Cultivating Tolerance: Striking a Balance for Society - Essay Sample

Introduction

Tolerance is a critical source of power for every society. Nonetheless, like all other values, tolerance requires individuals who consistently maintain, support, and strive to cultivate it within the community. Tolerance is not exempted from the constant weaknesses and changes faced by other values; it even risks replacement by distinct values (Almond 134). Hence, a society should establish an elaborate means that strikes a balance between the need for tolerance and the need to protect itself; the balance can be ensured through several methods.

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First, society should understand that tolerance is a critical component of freedom. This creates a conducive environment for the community to protect itself while at the same time, creating a tolerance balance (Almond 139). Through the virtue of tolerance, society can accommodate diverse opinions and views that they may not necessarily agree with. Furthermore, tolerance within society eliminates the possibility of unfair judgments and discrimination within the community. It plays a crucial role in evoking the necessary empathy and reasoning required while delivering judgments.

A society consists of people with diverse cultures and beliefs. Thus, to create a balance between protecting itself and the need for tolerance, society should eliminate any possibility of cultural domination. For instance, religion plays a crucial role in ensuring community stability (Almond 131). As such, any conflict due to the failure of society to tolerate the different religions may lead to society collapsing. However, some society's tendency to identify with one culture more than the other may ultimately be fatal, especially when the people fail to tolerate the minority, resulting in a weakened identity.

Moreover, a balance between the need for tolerance and the need for society to protect itself can be ensured by carefully scrutinizing the legislation processes. The laws are vital in creating and running an open and transparent community, they further set the pace for more critical aspects of the society such as politics (Almond 140). However, all laws require tolerance by society to ensure that they are useful since they may not be appealing to every member of society. Consequently, various attempts to compel the society members to abide by the laws have notably been rendered unproductive as the attempts only result in intolerance and instability within the society.

The balance between tolerance and the need for society's protection can be achieved by encouraging equality. In most cases, inequality is often enhanced in the community by a specific group of people. For example, gender and sexuality have been a relatively complicated problem to deal with in society. Women are often subjects to sexual harassment, and their voices are significantly suppressed because the abusers occupy powerful positions with the ability to influence justice (Almond 133). Such acts lead to increased intolerance within the society triggering the formulation of movements geared towards championing the women's rights within the society. Also, society's inability to openly judge the legality of same-sex marriage has resulted in a considerable degree of intolerance within the society, hence interfering with the vital balance between tolerance and society's protection.

Conclusion

In conclusion, how to balance the various issues within society to maintain a tolerant society remains a dilemma. The concerns are broad, and the solutions are inevitably not able to meet everybody's demand. Hence, creating a community that accommodates everybody requires a considerable input of the diverse groups of people within the society.

Works Cited

Almond, Brenda. "Education for tolerance: Cultural difference and family values." Journal of Moral Education 39.2 (2010): 131-143. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057241003754849