ABSTRACT
Toleration is a matter of putting up with that which you oppose: the motto of the tolerant person is ‘live and let live’, even when what she lets live shocks, enrages, frightens, or disgusts her. As such, toleration is a controversial value. The secular righteous on the left reject it as the pet indulgence of a pampered liberal elite whose self-interest it serves by providing them with convenient excuses for blocking any agitation aiming at real social change. The secular righteous on the right reject it as the corrupt policy of the morally spineless who lack the insight and strength of will to improve the moral character of society and their fellow citizens through zero tolerance. And the religious righteous treat arguments for toleration with suspicion in the face of the eternal damnation to be meted out to those who will inevitably stray from the path to salvation once other paths are made available to them through the practice of toleration.
