Society views things differently every day
Society views things differently every day. Things that were totally and completely unacceptable just 10 years ago, are now being done daily and are not even frowned upon. What is intolerant today, may be tolerant tomorrow. Are acts that are considered tolerant or intolerant that way for the good of society if what is acceptable is constantly changing? At some point everyone has their own vice they believe is worth living for.
Tolerance
Tolerance is if two or more people disagree with each other, but allow a conduct to take place while still being respectful to one another, even though they do not agree with the matter. The vital key to tolerance is is disagreement, which has been malformed to present-day standards, whereas if you disagree with someone, you are considered intolerant. When in fact, if someone refuses to accept the views, beliefs, or even the behavior of someone, just because it is not the same as his own is when is considered intolerant. There are some many different things that can even be tolerated with. The basic roots of tolerated things are a person’s beliefs, values, and everyday norms.
Could all beliefs be equally rational and justifiable? People have a natural need to believe in something. They have to find some sort of hope to give them a purpose. This doesn’t mean
that they are following Christ necessarily, or Buddha, or Allah. How could just one religion be intolerant without being conceited? A person’s belief likely came from his culture and heritage, but not everyone’s story is the same and not everyone was raised to be the person they are and they may have had to overcome their home life or something and that is why they believe what they do.
A value is a person’s standards of behavior, it is what they find is most important in life. Again, like a person’s beliefs, how are you supposed to knock someone down for what they value, for what they think is important to them, without being conceited? It really is not anyone else’s business besides their own, unless they are acting out or causing a scene to disturb the public. From a sociological perspective, although someone may seem different, it does not make it alright to label them as intolerant. Sometimes people are afraid and act out when they notice someone is different than them.
Exactly how tolerant should someone be of intolerance? A norm is like a pattern of a person’s social behavior. That being said, intolerance does not need to become the norm for anyone. By a certain age, everyone knows how to properly behave, rather it be, at home or in public. Norms are typically anticipated by a group. If some cannot seem to be tolerant in their group for whatever reason, they may have to expect consequences.
Conflict
The conflict of being intolerant comes by showing off arrogance. It does not seem that it would happen as often as it does, but from a sociological perspective, it should be understood in consideration that so many have shared influences. Shared influences leads unto shared ideas. If a person is intolerant, he will not be as capable enough to remain successful in a domain where
others may have very strong and apposing ideas. Being intolerant may also bring the fear of hurting or losing a friendship, even though the conflict is completely inevitable and absolutely, impossible to avoid. The good thing is, when conflict arises and ideas come together, there may be a higher-quality solution.
Symbolic Interactionism
“Functionalist and conflict theorist both analyze large-scale, society wide patterns of behavior, theorist who take the interactionist perspective generalize about every day forms of social interactions in order to explain society as a whole.”(Schaefer p. 14) Symbolic interactionism helps a person find meaning in their life with their experiences. The theory consists of the elements of meaning, language, and thought. All three elements go hand and hand with a person’s beliefs, values, and norms. Rather a person is tolerant or intolerant, they will find a symbolic interactionism, just by being a human being. “Interactionism (also referred to as symbolic interactionism) is a sociological framework in which human beings are viewed as living in a world of meaningful objects.”(Schaefer p.14)
To Conclude
Everything is in a constant changing cycle. They say history repeats itself, if that is the case it is only natural to change the way we do things. Rather something went wrong and is messed up or something is good but has potential to be better. If someone has morals, they will know what the difference from right and wrong no matter what society says or is doing at the time. If they stick with what they believe, they may be considered intolerant, and that’s the good thing about living in America is we have the freedom to express ourselves, our values, and our beliefs almost however we want. People are always going to have some sort of judgement for
whatever reason. It is up to that person to remain true to his self and what he believes.
