Look, I don’t like the parading of emotions by politicians anyway: it’s not to my taste. But for a Liberal to speak ill of tolerance is to square-dance in a minefield. “Tolerance” is shorthand for the existence of a society in which persons cohabit, trade and debate without killing one another over their differences — even those differences which are serious, fundamental and intractable. Tolerance truly is the signature accomplishment of our country, and of countries like ours: it is the crucial difference between nice places to live and the not-so-nice. To dismiss it is to abandon the old liberals’ confidence that familiarity between different groups and sects may in fact lead to love and acceptance — that it is the foundation for the organic growth of a neighbourliness that cannot be ordered up like a meal or created by fiat.
Tolerance represents a mutual compact to which the state itself is a party. And its minimalism is an important feature. Tolerance does not ask you to approve of gay people, or to like atheists, or to appreciate a jaunty Sikh turban, or to trust a redhead. It insists only that you treat them as humans and fellow citizens — equal to yourself in legal endowments and social entitlements, and most particularly in the right to be left alone.
Tolerance means you do not persecute; you do not abuse; you do not commit or threaten violence. It is a restriction on behaviour, above all, or, more broadly, on conduct: it is not a test of one’s disposition, private opinions or feelings.
Colby Cosh, “‘Can we stop talking about tolerance?’ Lord, I hope not”, National Post, 2018-08-23.
November 20, 2020
QotD: Tolerance
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