Tolerance / Respect
I have found the following somewhere on my old blog; it’s a piece of an unfinished post that I wrote one night and never got the time or the energy to finish it up… It seems that I was pretty pissed about someone; I just cant remember who.. or why!
The vast majority of us Bahrainis (as citizens of a supposedly democratic country) would agree –or at least in principle- that tolerance for other people’s thoughts and ideas is a positive value. Others even emphasize that respect for other peoples ways of thinking should ideally be a fundamental part of the philosophy of the “free society”.
What really got into me recently is the repulsive way I am replied and judged by people who claim tolerance, broadmindedness and respect towards other thoughts (especially thoughts that oppose their own), most of those are folks who I had once respected, valued and even looked up to one day.
I believe that respect does lead to tolerance, but not the other way around. For example I am tolerant of the ideologies of the Ku Klux Klan, in the sense that I believe that the principles of the group that limits its members to a specific race or ethnicity should not be outlawed (which is the case in Canada) as long as they don’t encourage and support violence against minorities.
Does this mean that I have respect for views that consider whites superior to blacks? Fuck no; I loathe everything the Klan stands for. I can’t even understand how anyone could consider adopting such thoughts. But to disrespect?
Can we ever quit the judging and respect other thoughts? Can we have our stands of opposing thoughts without showing mockery and disrespect? Are we even able to have opposing thoughts and still carry some respect for one another? Without any feelings of superiority? Are humans really able to adopt the basic principle of “live and let live”?
* Inspired
Tolerant: Inclined to tolerate the beliefs, practices, or traits of others; forbearing.
I think you got the meaning of “tolerant” wrong. How can a decent thinking human being tolerate vicious acts of an ethnic group that tormented people for so long or ANY ethnic organization, either in our beloved country or abroad? Either they support violence or not. It supports destruction and nothing else! Please read, search, examine and look before you hmmmmmm judge?
With all due “respect” to you and your opinions, read the following hope you understand what I’m saying:
“There has existed since 1868, in many counties of the state, an organization known as the Ku Klux Klan, or Invisible Empire of the South, which embraces in its membership a large proportion of the white population of every profession and class. The Klan has a constitution and bylaws, which provides, among other things, that each member shall furnish himself with a pistol, a Ku Klux gown and a signal instrument. The operations of the Klan are executed in the night and are invariably directed against members of the Republican Party. The Klan is inflicting summary vengeance on the colored citizens of these citizens by breaking into their houses at the dead of night, dragging them from their beds, torturing them in the most inhuman manner, and in many instances murdering.”
“Can we ever quit the judging and respect other thoughts?”
You started judging just by writing your thoughts down in this blog post, with all due “respect” of course.
Yeah you kinda lost me there, too…
But you know what I can’t stand? When you argue with someone, and their argument is contradicting itself or clearly has no validity, so they revert to insults
Would you be tolerant of, say, the British National Party? Because they’re certainly disrespectful and intolerant when it comes to “us,” (Muslim foreigners.) If they’re insulting you directly, and referring to you as the “scum of Earth,” how do you picture yourself having a proper conversation with any of its members or supporters? They think of themselves as the ‘enlightened’ crowd, they’ll do nothing but point and laugh at your “erroneous” opinions.
Tolerance doesn’t necessarily come with ‘respect,’ you can secretly hate a group or a race with a passion, just as long as you don’t act upon it. That’s the classical notion of tolerance, anyways.
I believe I was pretty clear on the issue there; I quote from the post *”For example I am tolerant of the ideologies of the Ku Klux Klan, in the sense that I believe that the principles of the group that limits its members to a specific race or ethnicity should not be outlawed”*
The example might’ve been an extreme; but I wanted something that will clarify why one can tolerate something without respecting it, I believe the issue is rather complicated and I must admit, is way beyond I can explain; It is hard to imagine that one can respect the right of a women to seek abortion, and not tolerate its actual practice (that is, demanding laws that will eliminate the chance of a woman to seek abortion).
Moving on; I believe in the fact that one is under no obligation of respecting any set of ideas one profoundly disagrees with (agreeing with ES on this) I personally carry little or no respect towards numerous religious/cultural practices in our modern society and not feel on bit of guilt about it, even that it offends and disrespects friends or blog readers who strongly believe in which, I tolerate all that.. but that doesn’t shield them from criticism.. not one bit..
“I disagree with what you say, but I defend unto my death your right to say it.” Voltaire.
I sure hope this is what you mean. It’s the reason the Klan hasn’t been outlawed in this country, as disgusting as it is.
“Can we have our stands of opposing thoughts without showing mockery and disrespect?”
A lot of ideas deserve nothing other than mockery and disrespect – silence in the face of such ideas would in itself be an act of self-humiliation.
While I agree with Daedalus’s quote from Voltaire, what do you do with those who fall short of calling for violence themselves, but who’s ideas incite violence? For instance the UK’s ‘covenant of security’: was Britain right to allow London to become a base for people like Bakri and Abu Hamza to propogate their ideas as long as they were careful not to directly call for the killing of Britons?