Tolerance is no Virtue: Ignorance, Appreciation, and The Human Story (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781425933944)

Tolerance is mediocre and cowardly, Shirley Osborne writes in this book. It is a definite improvement on crusades and death camps and gulags and lynch mobs and slave ships and witch-hunts and such. Yes. But, it is simply not good enough. It is beneath us, and it keeps us ignorant, and we know that, she says. We want something better, and we know, too, that we can have that. "Tolerance Is No Virtue: ignorance, appreciation, and the human story" investigates the means by which hatred and intolerance have come to seem both normal and reasonable in our world. It examines our common history of bigotry, and invites readers to rise above ignorance and fear by actively exploring and enjoying the wonders of our human miscellany. The fundamental premise of this book is that differences are to be sought out and celebrated. They are not to be merely tolerated. The writer believes that our diversity is the primary reason the human race still survives, and shows us that difference of form, purpose, outlook, practice, is what drives human development. Similarities draw us together, and differences move us forward. Too often, we focus on similarities, while we ignore, resist, or try to erase other people's differences, and consequently, inevitably, we end up in conflict, at war, often hating even our neighbors. Using the reasoning power that is our common birthright, and drawing on a practical wisdom that has often been our saving grace as a community of beings, Osborne shows us how to truly appreciate the multiplicity that is the marvel of our condition as human individuals, and the very basis of our survival as a species. Writing with a passion and a command of language that are infectious and powerful, she summons us to show some faith in the rightness of Reason, and in the power of our Humanity, the energy that drives the progress of the human race. We can avert other September 11ths, she believes, and this book offers one strategy that can help us do that.

Author: Shirley Osborne of Montserrat
ISBN-10: 1425933947
ISBN-13: 9781425933944
Publisher: Authorhouse
Language: English
Published: 09/29/2006
Pages: 544
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.29lbs
Size: 8.00h x 5.00w x 1.21d

Review Citation(s):
Foreword 08/21/2009