Dogmatic Tolerance = Hypocritical
Tolerance. It is a word synonymous with peace, good will, brotherly love, acceptance and forgiveness. It is a virtue that is essential in a world filled with racial and religious discrimination. But at the same time tolerance, or, more specifically, the modern, politically correct definition of tolerance, holds some very dangerous pitfalls which, if our government, and we, as a people are not careful of, could be crippling to the individualism, and the religious diversity of Canada, and the world.
The dictionary definition of tolerance is: “The capacity for, or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others”, but the definition has become much, much deeper than that. Tolerance has become much deeper the recognition. Much deeper than just respecting other beliefs. Tolerance has come to mean the complete acceptance of others practices, tolerance has come to mean belief in other religions. We, in order to be politically correct, are not to be so narrow-minded, so pompous or arrogant as to believe that our way is the only way. That is unacceptable. There is no such thing as one truth. It is no longer an ‘either-or’ decision, it is a ‘both-and’ decision. Slowly but surely our world is morphing into one, where there is no certainty, no actuality, the only ‘true’ truth is that which lies in the eye of the beholder. Beliefs will be intermeshed, and hyphens will be liberally applied to religion, such as ‘Hindu-Christians’ and ‘Islamic-Jews’, even though these religions are fundamentally incompatible. But incompatibility will be wiped away, and anything that is sure, or real will be snuffed out as narrow-mindedness.
The Term Paper on Wartime Propaganda: World War I
Wartime Propaganda: World War I Essay submitted by Unknown The Drift Towards War "Lead this people into war, and they'll forget there was ever such a thing as tolerance. To fight, you must be brutal and ruthless, and the spirit of ruthless brutality will enter into the very fiber of national life, infecting the Congress, the courts, the policeman on the beat, the man in the street." It is one of ...
You see, complete tolerance is impossible. By being so dogmatically tolerant as to state that there is no complete truth, is to, because of the nature of that statement, exclude, or be intolerant towards those whose beliefs state otherwise. Complete tolerance is an oxymoron, and is incompatible with many religious beliefs including Christianities, whose bible clearly states that it is the ‘only true religion’. In that case, total tolerance is not only impossible, it also limits the ability of many to worship fully in their religion. The government is passing through various bills and amendments that are pushed through in the name of tolerance, but, in fact, according to the true definition – if it is still permissible to say such a thing – these bills are decreasing the amount of tolerance that our government has towards groups whose ideas qualify as hate-literature.
That is why we need to act. Tolerance is good, but tolerance under the label that society has given it will become harmful to the public, and to the church. Racism is horrible, yes. Religious discrimination is illegitimate, of course. Words and names such as ‘Apartheid’, ‘the Catholic Crusades’ and ‘Bloody Mary’ will not be forgotten or missed, but if our path continues down the road it is traveling, ‘tolerance’ will be grouped into a section of the English language that includes such words as ‘Communism’ and ‘Dictatorship’.
No political ideology is so perfect as to have the ability to mitigate the human nature of its implementers. Therefore, although communism was an ‘ideal ideology’ in its conception, it fell because of the faults of the leaders. Likewise, tolerance, a beautiful concept, is very good as an ideology, but unless we are incredibly careful with it’s implementation, we are poised to travel down a road that leads to a society which is just as narrow-minded as when we began, because anything opposing the ‘perfect’ view of tolerance will not be tolerated.
The Term Paper on Liberation Ideologies United State
We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed... There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair... Like a boil that can never be cured so long as it is covered up but must be opened with all its ugliness to the natural medicines of air ...
In closing, I will end with two quotes. One from Ravi Zacharias, who said “To say that there is no such thing as an absolute truth is to put oneself in an intellectually fragile situation, because in making that statement one says that their own statement is, in fact, not an absolute truth, and therefore, it is a completely self-defeating statement.” And the second, is from my Grandmother, who said “Jesse, remember to be open minded, BUT never let yourself be so open-minded that your brains fall out!”
