the issue of the necessity of developing tolerance toward other people whose thoughts and actions were not acceptable to him. He felt that despite the obvious paradoxical nature of tolerance, it was an essential factor in avoiding unnecessary conflict among individuals and communities, and even more, in their survival.

Tolerance begins essentially with the acceptance of diversity and the application of the principle of live and let live. It is the ability to adopt a fair and objective attitude toward other people whose opinions, thoughts and actions differ from one’s own. In some ways it can be seen as a variation of the Golden Rule, insofar as by accepting others with respect, we expect to be treated similarly. It does not necessarily mean either agreeing with the person, or being indifferent or aloof to them, but rather, of showing respect for the person’s humanity and for his right as a person to differ.

 It is a virtue well worth cultivating, since its presence is critically needed to securing harmony and reducing tension between different individuals and groups. There are countless examples where tolerance alone, when successfully implemented, has gone a long way to helping people and communities cope with what appeared to be intractable conflicts and brought peace and understanding to many situations that might easily have gone wrong. When it is used successfully in matters of conflict, it ensures that people are able to have different views without the necessity of confrontation or correction and still live with respect and harmony with one another.

        But the exercise of tolerance can be quite paradoxical and in fact, if taken beyond a reasonable level, can become destructive. As a result, the unlimited exercise of tolerance by some, may in fact lead to the actual disappearance of tolerance for everyone. Any society that extends unlimited tolerance to everything, without protecting its own extent of tolerance, is at risk of losing its principles to the onslaught of unlimited intolerance. Evidence of this trend is visible in most of the enlightened, ‘tolerant’ societies where the efforts to tolerate minority groups are leading to major conflicts in acceptance among the majority Examples abound; such as the stopping of prayer in school to appease the non-religious, using freedom of speech to actually suppress free speech and freedom of worship to suppress worship.

This crisis has in recent times, taken on enormous proportions as a result of the mass exodus into Europe of Arab refugees escaping the ravages of wars raging all over the Middle East. The Europeans are suddenly faced with dealing with millions of people with totally different religious and social customs. This has resulted in major conflicts in tolerance and increasing levels of mass intolerance, leading the current United States President to issue a blanket ban on everyone coming in from certain specified countries.  Unfortunately, in such situations unless attempts are made by the society to clearly determine and establish its level of tolerance, there is a risk that the society can be destroyed, together with those who believe in it.

Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, the very successful Roman Catholic radio and TV personality, made the following observations in respect of differentiating tolerance between people and principles when he noted in one of his broadcasts:

“Tolerance applies only to person, but never to principles.

Intolerance applies only to principles, but never to persons.”

He warned that although a society is justified in establishing standards of tolerance on Principles within its borders, it must never extend its intolerance of the individual.

      The need for developing meaningful tolerance in our societies is even more acute now than ever before. With the world becoming more accessible and more exposed, it is imperative that we urgently embark in a program of educating people and familiarizing them on the habits and customs of others and improve the understanding among them. Clearly, tolerance and acceptance will only go so far, and it is only when there is understanding of the needs of others can we really achieve meaningful progress. This is what I believe Helen Keller, the remarkable deaf/blind American author, lecturer and political activist alluded to in the following quotation from her excellent book entitled “Optimism”:

     

“Long ago men fought and died for their faith; but it took ages to teach them the other kind of courage,—the courage to recognize the faiths of their brethren and their rights of conscience.”

      It is clear that the world, with its continued endless conflicts of trust and suspicion, must undergo a change of heart; where lack of trust is replaced with respect, and suspicion with understanding. It is only in this setting can we truly expect tolerance to take hold in this diverse and complex world. In this respect, Leela Ramdeen, a fellow Trinidadian, Attorney-at-Law and Chair of the Catholic Commission for Social Justice in Trinidad, writing in the local media rightly observed:

“We need to reap love, not hatred out of diversity.

To do so we need to relearn the value of tolerance.”

Indeed, this world, with all its remarkable advances in science and medicine that has served to make life better and longer, has yet to learn how to develop the virtue of true tolerance from its diversity.

-The real question is: Will it ever find the time to do so?

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