"Tolerance" is one of those words which has undergone a metamorphosis over the past forty or so years. And since the meaning of the word has changed the concept has changed. And they have both changed for the worse because no word, in the vernacular, has taken its place.
The definition, at the ground level and in everyday language, was "to put up with" or "to bear." An example would be best illustrated by a father dealing with his teenage daughter's attempts to be fashionable. He will tolerate his daughter ironing her naturally curly hair to straighten it despite the fact that he thinks that it looks silly and stupid. He will not tolerate her going to school, or anyplace else in public for that matter, wearing a pair of hot pink hot pants. In the first case he grudgingly puts up with her folly. In the second, the wearing of hot pink hot pants is something he will not accept or allow. Using the older meaning of the word, a dog tolerated a certain number of fleas, the human body tolerated a certain amount of arsenic, a nation could tolerate a certain amount of attacks from within or without and not suffer any great harm.
The contemporary meaning has developed to mean happy acceptance and sometimes even encouragement to the point of unhealth. The fictional father not only smiles when his daughter ruins her hair, he buys her hot pink hot pants to wear to church and perhaps even a Wonderbra or breast implants to validate her burgeoning "womanhood" at the age of fourteen. One's Cocker Spaniel becomes a walking flea circus. We sprinkle arsenic over our Cheerios in the morning and a nation not only allows its enemies to attack from within and without, but encourages such attacks in the name of tolerance and being "nonjudgemental."
The result is that the daughter becomes an unmarried mother at the age of fifteen, the dog dies because of the loss of blood and introduction of diseases from the fleas, our hair suddenly turns grey and we die painful deaths because we've poisoned ourselves because we over-estimated our tolerance for arsenic. And a nation loses its culture, identity and heritage and becomes something antithetical to its historical form and ethos.
In today's world we are expected to be happily tolerant of every damn thing and to spend that time we used to spend grinding our teeth and cursing under our breath being proud of ourselves that we're more all-encompassing in our love for the various idiocies of mankind than is God. The mushy Left has re-defined the word because the mushy Left stands for nothing. The media is mushy Left. The mushy Left is like those hokey Lotharios who, in high school, said, in order to impress the girls, things like "I love love," or "I love the world." The mushy Left is unknowingly suicidal in its pursuit of "love." The hard Left, represented by your various Marxists, Trotskyites, Maoists and Senderos at least have the sense of self preservation to find certain things intolerable and other things, such as the breathing of people unhappy with their regimes but silent and laboring in quiet despair, tolerable. The same holds true for the hard Right. The soft Right and the middle have traditionally had certain standards and would tolerate a certain amount of variation from those standards. Examples would be the antics of Baudlaire in 19th century France, Bertrand Russell in 20th century Britain, and Norman Mailer in the US. Each of the aforementioned had their artistic or scientific talents, but they were all, in their own way, termites within their respective societies. But their nations were strong enough to withstand their onslaughts because, try as they might, the termites were unable to get to the foundations of the societies.
The Netherlands, on the other hand, early fell to the tyranny of "tolerance." In the late 19th century one of the most influential leaders of Holland was Abraham Kuyper. Kuyper was, before his entry into politics, was a Reform preacher and theologian. Under his leadership Holland was a conservative, Christian country that tolerated other religions. Holland, while not gaining the ascendancy and world wide power of Britain, France or Germany, prospered peacefully. Holland was known for its cleanliness, tolerance (in the old meaning) and prosperity. Since then Holland has become, especially Amsterdam, known as a rather dirty country where the canals are littered with condoms and hypodermic needles, hashish is freely available and where one motion picture maker (Theo Van Gogh) and one politician (Pym Fortuyn) have been assassinated by Muslim extremists. And two other politicians have been forced to live in hiding because of threats by Muslim extremists. Holland has reaped the fruits of their "tolerance." The country not only put up with the non-Dutch values of Mohammedan immigrants, it encouraged the difference. In the past the Dutch would have told the immigrants, "You can have your religion, but we fully expect you to behave like Dutchmen and Christians. If you can't do that then get the hell out." Up until very very recently the Dutch have practiced the religion of Tolerationism and the result has been a national fear of Islam within their own country. Go figger.
In the name of toleration we are expected to smile while Honda Civics with speakers bigger than the engines drive by our houses booming out rap and hip hop so loud that it rattles the windows and loosens the foundations of one's manse. We're expected to appreciate taggers decorating our garages. When some pinhead PhD. appears on television to tell us that Christians are evil because they say that Muslims are going to Hell while Muslims try to send them there we're supposed to nod and approve of said pinhead's profundity.
If you had the misfortune of attending a Christian summer camp in the 60s you probably had the misfortune to sing the song Kum Ba Ya. It was, and is, a simple and simplistic song that a child should abandon after learning London Bridge is Falling Down. The conservative churches abandoned the song long ago, while the Seven Sisters keep wheezing it out Sunday after Sunday. The dictators of tolerance want us all to gather around the campfire and soulfully and sincerely sing Kum Ba Ya as a sign or our tolerance and inclusiveness. We here at Bloody Nib Manor opted out of that nonsense long ago. We'll keep singing Onward! Christian Soldiers and not feel bad about it. And tolerance (in the contemporary sense) is something up with which we will not put.
No comments:
Post a Comment