Tolerating Tolerance: Why do We have to Play Fair?

      I'm not going to talk about patience -- when that older lady drives slow in front of you and you're in a rush to get somewhere. I'm not talking about respecting racial minorities. I am not even addressing the charged issue of political correctness. I am just talking about the idea of tolerance in general. Society -- whatever that means -- makes us tolerant of others' religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and political endorsement. But why?
      This may sound entirely strange to you, but in a certain sense religious, political, and obviously sexual freedom was an invention, not a right. No constitution allowed for religious liberality; violence often followed political succession and sexual orientation would have been laughed at.

1. Religious Freedom in a Nutshell


      Religious freedom was never the norm. We don't have to look very far to see that that's true. For centuries, the conquering nation forced certain religious truths on its people. Yes, sure the Romans allowed for different sects, but it was also the Romans who began the age of martyrdom. Neither the crusaders nor the Saracens would have ever thought of toleration. Even during the time of the reformation, tolerance would have been a lukewarm position. The Papists fought the different sects and all in the name of God.
       The western world has embraced religious tolerance as a way of reconciling conflicting religious points of view with the aim of pacifying the opposition. Of course, the principle is great! No one wants someone knocking on their door forcing them to believe in a certain religion. In the soul and heart of man is a sanctuary of faith and conviction -- to cross the line between persuasion and force is crossing the line between romance and rape.
      The theory may be blameless, but the actual ramifications are sometimes ignored and taken to extremes. Someone who is overly zealous for religious tolerance takes the name of God out of schools entirely. These extremists of tolerance fire teachers and writers who uphold a religious doctrine in the public square. It's true; look it up!
     Another negative effect is the dogma of social philosophy, namely speculative relativism which is a fancy term for denying that there is any coherent and universal truth. Morality, therefore, seconds freedom. We have sold our souls for the price of freedom to keep them to ourselves.

2. Political Freedom in a Nutshell


      We all have our political view for one reason or another. We are either Democrats or Republicans, liberals or conservatives, red or blue. Political freedom is a necessity for a Republic to govern itself. In general, I would argue that political freedom has had more positive effects than negative ones. Of course this can be taken to an extreme as well. Too much toleration becomes tyranny. Certain people are so passionate about being respectful and tolerant of other political organizations that they forget they themselves have a bias and tend to emphasize it as the logical and best choice.
      I don't have enough time to stress the correlation between political toleration and the accountability of politicians, but I believe a relation between them exists. Tolerance can also lead to indifference, which in turn decreases accountability.

3. Sexual Freedom in a Nutshell


    Sexual freedom is different than sexual license. Every freedom needs responsibility. The right of life and liberty demands the need to be respectful of others' lives and liberty. License on the other hand is "doing whatever I want." The danger of actually getting what we want is that we become spoiled brats and we do not appreciate the value of what we have. The topic of sexual freedom in the minds of the modern man and women is so distorted that its hard to argue with people who see nothing wrong with the way they live. Sin and guilt are necessary realities; without failing grades on exams, we sink into mediocrity and relativism. 


      The biggest danger of tolerating tolerance is that we begin to forget about truth and start thinking about what's convenient, what's best for me, what's acceptable. Maybe we all have that friend that asks the sly question, "Well, if there is a truth, then tell me what is truth?" Ok, I will: Truth is a correlation between our idea of something and the actual existence of it. I like the Latin: adequatio intellectus et rei (literally adequation of the intellect and the thing). It might be good to remember that although people may be tolerant of you that doesn't make you right.

Shakespeare versus a Drive-Thru Culture:

Matthew Weatherford

October 27, 2011

We are Americans. We are proud to be Americans. We shoot our fireworks on the Fourth of July and we proudly recite the Pledge of Allegiance at baseball games. We even take pride in our drive-thru restaurants. We are a culture that lusts for instant downloads, data, and Big Macs. So for the young that still have to trudge through Shakespeare and the old that have had a traumatic experience in college from not understanding a word, this essay is for you. I just want to give you a few reasons, why Shakespeare is still relevant and important -- or in plain English, What’s the point of Shakespeare?

1. Shakespeare is great. 

    “The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good -- in spite of all the people who say he is very good,” (Robert Graves). 

    Shakespeare is not the news in 60 seconds. He does not spoon feed you. He does not even tell you in plain English the point of the play. Then, why is he great?

He would probably roll over in
 his grave if he read this essay

    Some of you still read the Sunday paper. Others browse the internet for what’s happening. Shakespeare is not about the hour or minute. Shakespeare is universal. His words are applicable for all generations. He looks into the heart of man and raises the important questions that we all face. 

   Not to be harsh, but honestly that article you read on the robotic cat about to hit the market in France is not going to last very long. It may be a hit for a day, a week, hey, maybe even for a month, but imagine the words of Shakespeare read by scholars for 400 years! If you still think: “YUCK,” then keep reading.

2. “If you can write like Shakespeare, you get an A.” 

   Most of us have had a teacher that has said this. He expects our prose to be as resplendent (translation: awesome) as the playwright himself. Most of us have always had that student that always asks the question, “But I don’t think it was hard for the people during Shakespeare’s time to read him. Why can’t we just read Sparknotes?” That’s not true; even during his time the prose was elevated, especially his sonnets.  

   The glory given to Shakespeare is not artificial. A bunch of absent minded professors don’t gather around a table and randomly decide upon an author to support. Shakespeare is an expert with words. We all know phrases like “It was Greek to me.” Or “Neither a borrower or a Lender be.” Just google phrases or words Shakespeare coined and you will be surprised! Shakespeare would have gotten an A on your English paper.

   He incorporates a plethora (translation: a bunch of) themes, ideas, structure to the English written language. Most of his plays are written in meter, which means that each line has the same number of syllables. When a character dies, he often has his or her dying lines ending in a couplet, or two lines that rhyme. His romantic sonnets (look up Sonnet 116) are still used to woo women. Winston Churchill had the plays staged in England to increase patriotism and the war efforts. Countless philosophers and political leaders have used and dissected his quotes.

        Still not convinced? Let’s try one more argument. 

3. We all love Stories

   Remember when your mom or dad used to tuck you in bed? Remember how you used to beg them to tell you a story? Finally, after a big of struggle and tantrums they finally gave in and grabbed a book. They read you the great children’s tales from the “Giver Tree,” to “The Women who swallowed a fly.” 

   Well, guess what? You haven’t changed much. After all these years of growing up, how much have you really changed? Not much. We all love stories. We sympathize with the good guy, we hate the bad guy, we can’t wait until the end to know just what happens. 

   If anyone knows how to tell a story, it's Shakespeare. He describes every scene, every quirk, and even every personality with a stroke of his fine artistic brush. Romeo and Juliet becomes not only a story, but a symbol for us of love and the obstacles of fulfilling it. 

   Let’s take another example: “To be or not to be” We have all heard this famous quotation, but just guessing, I don’t think most people understand what that quote really means.

   To be or not to be is Hamlet’s confrontation with the misery of life. He is so miserable that he wants to kill himself, but at the same time, he fears Hell. Our consciences “make a cowards of us all.” But this quote is much more than that. . .Shakespeare lists a plethora (remember that word still) of miseries, such as bad rulers, broken hearts, the inefficiency of law and still comes out believing that life is worth living! 

          Shakespeare is great. Shakespeare doesn’t bow down to easy language. He’s not there to make sure you understand. We tend to judge books on how well they transmit the message, but Shakespeare is more than that. The message is there. You might have to dig. You might get lost, but getting lost in Shakespeare is better than getting found in most modern and pathetic novels. 

          So next time you find yourself bashing Shakespeare, just remember the phrase to pick on someone your own size.