In Friday’s edition of The Reflector, Tyler Stewart submitted an article titled “Racism: pointless yet still around.” Well, I didn’t read that article, but I did read the title of it. And then I got to thinking. I got to thinking hard. Super hard.
Unfortunately, it turns out thinking is very boring and stupid, so I immediately stopped and watched some reality television. Completely unenlightened, but refreshed, I then made the decision to address what I had surmised (from Tyler’s title) to be the issue at hand.
There is nothing that bothers me more than intolerance. Racial intolerance, religious intolerance, people-who-listen-to-Nickelback intolerance, whatever. They are all equally ridiculous in my eyes, and also in my brain. But while pondering the moral magnitude of my seemingly open-minded outlook, I was engulfed by a piercing sense of hypocrisy. Almost instantly, the truth manifested itself within me. I came to a realization so strong that it would probably change the way I thought about epiphanies forever.
Intolerant people, just like the people that they refuse to tolerate, are a product of their upbringing and environment. Just as religious or political affiliation is highly correlated to societal and parental influence, the intolerant person’s inclination for “hatin’ dudes” is not inherent. Just like you might have been influenced to believe that Jesus is awesome or that saving an incalculable amount of lives through the use of otherwise discarded embryos is immoral, someone else out there is programmed to think that you are inferior.
Of course, all of this is common knowledge. I only acknowledge such concepts so as to provide background for my true revelation. So here it is: If I want to call myself tolerant, then do I not have to tolerate the intolerant? Do I not have to accept even the most stupid of opinions as legitimate? Did I just undermine my argument by using the word stupid to describe opinions that I am pretending to have to tolerate?
Such questions present an interesting dichotomy. Only when I am able to respect the closed-minded can I honestly describe myself as tolerant. Only when I look through the eyes of the racist or the religious fundamentalist will I truly understand the reasons for their beliefs. They are merely products of their environments, and as I have trouble subscribing to an absolute set of ethics, I must acknowledge that maybe they are not so wrong after all. Maybe they are not so bad after all.
Oh, wait … I think I’m having another epiphany, and this one makes a lot more sense. Being intolerant, though heavily related to societal pressures, only persists in an individual due to lack of thought. Although we might not be born with an understanding of morality, I refuse to take the closed-minded adult seriously. Human value has nothing to do with the religion, race or social class into which a person is born. And if you disagree, then you are wrong. Of course, that is only my opinion. My opinion that will never ever change.