I asked my son for a subject to write about and without any hesitation he suggested: Tolerance.
This is a painting of a pope, hanging on to a symbol which for many may represent love, charity, tolerance, faith and hope. Yet for others, it perhaps represent oppression, control, backward thinking, and so on. There are many other symbols perhaps that are equally or better fitting, so if this image in any way is a misrepresentation in your view, disregard the image and just stick with the words.
A definition of tolerance: "The capacity for or the practise of recognising and respecting the beliefs or practises of others", or "willingness to accept feelings, habits, or beliefs that are different from your own", or "interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practises, etc., foreign to ones own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint".
Why do we so often find it hard to be tolerant of others beliefs and practises, behaviours and expressions of emotions? May I suggest a few options: We often experience fear when we don't understand that which seems unfamiliar to us. We often feel uncertain how to conduct ourselves with unfamiliarity in general, and with the feelings of uncertainty we may experience a sense of insecurity.
It can be hard to be tolerant of others who differ from us if we are convinced that we are "Right", and that there is only "one" right way and that is our way.
Why is tolerance important? Tolerance is important for a peaceful co-existence of mankind, for furthering our understanding of the many different interpretations and perceptions us humans have of the world we live in. "Tolerance is giving to every other human being the rights you claim for yourself", Robert Green Ingersoll.
For some of us perhaps being tolerant may seem as a lack of commitment to our own beliefs, but as John F Kennedy pointed out: "Tolerance in no way implies a lack of commitment to ones own beliefs. Rather it condemns the oppression or persecution of others."
Often we make snap judgements of people by the way they dress, their hair styles, their choice of music, the friends they choose, the language they speak, and so on, only to discover when we get to know them better that we have a lot in common and have many similar views and opinions.
The goth kid who turns out to be very educated and polite, the person "born with a silver spoon" who turns out to be very humble and down to earth, the "foreigner" speaking a very broken English turns out to be a highly educated professional, the drunk who once was a stock broker, the drug addict who once was a doctor, and so on.
Perhaps making snap judgements at some subconscious level can be viewed as some form of self protection, (a potential threat to us) but they also prevent us from getting to know and understand "new" people. When I first came to Australia asking for a "latte" instead of just coffee, or salami rather than sausage, Swiss cheese rather than cheddar, going for a walk on the beach rather than going down the pub, was viewed as very peculiar behaviour. Now, even the smallest corner shop sells salami and Swiss cheese.
As our population on this planet expands and people move about more and more, most societies find themselves needing to deal with multiculturalism; i.e. cultural diversity. Some may argue that learning from other cultures we learn to be more tolerant and understanding, others perhaps view it as fragmenting the existing culture. Personally, I am well pleased of the influx of the variety of cuisine from other countries; fish and chips occasionally is nice, but now there is Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Greek, Moroccan, Algerian, African, Cuban, etc. etc.
By rejecting that which seem unfamiliar to us, we also miss out on wonderful new experiences.
(At some point or another, we decide to have a go...otherwise wouldn't we still be crawling and not walking?)
Each society has laws to determine what behaviours are acceptable(tolerable) or not, on an individual level though, we make up our own "laws", which often include our biases. ("Bias means that a person prefers an idea and possibly does not give equal chance to a different idea.")
Our biases are often so interwoven in our consciousness that we don't really see them as such, they seem like "that's the way it is", but I have found that asking oneself the question "why do I see things this way?" often lead me to ask "is this really my own view, and is it fair?"
Tolerance, it seems to me, begins with an open mind and seeking greater understanding.
"How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in your life you will have been all of these". (George Washington Carver)
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