Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.
From the age of 10, for several years I roamed the area around our house in Buckinghamshire. One day someone told me that a famous person lived in a neighbouring house, a Professor Sir Karl Popper, and that he was a philosopher. Other than finding his name interesting and one I would remember, I left it at that. Oh to have been a few decades older and a neighbour, I would so have loved to have had the opportunity to sit and listen to him.
“Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”
Karl Popper
We live in very polarising times. Karl Popper’s thoughts are highly relevant now as we see countries becoming more and more insular due first to the global movement of people, capital, business (and taxes), and now amplified by covid as we see self-interest coming to the fore.
As a simple thought, there is a line to draw between self-interest and intolerance.
To look at this, let me frankly look at the direction towards intolerance that the UK Government has moved in since before the Brexit vote. The Home Secretary (responsible for immigration and refugees) is someone who is only in the UK because her parents were taken in as refugees from Uganda in the 1970s, yet now she is determined to radically limit anybody “not like us” from coming to the UK. Most recently this is Afghan refugees, but this goes back at least ten years to the production of the “hostile environment” doctrine adopted to make it difficult to move to and live and work in the UK.
I want to live in a society that is is not only tolerant of differences between us but sees the vibrant power that comes with this. What I feel we see more and more around the world is intolerance overpowering reasonable self-interest.
I hope to see more leaders taking on board the words of Karl Popper and choosing not to tolerate the intolerant.