What is tolerance?

What is tolerance?

The lecture brought up the question if people today are less tolerant than the medieval Middle Eastern people.

The Cambridge Dictionary definition of “tolerance” is: “willingness to accept behavior and beliefs that are different from our own, although you might not agree with or approve of them”. 

Not only today, but also in the Middle Ages war and crime are and always have been present. From terrorist attacks and counter terrorist attacks, that don’t seem to choose between target and non-target, to the Muslim dominated Spain, that suppressed the population and their beliefs, to crusades, that aimed to force everyone into the Christian belief. Real tolerance has never been present. Tolerance, in most cases, is a superficial virtue, that everyone likes to pretend to have. Today’s violence and intolerance is only different in the means of technology and advancement. Cruelty is part of the human nature, suppressed by culture. Cultures that allow cruelty will have it, cultures that don’t will not see it, because cruelty is hidden. E.g. Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Cases.

Tolerance is an innately flawed concept, that is more utopian than real.

In the end I want to make the point that I don’t think that the average character of the people changes over time. Tolerance is always subjective and there’s always been waves of tolerance, intolerance, peace and war. I believe that people today are as tolerant/intolerant as people in the Middle Ages. The only difference between now and then is a different stage of knowledge.