Tolerance

I find faults and imperfections in a blink of an eye and point them out just as quickly. I am full of prejudges. I forget or am too weak to admit that I am fallible. Many others do the same. Tolerance and respect for others based on a sense of self-fallibility is fundamental to learning and thus improvement of one’s condition.

The learning I am talking about is not the initial study of the one’s contemporary knowledge but comes later in life, well after the initial education is over. This is when one’s knowledge, which was taught as truth, are challenged and proved wrong. Only tolerance and willingness to re-examine one’s understanding will allow one to gain the benefits of new thinking and doing of things.

Thus to listen and accept new thinking which is not one’s own but which is better than before is a strength. This is what men must learn when they are still children. They must learn to judge new ideas based purely on their merit and not be afraid of changing their minds. Only then can one really stay on the road to truth and not be pulled aside and remain behind, held back by outdated thinking.

While many fail to tolerate differing opinion others may blindly idealise certain people too much. This causes the exact same problem as does a lack of tolerance. Ideas and new discoveries are not judged based on their merit but by who proposes them. Someone who idealises someone else will just as easily be convinced of a bad idea as would someone reject a good idea for the lack of tolerance of the new. This means that one must consider all people, including oneself, fallible. Education of children must thus also teach to question and judge people and their ideas fairly based on rational thinking.