Noah
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quote:
Tolerance means that you dislike it and it is an aberration in your eyes. Respect means that although you don't agree with the practices, you respect their choice.
Well that isn't what the word tolerance means in any conventional sense, so I'd like enough context to be able to get at Mr. Gandhi's overall point.
Did he seem to mean to say something like: "When some people say tolerance they are misusing--or at best choking-- the word, that they are not being tolerant in the most common sense of the word but only in a narrow and limited way."? Did he seem to mean to say that there is a more common and, as it happens, nobler sense of tolerance which embodies respect; one which they ought to take a look at?
As for what the word tolerance means, typical definitions include ideas like:
... freedom from bigotry.
(...whereas the sense of the word attributed to Mr. Gandhi could apply perfectly well to a very bigoted but still passive attitude.)
a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward opinions and practices that differ from one's own
interest in and concern for ideas, opinions, practices, etc., foreign to one's own; a liberal, undogmatic viewpoint.
the ability to be fair and understanding to people whose ways, opinions etc are different from one's own
(Mr. Gandhi's notion doesn't seem to reflect much interest in or concern for, nor understanding in regard to the ideas of the other, except in some pretty limited and negative ways)
The capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others.
(And here we see, from a dictionary, the idea of respect as part of what constitutes tolerance, rather than respect being something quite opposite to tolerance.)
Simply putting up with something which you oppose and find aberrant does fit under the broad umbrella of the word tolerance. Mr. Gandhi wasn't in error insofar as that. But that sense of the word is usually listed as a tertiary meaning of the word, whereas ideas such as those cited above appear in definitions of primary and secondary senses of the word.
When dictionary editors place a given sense of a word first, that is not the expression of a personal preference of theirs. It is their official, standard way of indicating what people actually, statistically most often (based on careful research) mean by using that word.
Mr. Gandhi's take on tolerance, then, should be read carefully, I think, in that it it takes a sense of the word tolerance which usually ranks third or fourth and holds it to be the the primary or only sense of the word. This limited sense of the word which Mr. Gandhi employs is--as sometimes happens--actually at odds with the more primary sense of the word, specifically in regard to the notion of respect.
Mr. Gandhi seems to be holding this when those who research what people mean by words have determined--with no axe to grind--that things just don't stand this way in general.
So in general, tolerance doesn't "mean" something focused on dislike of aberrations. It "means" something which is itself has very much to do with respect, according to the exensive and careful research of lexicographers around the English-speaking world.
Mr. Gandhi's thesis that tolerance and respect act somehow in opposition here just doesn't wash unless he is being careful to make a case for a somewhat unconventional application of one of his key terms.
I tolerate a wide range of religions (though not all, and not all equally) the way I tolerate a range of opinion as to the best route to a destination. I don't see all but one as abberant. I see different routes as appropriate to different abilities, sensibilities, and most important different starting points.
So Mr. Gandhi happens to be dead wrong in describing my religious tolerance. He very specifically gets what he sees as the key idea (respect) exactly backward.
I think that there are probably a significant number of people whose tolerance of other religions (or sexual preferences, etc) can be described in Mr. Gandhi's terms; a bigoted and grudging sort of putting-up-with. On the other hand I don't think I'm unusual or special. I suspect that for vast numbers of people, religious tolerance comes quite specifically out of a rejection of bigotry. It is a genuine acceptance of a certain "otherness." This acceptance is one aspect of an overarching respect for others, rather than a refusal or disinclination to respect.
Maybe Mr. Ghandi's underlying idea was something like: "Should your personal notion of religious tolerance boil down to a kind of passive bigotry, then you might want to consider these notions about respect ...:" which would strike me as very suitable.
But if indeed his main thrust was captured by the particular sentence attributed to him: "Tolerance means that you dislike it and it is an aberration in your eyes." Then I think at best that he has a weak grasp of the conventional use of the word tolerance. At worst he would seem to be deciding for people in general what is is that they are saying and meaning and feeling, in flagrant disregard for the facts as they stand.
This would not bespeak much respect on his part, in my view.
Thank you for proposing the discussion, porthuronsub.
{I once bought a tabloid newspaper just because the headline story was of Saddam Hussein's submarine prowling the waters of Lake Michigan. As a Port Huron sub, I suppose you should be listening for her ping should she try to make a break for home waters. How much tolerance you'd want to show at that point would be a matter for careful consideration.}
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RE: respect vs. tolerance - 
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