What is Tolerance?

from JoeUser Forums

What is tolerance? It is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly - that is the first law of nature.

Voltaire, 1694-1778

The last great frenchman.
philosophy
6,424 views 19 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
But if you spit or throw piss on me I'll kick your goddam ass.
-Shovel the Jailer, 1994-2005

 spoken when tolerance goes flyin' out the window...
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I like this a lot, Dr.Guy. Thanks for sharing it.
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top

spoken when tolerance goes flyin' out the window...

You willl be nice. Until I tell you when not to be nice!

Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Tolerance is understanding that you are just as annoying to everyone else as they are to you! ~ ParaTed2k 2005
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top

I like this a lot, Dr.Guy. Thanks for sharing it.

Thank you.  I am honored.

Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

Tolerance is understanding that you are just as annoying to everyone else as they are to you! ~ ParaTed2k 2005

The English version!

Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
Beautifully said. What more can I possibly elaborate on?
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
My favourite Voltaire story is of the celebrated anglophile walking the streets of eighteenth century London and being set upon by a bunch of ruffians who had noticed that he was a foreigner. Voltaire addressed them, crying, "Stop! Is it not enough of a misfortune that I was not born an Englishman?", whereupon the easily won-over yahoos carried him in triumph back to his hotel on their shoulders...

I like to think that twenty-first century Londoners are a tad more tolerant. Cause and effect?
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top

er, uhm...sorry.

No, that line was for you to use (Roadhouse)!

Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top

Beautifully said. What more can I possibly elaborate on?

Every once in awhile, The French do get somethings right.

Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top

"Stop! Is it not enough of a misfortune that I was not born an Englishman?"

I had never heard that one!  That is another great one for its wit!

Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

Henry David Thoreau
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top

"Why am I in here?  The Question is why are you out there!"

Henry David Thoreau

Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
I like to think that twenty-first century Londoners are a tad more tolerant.

Arsenal or Manchester United?
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
Clearly, it never occurred to Thoreau that some music probably shouldn't be stepped to.

If John Wayne Gacy does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. By all means, do not let him step to the music which he hears!

It seems to me that tolerance means being open to the possibility that not all differences between people are born of evil, and that what I think is true may not be true, and that what someone else believes might hold new wisdom for me as well.

But tolerance is only half of the solution. The other half is discrimination. After examining alternative ideas and beliefs with an open mind, welcoming the opportunity to set aside your prejudices and learning something new and good, it is time to discard anything bad, whether in your new thinking or your old.
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
Tolerance is the acknowledgement of differences and that they do not mean one is right or wrong, good or evil for being different, but merely accepting the fact that they are different. It does not mean you have to agree with them, or be accepting OF their differences, you just have to accept the fact they are different and not inherently evil for being different.

You can tolerate homosexuality, but disagree with it and not personally accept it.
You can tolerate interracial marraige, but disagree with it and not personally accept it.
You can tolerate conservatives, but disagree with them and not personally accept them (sorry, just had to)
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
I like to think that twenty-first century Londoners are a tad more tolerant.

Arsenal or Manchester United?

Well, for a Londoner it would have to be Arsenal
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
you just have to accept the fact they are different and not inherently evil for being different.

Well said. But perhaps it's just enough to accept that they are. What is traditionally known as Liberalism evolved from European exhaustion after strenuous attempts to annihilate those who thought/lived/prayed differently. Sheaving their swords the wisest heads then asked, "how can we live peacefully side by side without agreeing or seeing the world in the same way?" Once it's obvious that you cannot remove from the world all those who offend you by their difference, this becomes the most important practical question.