The problem of
tolerance.
Tolerance is one of the oldest concepts in the world. Ancient Greeks considered it as stability
basis of democratic state. This idea is connected with reverence, understanding for distinct views, beliefs, and customs. However,
tolerance has just become one of the most important problems in many countries for ages.
There are different kinds of intolerance, which involves race, origin discrimination. At the beginning of 20th century the reason of it was Nazi theory that white race had superiority and was entitled to rule whole world. As a result, Gypsies, Jews suffered from prejudices. They were persecuted in many countries. Lack of tolerance led to the Holocaust. At the same time in America took place race segregation. The main idea of it was to separate Black people. They were forced to attend to separate schools, they had specially prepared for them public toilets, benches, restaurants. Although nowadays equality is guaranteed for all people, we can still observe xenophobic behaves.
In many situations, we face with discrimination based on sex. In the society, it is generally believed that a man is a better human being than a woman is. In that way employer prefers men to work, they usually receive higher scariest, promote very quickly. Female sex is perceived as not intelligent and is boiled down to the role of an ideal mother, wife only. There are many institutions, which fight against this prejudice but conviction about a woman as a weak, worse individual has molded for many years and it is
difficult to oppose it.
The problem of tolerance concerns not only adults but also teenagers. Young people who do not have rich parents, wear not fashionable clothes or do not listen to popular bands are usually discriminated by their peers. These acts of violence may have unpredictable effects in the future. A person who is a bully can grow up to become a criminal. However, his victim will probably bring results in psyche. In this connection, parents should do everything to protect their children against prejudices.
In conclusion, respect for different views, beliefs or customs sometimes might be very difficult especially when we live in surroundings where some stereotypes prevail. On the other hand, this does not absolve us from a bit of tolerance. Maybe then, there would be easier to understand other human’s behaving as the popular proverb says: “do not judge what you do not know”.