Food for Thought (2): Paradox of Tolerance
To most of my friend, I am often characterized by my angry voice toward injustice, discrimination and corruption. I'm especially infuriated by those individuals that spew hatred comments with the sole intention to spark social tension, then proceed to hide under the banner of "Freedom of Speech". This shameless act of hijacking the achievement of democracy, then wield as a weapon against democracy is extremely damaging to the institution by undermining its credibility, thus cannot be left unopposed. Hence it's my natural duty to voice my concern over this matter.
Tolerance breed Intolerance
The idea that tolerance soil will ultimately breed intolerance is not a new idea. Professor Karl Popper first mentioned the "Paradox of Tolerance" in 1945.
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.
As bizarre as it sound, this statement hold the true value of being tolerant. We as the member of society is responsible to the well being of the society by keeping everybody's ideology in line with our principle of enduring different voice from different members. It's also our duty to disqualify any ideology that rejects the acceptance of another voice in the society. It's our intolerant that eventually provide us the tolerating environment, which the world history had proven to us many time over.
Fighting Backs
Understanding the true meaning of tolerance enable us to draw the bottom line of "Freedom of Speech", that a speech is free to speak, if and only if the aforementioned speech is free of intolerance. Anything else is just mockery toward the true meaning of the idea of free speech, and should be objected immediately.
Homo Sapiens, the only intelligent being roaming the planet, capable to formulate complex arguments thru rational thinking with the use of logics. Yet there is individual out there that outright reject rational and proceed to believes in fairytales. Thus, afraid not and never frown upon the rejections of rational and logic. When rational approaches fail, even Prof. Popper agreed with the uses of force when dealing with extremely intolerant groups
But we should claim the right to suppress them if necessary even by force; for it may easily turn out that they are not prepared to meet us on the level of rational argument, but begin by denouncing all argument; they may forbid their followers to listen to rational argument, because it is deceptive, and teach them to answer arguments by the use of their fists or pistols.
Consider this as a Reminder
Thus when the minions of authoritarian power assembles for a open debate, asking for more intolerance in the name tolerance, consider this as a reminder: Every small step you retreat is just another connivance toward totalitarian rule.
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Some similarity seems to be present here:
https://www.mindingthecampus.org/2017/08/why-im-leaving-the-political-science-association/
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