The Little Things...

"Those are my values. If you don't like them, I have others." - Groucho Marx

Tolerance. One word, three syllables, nine letters, many meanings, and an infinite amount of problems. For those of you who can't guess what the topic of this week's column is, just put down the paper and walk away. For the rest of you, we will be talking about tolerance (or lack there of (or lack of lack of tolerance)). Now I understand we are all engineers, so I will break this down as much as possible so all of us can understand. I think there are several major ways to view tolerance: of one person, of a group, and of an idea.

Now in order to make this even easier to grasp, we will need a common point of reference. I know there are people who don't like my column, but I have to tolerate you so you have to tolerate me (but more about that later). So to keep it simple, I will tell you ahead of time: if you don't normally like my column and think it is just my worthless ranting, then stop reading now, you have already proved my point. Otherwise, keep going, you may even learn something (though probably not).

The average person would like to think that (s)he is as tolerant as any other person when it comes to other people. Truth be told, I doubt there is a single person out there who doesn't have someone they dislike just because of something they believe or do. If you can truly say that you like everyone you know and every one is your friend, I would like to point out that goldfish are not really people and suggest that you try to wander around your floor or apartment. There is bound to be someone who will piss you off. Now I know that some would say that wasn't very tolerant of me, and I would say that saying I'm not very tolerant wasn't very tolerant of them. Point taken? Well, if not, I'll sum up later.

A similar point can be made in the case of groups or classes of people. Now for a basic example of race tolerance: a group of white students and a group of black students (and for those of you who don't like the term "black", when you start using something other than white to describe me, I'll change, no offense intended). The white students are influenced by their upbringing and their environment and slowly develop an underlying fear of black students. This fear leads to a lack of acceptance. On the other side, the black students have similar influences, which lead them to fear the white students, and the fear may turn into anger. This makes it very hard to extend communication. I have heard many white students make comments about the "shifty" looking black kid and assuming he must be in a gang by the way he dresses. On the other hand, I have had the "your people oppressed my people for hundreds of years" argument put to me on more than one occasion. Personally, my ancestors were Canadian. They didn't oppress anybody. It was just assumed because I have sub-average pigmentation, just like it was assumed the black student wasn't law-abiding due to his skin and clothes (a brief note: if you don't want to perpetuate the stereotype, don't dress the stereotype).

My personal favorite type of tolerance, which most people choose to ignore, is that of ideas. Everyone has at some point said, "What an idiot, that was such a stupid thing to suggest" or something to that general effect. In fact, I bet there are many people who say that about my column every week. However, I use the medium of writing to spread my ideas and do my part to show people just how intolerant they really can be. Most people would rather just sit there and complain about things to their friends and talk about how I just don't understand how things are. Well, here's your wakeup call people: I understand a lot more than those of you who think things are just fine. People are different. Ideas are different. People have never, and never will get along with everyone, so you can stop trying to get everyone to like you and live your life.

To sum up: Tolerance is something that people like to think they have but constantly prove they don't. I hope that at some point during reading this, you proved me right, by either hating me, or thinking of someone else you hate. And now, in the spirit of the column, that's my opinion, keep yours to yourself.