Last weekend I took a trip down into the heart of Salt Lake City where I enjoyed the Utah State Fair. (Or something along those lines.) In any case, on the way home my good friend Dan and I had a nice little chat about the world. On thing led to another and we started talking about tolerance and open mindedness and eventually the "stick it to the man syndrome." Well here are my thoughts and how I think they came out that night.
Tolerance. I have come across many people and also read many articles and essays of people who are so called "tolerant." It seems like tolerance is one thing that the world loves to parade around on a banner when they think they have it. It's become it's own religion. And it is no less exclusive than any other religion ever to walk the earth. "I'm tolerant and you are not, therefore I am better than you." That is basically the message I hear. And it makes me wonder, with all this tolerance being passed around and celebrated like candy on Halloween night, where did all the tolerance go for the people who are "intolerant." Why are we so loving and accepting of everyone except those who we brand "intolerant." Perhaps we should start calling it selective tolerance.
Here in Utah we hear lots of moaning and whining about how people are "close-minded." This basically goes along the same line as the tolerance idea. See, people come here to Utah from other states and they see these "snooty prideful close-minded zoobies" and they instantly abhor them. Why do they abhor them? Because these are close-minded people who think they are better than everyone else. But we all know that pride is the worst sin of all and since we are not prideful at all and we are open to those who don't share the same ideas and culture that we do, we are better than those close-minded zoobies. They deserve to be shunned and we should not try to understand them, nor help them, nor befriend them because they look down on us.
Wait... who's looking down on who here. Well everyone! It's a big party.
Stick it to the man syndrome. For those of you who have not seen 'School of Rock,' I'll explain what this is. Stick it to the man syndrome is basically rebelling against any establishment. The establishment could be the status quo, or many people's favorite around here, BYU. Or the church, or anything that is a power symbol in people's eyes. Usually it's just for the sake of rebelling. It's a way to be different. A way to fight against the norm. This is becoming an increasingly popular thing to do in todays world. Especially among the younger generations. I guess it started in the 60's now that I think about it. So maybe everyone has experienced this. Well unfortunately the goal has been lost. Thinking on your own and not blindly following an establishment is great. However; most people who jump on this exciting bandwagon are just following a new establishment. They are all rebelling and all rebelling in the same way. So much for individuality. What ever happened to weighing both sides and deciding which was best on your own. Oh.. I'm sorry, that would be playing into the hands of "the establishment!" That's not good! Well if I was "the establishment" and I wanted these rebels to do something, all I would have to do was say the opposite of what I wanted done. Then they would willing rebel and do exactly what I wanted them to do in the first place. I wonder if that has ever actually happened. I bet parents have pulled that on their children before. Oh yeah... it's called reverse psychology.
Wouldn't it be nice if we could actually live what these ideals were? We could be tolerant, but tolerate those who don't tolerate others. We could be open-minded, and be open to those who are "closed." We could not blindly follow the establishment, but rather think for ourselves and actually make the best decision there is. Not base it on what the establishment said. Well... this is my soap box. I'm stepping off of it soon. In the end we are all hypocrites, myself included. But why do we have to constantly point out the hypocrisy in others? Can't we just love them anyways? I'll step down now.
2 comments:
Word up. Shtickittodamanatosis, its a devastating disease. I hear hippies everywhere are dropping like flies from gut bustation and face meltage. Fun article.
Deep, real deep. This is why I love my job sometimes. I meet so many people from all around the world from all walks of life. In the end, they all want the same thing really. The differences are minor, but there are so many similarities. It is often hard to judge when everyone is just like you.
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