Mark,
Greetings! On the subject of eradicating intolerance and hatred, I agree with the latter, but I have some concerns about the former. My personal knee-jerk reaction has always been to detest intolerance; however, I've been having a problem with that line of reaction. The question that shows the extreme is: should we not be intolerant of an ethical system that, for example, does not condemn child-abuse (or some other such predation or attack on freedom)? Or, worse, an ethical system that condones actions against freedom or the "innocent". Should we be tolerant of an ethical system that views interracial marriage as evil? Should we be tolerant of an ethical system that does not view beating one's wife as evil?
These questions bring up the problem of "where to draw the line", so to speak. Hatred seems universally unnecessary or destructive - if nothing else, it seems to be spiritually destructive for the person who hates. Intolerance, however, has become a grey area for me. Perhaps it is just too broad a term.
What do you think?
Greg |
