"It has been five years ago that the attacks on the WTC towers and the Pentagon took place. Horrible acts of terrorism. Also acts of supreme intolerance. Tolerance is one of the most important virtues in human beings. It's the basis of liberalism. It means that opposing views can exist side by side. Live and let live. Principled people, religious and/or fundamentalist people quite often are extremely intolerant. They will try by force or by coercion to have other people live by their standards and have them adopt their ideas. It has been the root of a lot of wars and violence. Tolerance is a great good. Should tolerance tolerate intolerance? It's the one thing it shouldn't do, because intolerance will destroy tolerance. My wish would be that people would learn to be more tolerant toward each other and toward other opinions and religions. It would make the world a better place. This posting is based on an article by A.C. Grayling I read the other day."
It's still an important question: Should tolerance tolerate intolerance? So, should we, because of the freedom of speech tolerate the intolerance of other people? I haven't yet figured that out. Have you? I think I'm inclined to let people say whatever they want to say. If we disagree we can always have a judge pass a judgment about whether it's legal. To me it makes more sense than prohibiting things in advance and as a result having people and organisations go underground. Also, why should we be (intolerant) what we don't like other people to be?
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