Imagine a world where no one co-exists.
Imagine a world where every person is far from willing to accept and tolerate other beliefs; where diversity is merely a thing of the past. Imagine a world where acceptance became a word with no meaning; where citizens would live without the slightest of harmony because no beliefs were the same as any other ⏤
A world without love.
The more and more I look at the news, the more I realise the importance of tolerance ⏤ that this world is severely lacking compassion and it’s dividing our world into one that we fear. Without tolerance, the world that we thankfully call home would have wars far beyond what we have already experienced. We would be controlled by our differences rather than our similarities.
We would loathe thy neighbour instead of loving them.
Without the acceptance of diversity and our faith in humanity, extreme slavery, supremacy and uniformity would still exist ⏤ even worse than it already does today.
Millions and millions of people would continue to die at the hands of discrimination, our diverse communities would never have existed, and in the words of a lot of protestors, Donald Trump would have no wives.
As children, we are taught to be understanding; to be kind to our peers and to be fair, respectful and accepting of those around us. The fact that as we grow into adults and begin to learn our own opinions, a lot of the time what is previously taught merely becomes a distant memory.
It’s easy to forget just how much progress the world has already made. We had learnt from our past mistakes; that greed and intolerance were the beholders of war and genocide. We don’t want to let all that progress slip away, do we?
Western civilisation should be proud of its diversity, rather than making it something to fear. On one hand, we already have a world full of tolerance; where we are able to empower, protest and stand up for things that are undoubtedly wrong. And on the other, we have a glimpse of a world with no tolerance at all; full of racism, injustice and discrimination beyond belief.
Instead of taking 10 steps forward in a world that has already made so much progress, we’ve recently taken 10 steps backwards.
Who wants to live in a world where our borders are made of walls, rather than a blurred line on a map? Where travelling to other countries is taken from our freedom. Where we are further victimised for believing in something that others don’t when we all know that no one human is like any other.
I fear for the time that travel is nothing more than an exploration between dividing walls. Where #PrayFor become the regular norm, and where racism and genocide are things that we can never move from. It’s time we learn from our past ⏤ and from our ancestor’s pasts. Almost every family has a story to tell from the times of world war and desolation… Who wants to live in those times again?
The young generations will have to tell their progeny about the times of Muslim bans, the refugee crisis and that Black men and women were murdered by law enforcement. We will have to tell our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, that we let the severe lack of tolerance be the beholder of their future.
Tolerance is a symbol of love, acceptance, kindness, awareness and liberality. Without it, what we now call our past would have been darker than the already darkest of times.
Please, let’s not make that our future.
“Compassion and Tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength” ⏤ Dalai Lama
This is the importance of tolerance.
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