The problem with tolerance

Imagine hearing from a parent, child, spouse, or just about anyone really, "I tolerate you." What the hell...

Tolerance has become the preeminent virtue of our age, but the problem with tolerance is that it’s not even a virtue at all. It’s really a just clever bastardization of that genuine virtue brotherly love. Of course to grow in any virtue, we really need to also overcome its corresponding vice...in this case envy. Ironically, the paradigm that has imposed the dogma of tolerance on our culture has as its source the Gramscian politics of identity and division, which in turn has at its very core envy. What’s even more ironic, the high priests of tolerance won’t hesitate to excommunicate dissenters under mortal pain.

How terribly sad to be merely tolerated really...no, we want to hear that we’re loved...or at the very least, admired or liked. More than this, the word once spoken needs to take concrete shape, and there is much that genuine love simply can never tolerate...this includes behaviors and attitudes that are injurious to self or others. To begin in understanding the sources of injury we need to look at the vices...the seeds that produce bitter fruit. How much better to cultivate virtues...even as we may be deeply aware of the messiness of the human condition...they are the sign posts.