Subject: Truth and tolerance
From: C. Bergeron (corrie@itasca.net)
Date: Sun 16 Jan 2000 - 09:22:17 MET
From: "C. Bergeron" <corrie@itasca.net> Subject: Truth and tolerance Date: Sun, 16 Jan 2000 02:22:17 -0600
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Two comments on the current discussion, one short and one longer.
First - As Pooh said, I am a bear of very little brain, so I am left
scratching my head at the postmodern relativists who claim that this
statement is both true and meaningful: "There is no such thing, really, as
'truth' or 'meaning,' apart from what you make of it." I've tried to
explain it to myself, and I just end up going in circles. Bother.
Second - I am not quite sure what Dr. Betz means by his comment on the Larry
King debate between the Southern Baptist minister and the rabbis (sounds
like a bad joke - two rabbis and a preacher walk into a tv studio...). It
SEEMS as though he is saying that the minister does not have the right to
believe that he is right and the rabbis are wrong, because that is
"resistant." If that is the case, then he is using 'tolerance' in its new,
postmodern sense.
The 'old' tolerance meant that people could agree to disagree, and amicably
work with those holding views quite different from their own, without
compromise or insult. There might be vigorous debate, certainly, but no
offense would be typically implied or taken. Those unfortunate few who were
incapable of "getting along" in such a civilized fashion would be
reluctantly noted as "intolerant."
Today, the word has taken on a new meaning. It is not enough anymore to
'tolerate' someone with whom you disagree. You must instead *endorse* their
position/attitude/belief/behavior, lest you fall into the arrogance of
thinking that you are correct and they are incorrect. With no absolutes and
relativism reigning, there can be no correct and incorrect, no right and
wrong - only preferences. Every view is correct - except of course, the
view that some views are correct and some are not. One cannot be tolerant,
according to this new definition, if one believes one's own position to be
superior. People who do that are fear- and hate-mongering bigots.
Well, it may be thoughtcrime to say it, but I say that's ungood, I do!
Double-plus-ungood!
Corrie Bergeron, Jr.
"An educated mind is useless without a focused will,
and dangerous without a loving heart." - W.J. Deijmann
corrie@itasca.net
www.itasca.net/~corrie
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