A truly free society is based on a vision of respect for people and what they value. – Charles Koch
Given how much I dislike wealthy and rich elites, it comes to me as a surprise that I would use an on the point quote by Koch, owner of Koch Industries and the 8th richest man in the world.
But anyway here goes.
A free society is a delicious dish, because it contains so many tastes ingredients which make it seem to attractive from afar, however once you take a taste you realise how gross or vile the taste is. That is, if you only eat the 2019 version of the dish. Because the dish doesn’t contain a crucial missing ingredient which I think holds the dish together.
Tolerance.
Or a lack of it.
You see western society is more diverse than it has ever been, probably it will be more so in the future, but that is exactly what the problem is. The more diverse we become, the less tolerant we are.
Post 1945, we saw Britain in probably its worst state and yet we stood the test of time and arrived here today. One could say that it was because of the people, they would be half right, namely it was because of mass immigration. Because the industries were declining, the economy was slowly falling, Britain needed more manpower than ever to fill it’s empty factories and since it relied heavily on its colonial posts pre 1945. Immigration was the solution, then people started working immediately you had all types of people coming from various different backgrounds to contribute to a larger collective society.
Well, that was the idea, anyway that collective society didn't last long because importing 75,000 immigrants a year didn’t take well with the British public. Racism was the norm and riots ensued as a result of friction between racial communities. Then after that brief period, we enjoyed a number of decades of peace until now.
You see this bit of history lesson serves as reminder that racism within a free society is caused due to the lack of tolerance toward other racial, ethnic, religious communities. However, this doesn't only extend toward those particular groups, this idea of tolerance is also geared toward accepting people with difference thoughts and ideas to yourself. This also includes criticism, where it should be constructive and progressive criticism aimed at making society more cohesive and improve lives. Any sort of hate masked with criticism should not be allowed, because even a fool can tell whether you criticise him or hate him.
As I am writing this, my condolences go out to the victims in the New Zealand terrorist attack on a mosque.
Having tolerance for ideas you disagree with is fundamentals in living within the society, because your not just going to come across different people of race and religion. They could be people you know, people with the same skin colour and race but every individual has a different identity that he or she holds. Some ideas may in fact empower society and some may embarrass, regardless of the consequence it is up to us to having the strength to tolerate people different from us. Because in reality, nothing has ever stayed the same and time tends to change ideas, people and even places.
For example, a 100 years ago or maybe more than that woman weren’t allowed to vote and it was seen as a norm in society back then. But if a person from that society, let’s say hypothetically time travelled to today’s society he will have a hard time to fit in. Because his mindset is different when compared to today’s mindset. Given the particular circumstances he was bought up in, he wouldn’t align today’s ideals of “woman’s right to vote is a basic human right.”
Let us end it on this note say that for a free society to flourish, it needs to stay cohesive and collective and for that to happen every individual within said society needs to display a certain degree of tolerance to things which are different unique.
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