We all sometimes have to face intolerance. This phenomenon can be explained by the reluctance of a person or group of people to recognize someone else's lifestyle, to agree with someone else's views, to put up with beliefs alien to them. In general, this phenomenon can be considered negative.
The concept of intolerance
Each individual is inherently hostile to people whose lifestyle is radically different from his usual one. The manifestation of intolerance is most often found in the rejection of such characteristics of a person as:
- behavior;
- traits;
- beliefs;
- manner of dressing;
- culture of speech and others.
Sometimes intolerance towards someone with us can cause only negative emotions, but some openly take hostility in the features of other people, poisoning their lives. The most unpleasant thing here is that for people who are unpleasant to us, over time, not the most flattering labels are stuck. It turns out that intolerance is a universal quality, which is expressed in the denial and rejection of what is unusual for us. Intolerance can manifest itself not only in relation to an individual person, but also in relation to entire nations. Often we are faced with the condemnation of such features as:
- culture
- national characteristics;
- religious beliefs.
Religious intolerance
Perhaps one of the most destructive manifestations of intolerance for mankind is the attitude to the religion of others. The basis of any religion should be faith in one God, but the rites, prayers and holidays of each individual religious branch should be treated with respect and understanding. Intolerance towards other religions led to wars, persecution and oppression of those who were objectionable. Such phenomena were described in one of his articles by Ernest Radlov.
- When Christianity was considered a forbidden religion, its followers were persecuted and declared state criminals. All disasters and troubles occurring in the country were attributed to Christians. Although they were quite harmless to public policy, they also preached values such as freedom of the church and freedom of conscience.
- When in 312 Christianity became the state religion, pagans, Jews, and various sects began to be persecuted. Here, intolerance began to manifest itself on the part of Christians, who believed that it was they who knew the truth.
- The merger of the state with the Christian church led to the Inquisition, which kept all believers in fear.
From this we can conclude that the attempt of one religious movement to declare its monopoly on the truth leads to intolerance in relation to other faiths. Therefore, it is important that justice, understanding, and also cooperation of representatives of various religious trends dominate in such matters for the benefit of all believers.
Intolerance and ideology
Intolerance is also one of the characteristics of any ideology. This is due to the fact that the basis of any ideology, like religion, is its dogma, its ideals. The psychology of any leader is superimposed on the policy pursued by him, which, in turn, forms the psychology of the masses. People get their idea through which they rally and unite with a political leader. But at the same time, often those who hold other views automatically become an enemy. The dominant ideology can suppress the resistance of those who disagree with it. Although we must pay tribute to the fact that some political movements are characterized by bright, philanthropic ideas. But there are also parties that are characterized by absolute extremes in their activities. These include:
- the ideology of fascism is the leader’s confidence that the state has the right to intervene in the life of its citizens, control them, convince them of the superiority of their race over others, and in every way fight against dissent;
- the policy of repression - a complete ban on the manifestation of freedom and openness when discussing various political decisions, the lack of freedom of speech in the state, the impossibility of holding fair elections, intolerance and the punishment of dissenters.
Intolerance in Interethnic Relations
One of the most negative manifestations of intolerance is its interethnic form. The concept of "ethnic intolerance" implies a negative relationship between representatives of one nationality to some others. The forms of its manifestation include:
- xenophobia - the belief that representatives of other countries and other cultures can only do harm;
- ethnocentrism - a manifestation of discrimination against individuals or groups due to rejection of their cultural and linguistic values;
- nationalism - a deep conviction that one particular nation has superiority over others.
The difficulties of interethnic relations include racial intolerance. The extreme degree of this manifestation is racism, which manifests itself in discrimination against people on racial grounds.
Other manifestations of intolerance
There are several types of intolerance that everyone faces in everyday life.
- Gender intolerance - is biased towards the opposite sex. Most often it manifests itself in discrimination against women fighting for their rights to work and take part in public life on an equal basis with men.
- Age intolerance is a prejudice towards some of the so-called human shortcomings that are attributed to them because of their age (for example, it is believed that old people cannot understand young people, and young people lack knowledge and experience).
- Educational intolerance is a neglect of highly educated people towards people with a lower level of education.
- Interclass intolerance - expressed in hostile relations between representatives of different property layers.
- Geographical intolerance - a biased and mocking attitude on the part of residents of the capital and other large cities to those who live in provincial cities, remote regions, and also to rural residents.
How to deal with intolerance?
The problems of intolerance are that it is very difficult to move away from one’s beliefs and try to understand other people and become more tolerant. To do this, just follow some recommendations:
- philosophical attitude to the fact that in your environment there may be people who have their own, different from yours, opinion on a particular issue;
- do not strive to control everything around you, to subordinate everyone to your order, your desires, because each person is individual, and by imposing his own rules on someone, you will only push these people away from you;
- understand that intolerance entails only negative emotions, so do not try to rebuild others for yourself and do not allow yourself to remake yourself to please others.