Maybe this should go in the Great debates part oh well. I have heard a lot of talk of tolerance lately. But I would rather have love, people who love each other and still disagree with each other on issues. I think people have lost the abilty to disagree with each other and still love each other. If we have a whole lot of tolerance what do we do with the intolerant? Not tolerate them? We need to get back to loving each other instead of just tolerating each other.
I dunno…I love ya man, I just can’t tolerate you.
I think you are on the right track in many ways, but I don’t agree with you about love over tolerance. For me, love is reserved for very special people. I have disagreements with people I love often and it doesn’t make me love them any less. With the people I am close to it is not a matter of tolerance, but a matter of loving the person even if I don’t always agree with them.
I save my tolerance for people I am not close to, for example a stranger or aquantance. I looked up tolerance and the definition I found was: “sympathy or indulgence for beliefs on practices differing from or conflicting with one’s own.” Offering someone else sympathy when you do not agree with them seems to me to be a very giving and possibly “loving” response. I am not going to love every person I come across, but I will be open-minded enough to tolerate actions or opinions I do not agree with.
As far as what to do with the intolerant… that is a very loaded question that I don’t think I should answer that here. 