Reflecting on the International Year of Tolerance and its current and enduring impact
Questions based upon the United Nations Year of Tolerance article on Wikipedia and my own thoughts.
What is tolerance to you? Intolerance? Do you think there are different levels of tolerance depending on the situation or individual, or is it a more abstract and universal concept? What was your concept of these ideas in 1995, and how does it compare to your current one? What misconceptions did or do you have about tolerance and intolerance? What are you doing about these concepts and misconceptions?
What impact did the Year of Tolerance - 1995 - have on you, in terms of your thinking, feeling and actions? Give a pen sketch of yourself and your friends during that year, or your family. How was your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health at that time compared to what it is now?
Do you believe tolerance is a more or less endangered virtue than it was in 1995? Give reasons for your answer.
What do you see as your political, legal and moral duty to preserve - and create - tolerance? How has this changed since 1995?
How have you used law, education, local solutions, access to information and individual awareness to reduce intolerance? Which of the five planks do you think most important and why? Do you think they can also be used to increase intolerance? Then what do you do about it?
Do you agree with Aristotle that tolerance is indeed a middleground? What extremes of tolerance have you seen in your life?
If you were in a new community or country for the first time, what standards of tolerance would be applicable to you?
How good are you at "tolerating the intolerable"? Is tolerance more of a virtue when it goes beyond the easily tolerable?
When is tolerance not a virtue, for you?
What is tolerance to you? Intolerance? Do you think there are different levels of tolerance depending on the situation or individual, or is it a more abstract and universal concept? What was your concept of these ideas in 1995, and how does it compare to your current one? What misconceptions did or do you have about tolerance and intolerance? What are you doing about these concepts and misconceptions?
What impact did the Year of Tolerance - 1995 - have on you, in terms of your thinking, feeling and actions? Give a pen sketch of yourself and your friends during that year, or your family. How was your mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health at that time compared to what it is now?
Do you believe tolerance is a more or less endangered virtue than it was in 1995? Give reasons for your answer.
What do you see as your political, legal and moral duty to preserve - and create - tolerance? How has this changed since 1995?
How have you used law, education, local solutions, access to information and individual awareness to reduce intolerance? Which of the five planks do you think most important and why? Do you think they can also be used to increase intolerance? Then what do you do about it?
Do you agree with Aristotle that tolerance is indeed a middleground? What extremes of tolerance have you seen in your life?
If you were in a new community or country for the first time, what standards of tolerance would be applicable to you?
How good are you at "tolerating the intolerable"? Is tolerance more of a virtue when it goes beyond the easily tolerable?
When is tolerance not a virtue, for you?