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DE WOHL, Louis
Against Tolerance Tolerance is not a virtue. It is no more than an amiable weakness. Yet it is typical of the confused thinking of our time that many people regard it as a virtue and believe they are giving praise when they say a man is tolerant. To tolerate something means to accept it or to permit it, even though one does not agree with it. Tolerance is an entirely passive concept, and only too often serves as a cloak for indifference and cowardice. It is, as somebody once said, "the lowest form of collaboration"; and for exactly that reason, it entails a great deal of personal responsibility. He who tolerates evil becomes an accessory to it. Truth, because of its very nature, is absolutely intolerant. Two plus two equals four. Truth must protest against any other result of this addition. It will not accept seventeen, and it will not accept three and nine-tenths. Only four. Besides, there is a certain measure of condescension about tolerance. I tolerate your proximity. Nice of me, isn't it? But the worst thing about tolerance is that it knows nothing of love. It is, at best, the pale stepsister of patience. All of this does not imply that intolerance is a good thing. The opposite of a swelling on your head is a hole in your head, and that is not so good either. De Wohl, Louis. Adam, Eve, and the Ape. Chicago: Regnery, 1960. |