The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jul
4
The Bastardisation of Tolerance and Respect
Filed Under Polemics & Politics on July 4, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Lets start with a word of warning, if you don’t want to hear any criticism of fundamentalist religion, skip this post. It will only upset you!
Anyway, I was reading this news article yesterday and it got me thinking. My first reaction was to laugh. The whole idea of people getting into a flap because a picture of a cute police dog was used on a police poster is hilarious. However, it got me thinking. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is just another symptom of a bigger problem, the bastardisation of the concepts of tolerance and respect by right-wing religious groups. These groups interpret tolerance and respect to mean that everyone must do things their way.
It seems to be a common thread among the more fundamentalist branches of the major world religions to show a total and utter lack of any tolerance what so ever, while simultaneously demanding that the whole world “tolerate” and “respect” their beliefs. We must all respect their beliefs and refrain from anything they don’t like, while at the same time they refuse to tolerate anything they disagree with.
Although this particular news article was about Muslims, the problem is much more wide-spread. It could just as well have been about fundamentalist Christians or fundamentalist Jews or indeed any fundamentalists. When you stop and think you see it all the time.
For example, lets look at Christian fundamentalists. They impose all sorts of restrictions on expression in America by enforcing ‘respect’ for their beliefs. They will not tolerate two men kissing on TV, so that’s not allowed. They will not tolerate their kids being told the truth at the grand canyon, so out of respect park rangers are told to pretend that there is controversy surrounding geology and biology and play down the real origin of the canyon. Reality must yield to Christian fantasy because we must all respect their right to bring up ignorant kids. Try suggesting that fundamentalist Christians should tolerate the beliefs of others and see how far you get. Tolerance is for OTHERS, not for fundamentalists! They’re very quick to demand it from others, but not to extend it to others. I mean, it’s only normal that their view of marriage should be imposed on the entire nation, right? How dare anyone think differently!
As for fundamentalist Muslims, need I mention Danish cartoons?! Danes must respect Muslim beliefs but there is no way radical Muslims will tolerate Danish beliefs, instead, a good bout of rioting is in order. Like their fundamentalist Christian cousins, Muslim extremists never show even the slightest ounce of tolerance, but are amazingly quick to demand it of others. Danish free speech must of course yield to Muslim beliefs because there’s no way fundamentalist Imams will ever settle for anything less than world-wide “respect” for, aka compliance with, Muslim doctrines.
I’m a believer in the real meaning of tolerance, live and let live. If you want to follow Sharia law, good for you. If you want to be a born again Christian, great. If churches don’t want to recognise same-sex couples, good for them. If you want to stick your fingers in your ears and deny reality in favour of a literal interpretation of Genisis, carry on, I’ll call you an idiot for sure, but I won’t try to stop you. In short, believe what you want, just don’t force your beliefs on everyone. Unfortunately what I see more and more is tolerance and respect being bastardised to mean “you must all do things our way”.
Surely I can’t be the only one who finds it ironic that the intolerant try to force intolerance on us all in the name of tolerance of and respect for their beliefs?
Bart – your points are valid but your interpretation of the allowance of gays kissing on American TV is all wrong. I’m assuming you’re referring to Heinz pulling an ad that had two men kissing. They got a bunch of hate mail (200 I think?) that caused them to pull the ad. But that was an AD! That’s all about money, all about pleasing as many people as possible to make money. nothing to do with reality. Regular American TV shows have many examples of gays kissing. one great example was a compelling episode of Gray’s Anatomy where two soldiers embraced quite passionately – and it dealt with the father who was appalled, and showed the love and tenderness and respect between the two men. It was extremely powerful – and it was just at the end of this season’s shows. all in 2008: As the World Turns, Gossip Girl, Brothers and Sisters, Greek (ABC Family channel), I could go on (see http://www.afterelton.com/TV/2008/6/kissjustakiss?page=0%2C1 for more examples). don’t assume that a commercial enterprise’s decision on how best to make the most money is the cornerstone of American tolerance!
Allison
NosillaCast at http://podfeet.com
A technology geek podcast with an EVER so slight Macintosh bias!
Hi Allison, I’d never even heard of the Heinz ad. I gave Heinz more credit than that 🙁 I was obviously wrong about American telly. I should have kept the examples a little more concrete.
Bart.
Hear hear! Good post. I totally agree; people can believe in what they want and they should respect others’ right to do the same.
Bart
You’ve spotted something strong in your blog post there. I wouldn’t put it down to religion. I think religion is just a vehicle that is abused by what you’ve identified. I think you’ve spotted power.
“everyone must do things their way”
It’s all about power. People the world over like to feel like they are special. They like to think something makes them different from others. They want to be better than others. They want the power.
When you think about Christianity for example, the religion is supposed to have forgiveness and love as a foundation. Then you see idiots going killing black people and bearing crosses as their emblem of the Ku Klux Klan.
There are countless other examples of situations where people have abused ideas to have Power over others.
“absolute power corrupts absolutely”
I think the vast majority of people want power. I don’t think they want to control others. I think they want to control their own lives. The problems begin when their want of power over their own lives pushes creates the need to have Power over others.
I don’t like it. It leaves a sick taste in my mouth just thinking about it.
Like I said, I think you’ve seen the strenght of the pull of Power. Good blog post.
Paul
It might seem like a bastardisation of things, but if you think more about it, it’s always been that way. Currently the world is vunerable to supressed minorities and majorities, so if someone goes out and cries for their hurt rights, their feeling and points the finger at the bad ones, half of the world will side with them. Plus, they will get a lot of support amongst their followers because of “hey, look at that, we are the supressed ones but we ain’t going to give up. We’ll be strong because our God/Gods/Whatever supports us.” and of course the bad ones must die.
But religion has always been a tool, as already stated. A Tool for those seeking power. Look at the medieval europe and the reign of terror the christian church and inquisition held there. One commonly used sentence of mine, in this context, is “I don’t have any problem with christianity, I might even believe a part of it. My problem lies with the church and the world empire it imposes.”. The worlds nation have always been quick to jump to the aid of the supressed and helpless, sometimes very rightful. But the fundamentalists and some whole countries have realized the potential and the ease to manipulate the united nations and other similar organs into action and the easy path to get support from the people of foreign countries.
Because the true power always lie’s within the power to manipulate the mob and here lies the problem of our modern world. We constantly get manipulated and the demands of tolerance and respect seem just to be another facete of this giant puppet play.
Great post Bart.