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  • Tolerance - what is it? Where do we stop?
    The concept of tolerance (taking a broad-minded view of others’ opinions and beliefs, from the Latin tolerantia, or endurance) was devised by racists and other unenlightened people. The world is organized in such a way that it requires variety in order to exist, and it is the combination of this variety that creates all the imaginable and unimaginable shades of life.
    The three primary colors – blue, red, and green – when combined produce an array of hundreds of millions of shades.
    The four basic temperaments – choleric, melancholic, sanguine, and phlegmatic – when combined produce the planet’s 7 billion people.
    The different races combine to define what we now call humankind.
    The laws of physics – the law of gravity, the law of conservation of energy – combine to give us the world as we know it and to which we have adapted.
    Thus, tolerance is an imprecise and even harmful concept.
    See how polite this sounds: “I am tolerant of others’ opinions,” “I am tolerant of others’ skin color,” “I am tolerant of others’ religion.”
    But see how stupid this sounds: “I am tolerant of the color blue,” “I am tolerant of the law of gravity.”

    Instead of tolerance, the correct word is awareness.
    I am aware that the law of gravity is an integral part of the general laws of nature. I have to adapt to this law in order to survive and grow.
    I am aware that the color blue (and the colors green and red) are an integral part of the color palette. I have to accept this as truth.

    I am aware that other people’s skin color, religion, personality, manners, and ethnicity are an integral part of humankind and its development.
    These things will always exist, whether or not I am tolerant of them. I can only choose to be aware of them and accept them as truth.