Zen and the Art of Political Tolerance
Yesterday's items on assorted left-wing kookery brought an interesting comment from reader Brian Francoeur:
The anecdotes on the insane, frothing-at-the-mouth liberals venting their spleens made me chuckle. There's nobody more intolerant and narrow-minded than an tolerant and open-minded liberal, is there?
Here's something I've noticed recently: Once I embraced the idea within myself that I wasn't going to even try to be "open-minded and tolerant of all cultures and ideologies" I actually became more open minded and tolerant than I was before! Isn't that wild?
It's like I have this big sphere of stuff I'll tolerate, and the stuff I won't tolerate exists outside the sphere. Take liberals for example. I tolerate 'em, sure. As a matter of fact, I think they're probably pretty necessary for a healthy society (can't have day without night and all that). Plus, if there were no liberals, what would people bicker about? The designated hitter rule?
But once you get into the spittle-flecked ravings of Ward Churchill or the creepy "pedophilia is a healthy life choice!" attitude of Nambla, well, they exist outside of my tolerance sphere, and I feel perfectly free in either ignoring or heaping big piles of steaming disgust on them. Intolerance is more tolerant than tolerance! Funny old world, isn't it?
There's something wonderfully Zenlike about this.
The anecdotes on the insane, frothing-at-the-mouth liberals venting their spleens made me chuckle. There's nobody more intolerant and narrow-minded than an tolerant and open-minded liberal, is there?
Here's something I've noticed recently: Once I embraced the idea within myself that I wasn't going to even try to be "open-minded and tolerant of all cultures and ideologies" I actually became more open minded and tolerant than I was before! Isn't that wild?
It's like I have this big sphere of stuff I'll tolerate, and the stuff I won't tolerate exists outside the sphere. Take liberals for example. I tolerate 'em, sure. As a matter of fact, I think they're probably pretty necessary for a healthy society (can't have day without night and all that). Plus, if there were no liberals, what would people bicker about? The designated hitter rule?
But once you get into the spittle-flecked ravings of Ward Churchill or the creepy "pedophilia is a healthy life choice!" attitude of Nambla, well, they exist outside of my tolerance sphere, and I feel perfectly free in either ignoring or heaping big piles of steaming disgust on them. Intolerance is more tolerant than tolerance! Funny old world, isn't it?
There's something wonderfully Zenlike about this.
posted by djobe at 3:15 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home