Do you consider yourself tolerant? Are there certain things that cross the line? Is there ever a time that intolerance is appropriate?

Living, as you do, in the material world, you’re bound to encounter all sorts of stuff, every minute of every hour of every day.

You have to discriminate between what you like, what you don’t mind, and what you will absolutely not put up with. It’s a big dance between your soul and your values, and it’s never ending.

In your own life, it comes down to preferences, predilections, and priorities. You choose this, while turning down that. In your own house, you make the rules.

Outside your front door is your community. In the West, the idea is that decisions are to be made democratically. Your friends and neighbors have a say in what’s acceptable and what’s not.

Dance communities or online spaces can have rules or guidelines, and some mechanism of moderation or consequence to keep things in order. Sometimes via an open form of consensus, often from the top down.

Zooming further out we can’t help but observe people in power acting in any number of ways that makes one gasp with astonishment. “Surely, they’ve gone too far!”

So where indeed does one ‘draw the line’? When do you put your foot down like Walter Sobchak and shout “You were over the line Smokey! Mark it zero!”

Conversations about tolerance can get tricky, so let me introduce you to the Popper Paradox. Karl Popper was one of the 20th century’s most influential philosophers.

“A dogged opponent of totalitarianism, communism, nationalism, fascism … he identified modern liberal democracies as the best-to-date embodiment of an open society.”

So what’s the paradox? He argued that ‘a truly tolerant society must retain the right to deny tolerance to those who promote intolerance’.

It boils down in layman’s terms to the idea that ‘my tolerance ends where your intolerance begins.’ (There’s a useful infographic here)

When intolerance is tolerated, everyone loses. The collective level of consciousness has nowhere to go but down.

Spaces held to a higher standard have a much better feeling about them. In online spaces, it’s like background noise that you don’t notice until you step away from it.

Your dance is fractal, from your kitchen table to your global community. Keep bringing your best to it! (and know where to draw the line).

Much love till next Monday!

Merci et à bientôt!

M+

ML #691

Mark Metz
Monday Love Movement Calendar