The human well-being is an important matter of society, but tolerance is a key aspect that characterizes the new social organization based on diversity and, in certain contexts, people appreciate it very much. However, in the context of personal principles and desires, beliefs or aspirations, we encounter a very old social phenomenon that blocks the flow of inter-human relationships and serves as a source of conflict: the lack of tolerance.
So, what is intolerance? What are the reasons behind this phenomenon and how did it get to affect the peaceful development of society?
Intolerance is when someone refuses to accept different beliefs, ideas or behaviors, other than his own. Often, this kind of behavior creates an aggressive attitude, where one attempts to impose on others his own beliefs, ideas and behaviors. This act of non-acceptance and imposition is a violation of personal and human rights which is often a source of conflict.
Intolerant behaviors can easily be observed in the past where social organization not only did not stop this kind of actions, but it encouraged discrimination. For example, the crusades, which started with the Christian powers interested in seizing strength in holly territories such as Jerusalem, were one of the main promoters of religious intolerance, especially when the crusaders were promised forgiveness of all sins committed or to be committed during their whole life.
At this point we must ask ourselves: we have many religions on this Earth, each with its own Gods, rules and ideas. Some originated in Jerusalem, where there were always people with a completely different faith. Others started from the idolatry of a man. How did we come to hate people who have a faith different than ours? Are these faiths hurting us? I say no! Because the biggest religions we know are based on moral and common-sense rules which do not encourage murder, theft, hatred, and so on. So how did Christians come to commit genocide in the name of God, Son, and the Holly Spirit? They were promised forgiveness of all sins by Christian priests. Besides, there were many others with interests in sustaining the crusades. For example, a study from 2018 says that: The Byzantine Emperor wanted to regain the territory he has lost; the Pope wanted to strengthen the papality in Italy and achieve ascendancy as head of the Christian church; the merchants wanted to monopolize the key trading centers that were under the Muslim control and to earn money from shipping crusaders in the Middle East; and the knits followed the principles of chivalry and gained wealth in this life and promises of a good life after death.
We must understand that the religious intolerance we have today is still the result of ideas that have been cultivated in our minds for thousands of years for the sake of people’s interests. So, every time we meet a person with a different faith, we should first understand that religion is not like a fashion style, it is something for the soul, it is personal, and as long as the persons different than us do not affect our personal freedoms we should not judge or discriminate them for that, especially since every religion supports the idea of “loving your neighbor”, whether he is a relative or next-door neighbor or friend, or simply just a traveler next to you.
Another type of intolerance is the racial and the ethnical one. It started mostly from the first territorial conquests, from the enslavement of some races and ethnicities for the good of others. We see this type of actions at the European colonizers that brutally treated local races and ethnicities. For example: the native Americans had and still have tough times because of the Europeans they met in the 16-th-17-th centuries. Colonization was known for its intolerant attitude towards the natives and their traditions. Situations in which the natives opposed the Spanish occupations were punished with extreme violence against the locals, who were killed or captured.
Colonization is generally defined as an act of movement of a large group of people in search of territories and of spaces where the native people can be controlled in order to have economic advantages. Thus, the colonizing people promoted racial and ethnic intolerance out of selfishness and a desire to prosper from the torments of others. This is the reason why slavery was so famos in America: because it allowed even to the poorest americans to own or rent slaves, and this fact made the abolition of slavery inconvenient to those who owned slaves, especially because this act meant more work for them, less comfort, some changes in their economy and lifestyle.
Now, knowing all this, are we entitled to hate a race or ethnicity just because it does not want to be our slave or because it simply wants to have the right to decide its own fate? We do not have this right, especially since we are equal beings on this earth, and the size of the bat or weapon with which we try to achieve our goals should not matter in discussions of human rights.
Intolerance is found even in the simplest human interactions going beyond the central topics of conflict such as religion, ethnicity or race. People show intolerance even when it comes to traditions, musical preferences, lifestyle, and so on. Probably one of the factors that encourages intolerance is the way a state’s education is organized. As long as typification and thinking in frameworks are promoted, as long as creativity is not embraced, as long as national creations are presented as universal ideals and not as parts of a vast and wide system of creations, people will be educated from an early age to hate everything that goes out of the patterns and that does not conform to a system.
We should learn from all the cases described above that intolerance has become normal because of those many people that have benefited from discrimination, murder and enslavement of certain races, nations or ethnicities. They promoted discrimination through education and culture in many countries for a long time, which is why intolerance has brought us the two world wars, in which we fought against the idea of ethnic supremacy.
Analyzing all the above cases, we understand that tolerance is about respecting the differences between us. We need to understand that if it weren’t for some different people, we wouldn’t have reached the life we have today. All the great inventions and discoveries were made by people who thought outside the box, who exceeded the limits imposed by the system, who used their imagination and who understood that what was to be discovered was much greater than what it is known. Change, tolerance and communication will bring us all greater good.
Sources:
Bhatt A. (2021). Unequal Global exchange: colonization, politics and economics. University of Washington, Office of Minority Affairs and Diversity, washington.edu/omad/ctcenter/projects-common-book/mountains-beyond-mountains/unequal-global-exchange/.
Blakemore E. (2019). What is colonialism? National geographic, nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/colonialism.
Cambridge Dictionary. (2021, 02 20). Intolerance. Retrieved 02 20, 2021, from Cambridge Dictionary: dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/intolerance
Cartwright M. (2018). The Crusades: Causes & Goals. Ancient History Encyclopedia, ancient.eu/article/1249/the-crusades-causes–goals/.
Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2021, 01 01). Native Americans and colonization: the 16th and 17th centuries. Retrieved 02 20, 2021, from Britannica: britannica.com/topic/Native-American/Native-Americans-and-colonization-the-16th-and-17th-centuries
Kunovich R. and Hodson R. (1999). Conflict, Religious Identity, and Ethnic Intolerance in Croatia. Social Forces vol. 78, no.2, 643-668.
Rubenstein J. (2008). Cannibals and crusaders. French Historical Studies, vol. 31, no. 4, 1-29.
Sutherland M. (2019). The Crusades were horrific, and there’s no way we should be idolising them through sport. Stuff sport, stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/111450058/the-crusades-were-horrific-and-theres-no-way-we-should-be-idolising-them-through-sport.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (2014, 02 02). The Crusades (1095–1291). Retrieved 02 20, 2021, from The MET Museum: metmuseum.org/toah/hd/crus/hd_crus.htm
Watanabe M. (2007). Conflict and intolerance in a web community: effects of a system integrating dialogues and monologues. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication vol. 12, no. 3, 1020-1042.