Every year on November 16 the world celebrates the Day of Tolerance. School teachers put up posters about the goodness of man to man, organize a drawing contest, talk about the diversity of cultures. But what does it mean to be tolerant in the family, at work, on the street? How to respect others, but not to infringe their rights? And what is an indicator of tolerant behavior? Representatives of the United Nations, spiritual leaders and ordinary people are thinking about this.
What is tolerance
Tolerance is tolerance towards the right of other people to their own, different from ours, world view, lifestyle, sexual orientation, behavior. Needed in relation to other people, nationality, religion, gender. In the same time tolerance does not mean concessions, indifference or rejection of their own opinions, beliefs, beliefs or morals. You can be tolerant of the values of another person, but reserve the right to disagree with his convictions. For example: to be tolerant of a drunkard, but to condemn the very phenomena of drunkenness.
Different dictionaries interpret tolerance differently. Scientific literature explains tolerance as recognition of equality, denial of superiority. In pedagogy - denotes benevolence to different groups of the population. In ethics - is a moral quality that characterizes the recognition of a person’s interests and principles of others. Philosophers they consider this quality as a life position, and politicians as an active attitude, mutual understanding and cooperation.
As said UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay "Tolerance is humanism in action." In 1996, the UN General Assembly proposed annually celebrating a day of tolerance and non-violence. Now, every year, on November 16, open lessons are held in schools and other educational institutions, showing films about mutual agreement between cultures and ethnic groups. And the Centers of Tolerance in many countries hold a Week of Tolerance to draw public attention to this problem.
That is, in everyday understanding, tolerance is living in harmony with other communities. But it is not clear where this mode ends and are there any limits to tolerance? In the universal understanding of tolerance, it is permissible to forget when manifestations of racism, nationalism, anti-Semitism, human phobia, and ethnophobia occur. But this is a fine line, which philosophers have been thinking about for centuries.
Tolerance: the history of the term
From Latin, the term "tolerantia" was translated as "forced patience, voluntarily endured suffering," therefore, it was initially identified with negative, evil. Later, the term "restraint" was added to the translation and tolerance was interpreted as a concession on the issue of freedom of religion.
In the XVII century, tolerance was derived as a separate philosophical category. This happened after the Thirty Years War, during which conflicting religious fanatics almost killed each other. Voltaire was the most famous advocate of tolerance for members of other religious denominations.
In 1953, an English doctor introduced this concept to mean tolerance of immunity to transplanted foreign tissues. At the same time, this addiction of the organism to drugs. Tolerance is the complete inability of the body to produce antibodies, which leads to inevitable death of a person.
In the XIX century, sociologists took up the problem of tolerance. To the definition of tolerance was added an understanding of self-expression and inner freedom, as well as patience with opponents during discussions. Today, thanks to the efforts of UNESCO, tolerance has become an international concept, which stands for a tendency to compromise and agreement.
Tolerance is a spiritual concept that is rooted in all religions of the world.. Quote from the Gospel: "Judge not lest ye be judged"There are similar statements in Confucianism, in Islam, Hinduism. There are also words from popular wisdom:"In a strange monastery with its charter do not climb" or "Whose song and songs".
The spiritual leader of the followers of Tibetan Buddhism, Dalai Lama XIV, says that patience and tolerance cannot be considered a sign of weakness. These are signs of strength not to cultivate anger and resentment. And the ability to forgive is a real antidote to anger.
Why do we need tolerance
During the mass migration of peoples, terrorist attacks, sex scandals, our humanity is constantly subjected to a test of strength. Difficulties arise not only between people, but also entire communities. The situation is complicated by the fact that many do not understand where the limits of tolerance are. One thing is to respect the followers of another religion, another is to abandon the usual clothes so as not to offend anyone. And this is not fiction. One school in the UK prohibited girls from wearing school skirts so as not to offend transgender children with differences in clothing.
But philosophers and psychologists agree on one thing: tolerance helps us to adequately accept what we cannot change. And at the same time get all the possible benefits. The idea of tolerance is also to accept the diversity of the world as an inescapable fact. To ensure that ideas of tolerance are learned from childhood, tolerance lessons are held in schools. Adults have to educate themselves.
If cultivating tolerance in oneself is too hard, it is worthwhile to go deeper into the causes of antipathy towards other people. Perhaps the reason for this is child psychotrauma or outdated views on life, which it is time to change. After all, the world around us is changing continuously. But it is one thing to know how scientists describe tolerance and quite another to know their motivation:
- If you treat yourself with a share of healthy self-criticism, then for other people's beliefs you will find a reasonable explanation.
- If you notice only weaknesses in others, and you note only certain virtues in yourself, your beloved, it is very difficult for you to reconcile with someone else's "otherness".
- If you are confident in yourself, take responsibility for your actions, then you will be able to negotiate with any opponent with great success. Unlike the unsure person who sees a hidden threat in everything.
- If you have a healthy sense of humor and are able to sneer at your actions, you are surely tolerant of others. In contrast to a man who even has an innocent joke causes offense.
- If you know how to listen without judging and are ready to share your opinion, you have a healthy self-esteem. Unlike a person who does not restrain irritation or harbors a grudge.
The opposite concept of tolerance is intolerance. Intolerance is a great excuse to disclaim responsibility for your life. After all, all the failures can be blamed on representatives of other nationalities, national minorities, or someone else. Intolerance makes it impossible for us to come to an agreement with other people, to come to a compromise. And this quality makes it very difficult to build strong relationships with us.
Why tolerance of humiliation is bad
Tolerance to humiliation is when a person considers violence against himself the norm. Moreover, he internally agrees with the rapist and continues to humiliate himself on his own. For example, someone made a comment about my figure. A confident person will be indignant, say "this is my business." A tolerant of violence will keep silent, and then will experience a sense of shame and humiliation.
Psychotherapists claim that tolerance to violence arises from the inability to fight back. The foundation of such uncertainty is laid in families with totalitarian parents. The opinion of the child is not taken into account, parents always know "how correctly". To avoid punishment, the child gets used: you can not resist, you need to be comfortable for others. Growing up, he voluntarily seeks his "executioner", awaiting approval, support and punishment.
Tolerance to violence creates vulnerability. A person unable to protect himself is one open wound. He takes any word, disapproving glance to his side. And it suffers even more. There is one way out of this situation: to learn to defend yourself. As they say - the salvation of the drowning, the work of the drowning themselves.
findings
- Tolerance is respect, understanding and acceptance of the diversity of cultural values, ways of self-expression and the manifestation of human individuality.
- The question of tolerance is not as young as it seems. In the ancient world, tolerance was a virtue. Later, Voltaire and J. Locke reflected on her. I. Goethe.
- Intolerance provokes destructive behavior, makes it impossible to reach an agreement.
- Tolerance to humiliation is formed in childhood and makes life live from the perspective of the victim.
