Aswad
Posts: 9374
Joined: 4/4/2007 Status: offline
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Being tolerant of intolerance is admittedly not my strongest point, Jeptha. Reciprocal forfeiture, if you wish- the one who initiates the intolerance forfeits their claim to mine, to keep it simple. When in Rome and all that. Regardless, the point stands that all it takes for defeat to occur is to not reach for victory, and I would say that demonstrably false and inconsistent prejudices are a worthwhile opponent to conquer. Besides which, if it's not worth fighting for, I fail to see how one can consider it an important part of one's life. A valued part, perhaps, but not an overly important one. There is a certain difference between passion and zealotry. I doubt we would consider Martin L. King a zealot, despite the strength and depth of his convictions, and despite his willingness to fight for them in the manner he thought best. I am not advocating she go on a violent crusade here, but rather that she not compromise her convictions and passions out of convenience. Speaking up is generally recognized as a necessary part of causing social change. When everyone is silent, nothing changes. Obviously, the nail that sticks out is going to be the first to get hammered, but if nobody chooses to be that nail, then everyone accepts what is. For some, safety and convenience are a higher priority than liberty and acceptance. The US was once a place for those whose priorities were the other way around, to the point where it was suggested that one with such priorities deserved neither. Seems to me that is no longer the case, with a number of people advocating that safety and convenience should be the priority, that liberty needn't be all that extensive, and that acceptance is something one has no claim to. I happen to agree with the suggested implications for what those deserve. Health, al-Aswad.
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"If God saw what any of us did that night, he didn't seem to mind. From then on I knew: God doesn't make the world this way. We do." -- Rorschack, Watchmen.
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