TOLERANCE
by
Ken Seymour
YOU DON'T HAVE TO PUT UP WITH IT ANYMORE
Tolerance is a cop-out. Tolerance is what people use as a crutch who are afraid to fight back. It gets them off the hook of responsibility. Tolerance is giving in. Tolerance is not a virtue, it’s a line in the sand where you say I’ll accept your foibles and pretend you don’t have any if you’ll accept mine. Tolerance settles nothing, it simply creates a hole for people where they can go bury their heads. Tolerance is the mother of being politically correct, and the father of our dumb-downed society.
But tolerance is losing its popularity among the shuffling millions of ‘don’t rock the boaters.’ I watched events unfold in the Ukraine with wide-eyed amazement. Here we have a country, a quiet, working class country where they’ve been told what to do and when to do it since before WW2. The bureaucrats stomped around in black suits telling the populace they’re lucky they’re no longer under communist rule, so we’ll tell you what to do. However, when it was obvious the elections were rigged a few thousand new non-tolerators took to the streets, and by the power of voice and numbers they got the election done right. They would not tolerate the usual old bureaucratic nonsense the politically elite always figure they have over the people.
And of all places this happened in the Ukraine. Not in Britain, where the ban on fox hunting is ‘not going to be tolerated’ and is likely to be rescinded, in part at least, and not in Iraq where the average Arab in the suicide-bombed streets is not going to accept the constant taking of lives by extremists. There’s a revolution of sorts. From the gentle TV watching Canadian who took Honda Canada to task for its tasteless and very tacky commercial where it’s ‘pedestrian friendly’ car ran down pedestrians - but didn’t kill them! Yes, the few who hounded Honda finally got the nerds to take that ridiculous commercial off the air. And the revolution goes on. Products from over priced bottled water, to shampoo that is nothing more than a nickles worth of liquid soap, are all being challenged. Even that sacred cow of the big TV networks, the almighty TV commercial has finally met its match after several US TV stations refused to run the promo about people supposedly watching the Super Bowl just to see the TV ads. One local TV anchor in Oregon (and in Rhode Island & New York I’m told) openly refered to the producers of the Super Bowl show as ‘idiots’ if they really thought people watched the show for the ads more than for the game. Bravo. Real values and real people are making a slow but sure comeback.
So, if tolerance is old hat, strictly for the birds, and is the refuge of the weak-kneed and the dumb-downed dorks this world has been recently plagued with, how do we apply tolerance where it is supposedly needed? I’ll tell you. But first you must recognize when NOT to apply tolerance. Next time you see something, or buy something, or hear something, or get taken for granted as being stupid - don’t tolerate it. Don’t turn the other cheek. Unless its one of the two at the back! No. Speak up. Show you’re not a human in sheeps clothing. Say something. Don’t take it. Now, on the other hand, what do you tolerate. Very very little. It’s how you react that counts. Don’t go off the deep end, don’t swear, don’t worry about the other guys non-use of turn signals. Just grow up. And tolerate the few tolerables.
THE 2004 FIRST PLACE 'BAD AD AWARD' FOR THE VERY WORST TV COMMERCIAL ON NORTH AMERICAN TV.
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