I have to share with you a quote that was sent to me recently. This quote speaks to the current fashion of equating popularity with truth, and the idea that all ideas are of equal value.
Truth has no political allegiance, sex or ethniciy. Facts are stubborn and timeless things. We do well to aspire to seeking the truth rather than the approval of others.
Tolerance is seen as an essential virtue, but it is not. It is as essential as a hammer, and like a hammer, destructive if misused. Tolerance of human error is different from toleration of dishonesty or aggression. There are times when intolerance is essential, and virtuous. Some say we have drifted from tolerance of differences to toleration of evil. To be “broadminded” may have come to be a euphemism for cowardice.
The quote is well worth a good long mental chew:Tolerance is an attitude of reasoned patience toward evil … a forbearance that restrains us from showing anger or inflicting punishment. Tolerance applies only to persons … never to truth. Tolerance applies to the erring, intolerance to the error … Architects are as intolerant about sand as foundations for skyscrapers as doctors are intolerant about germs in the laboratory.
Tolerance does not apply to truth or principles. About these things we must be intolerant, and for this kind of intolerance, so much needed to rouse us from sentimental gush, I make a plea. Intolerance of this kind is the foundation of all stability.
The full essay can be read here.
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