“Should a society that has elected to be tolerant be intolerant about intolerance?”

Black Swan — Hyde Park — London

In fact, a society that has elected to be tolerant has made this decision for its own society. To choose means giving up. It should be made clear that choosing tolerance means rejection of non-tolerance.

Therefore, societies (or transversal Groups) which are « intolerant » should be « left alone to follow their own preferences », as long as they do not interfere with ours, within our society. If they did, we should try to convince them to leave us alone. Peacefully as a first choice.

Of course, some religious extremist Groups consider that they received the mandate from their Gods to spread worldwide their way of life & Beliefs. Which implies the ‘’need’’ to convert everyone on Earth to their Beliefs, by force, if necessary.

In the West, instead, we consider that it is our duty to free the oppressed people in the world through implementation of democracy & free market, supported by military intervention as a last option. Regardless of whether these oppressed people were asking for it or not.

The West seems to be inhabited by a Vertical Vision of the World, where we have God >> Mankind >> Resources (living & non-living). Earth appears to be the Mankind Domain (1). The individual direct link with God, added to the Free will of each individual leads to a society where all individuals are free an equal before the common Law. The liberal Economic system appears to be a daughter of this Western vertical vision (2). Nowadays, many claim that the system produces major -sometimes potentially deadly- disadvantages worldwide. So far, we only have been able to address the effects of the causes.

I like to repeat that there is an interesting Horizontal Vision of the World, which has been slowly elaborated through hundreds of thousand of years of Social Evolution. The different First People on various continents have independetly ‘’invented’’ their own Horizontal Vision version. Their Vision (and the social values/rules which goes with it) enabled them to survive during very long periods of time, as well as going through several Climate Changes.

The First People animism places humans at the same level & among the other (living & non-living) beings. Each being have a spririt. Therefore, they all deserve equal respect. (3)

It often occurs that an animist society have a Creator God. After creating the world, He then retired in some remote place (mountain,…) and still rests there.

Of course, it would be absurd to propose « moving back to live in caves ». But there are certainly a few essential Values which would benefit to us all (including fairies ?) if we managed to translate them into social Rules, and spread them worldwide. (4)

The anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss proposed the concept of ‘’Generalized Humanism’’ which he describes as follows « A well ordered humanism does not begin with oneself but places the world before the life, the life before mankind, the respect for the other beings before the self-esteem. » (5) We have difficulties to conceive what such modern world could look like. This world would include an almost complete inversion of Values, versus today ! Therefore, it seems unlikely that democracy will be of any help to bring forward such revolution. A spiritual & ecological revolution of minds would be required.

Only some world disaster could create the conditions for the mankind to then look for radical changes. Maybe the situation which would follow some « Giant Black Swan » could lead the survivors to « freely choose » Beliefs, Values & Rules enabling human beings to live in full respect of the other living & non-living beings.

Other people’s intolerance is intolerable. But why are we so tolerant about our own tolerance for the environment we will leave to our descendants ?

« The golden age which a blind superstition had placed behind -or in front of- us is in us. » (6)

Jean P. Ciron

1. - (The ancient mythology is, mostly, a contract by which the mankind promise an eternal worship to the gods in exchange for their domination on plants and animals: the first chapters of the Genesis are an example of choice.) « La mythologie ancienne est, pour une large part, un contrat par lequel les hommes promettent une dévotion éternelle aux dieux en échange de leur domination sur les plantes et les animaux : les premiers chapitres de la Genèse en sont un exemple de choix. » (« Sapiens » — Yuval Noah HARARI — Université Hébraïque de Jérusalem)
2. - (Next to each religion is a political belief which, by affinity, is joined to it. (…) The idea of the rights is nothing more than the idea of the virtue introduced into the political world.) « A côté de chaque religion se trouve une opinion politique qui, par affinité, lui est jointe. (…) L’idée des droits n’est autre chose que l’idée de la vertu introduite dans le monde politique. » « De la Démocratie en Amérique » — Alexis de TOCQUEVILLE (Political philosopher)
3. - (When Animism was the dominant system of faith, the standards and human values had to consider the perspective and the interests of this multitude of the other beings, such as animals, plants, fairies and ghosts.) « Quand l’Animisme était le système de croyance dominant, les normes et valeurs humaines devaient prendre en considération la perspective et les intérêts de cette multitude d’autres êtres, tels que les animaux, les plantes, les fées et les fantômes . » (« Sapiens » — Yuval Noah HARARI — Université Hébraïque de Jérusalem)
4. - (These societies considered as primitive (…) and destined for extinction (…) offer the only model to understand the way the mankind lived (…) during an historic period corresponding (…) to 99 % of the total duration of life of the humanity) « Ces sociétés tenues pour arriérées (…) et vouées à l’extinction (…) offrent le seul modèle pour comprendre la façon dont les hommes vécurent (…) pendant une période historique correspondant (…) à 99% de la durée totale de vie de l’humanité (…). » « L’Anthropologie Face aux Problèmes du Monde Moderne » — Claude Lévi-Strauss (Anthropologue)
5. - Humanisme Généralisé = « (…) un humanisme bien ordonné ne commence pas par soi-même mais place le monde avant la vie, la vie avant l’homme, le respect des autres êtres avant l’amour-propre. » Mythologiques III — Claude Lévi-Strauss (Anthropologue)
6. - « L’âge d’or qu’une aveugle superstition avait placé derrière (ou devant) nous est en nous. » « Tristes Tropiques » — Claude Lévi-Strauss (Anthropologue)