Beautiful ones that you are, know that there are amongst us those whose level of intolerance can maim and inflict pain on this world and her inhabitants. Recently read about a judge who awarded 11 million to a family of a marine killed in the Iraqi war from a "religious" organization who is intolerant of homosexuals. Bravo judge. Members of this "church" protested this marines funeral with cruel banners , such as "Thank God for dead soldiers". They believe that God is punishing the US for their tolerance of homosexuals.
To lose a child is the worse pain one can experience and yet this poor marine's family grief and pain had to be compounded by these truly heartless individuals. Intolerance is responsible for the crusades, inquisition,Cathar obliteration,multiple wars ,Nazi deaths to million of Jews, slavery,segregation,and most recently 9/11.
Intolerance begins in the warped perception of humans, that is fueled by ignorance and fear. It can be passed down through generations, contaminating view and behaviors of the masses. Prejudice is the poisonous fruit of intolerance of the differences in race, creed,nationalities, religions, and sexual orientations.
Intolerance can also begin as a denial of a tendency or part of oneself that is threatening to a person's image of himself, or the image he feels he must portray to others. Red flags go up in me when I see someone who is vehemently opposed and obsessed with for example homosexuality. We can also see this in certain histories of recently "fallen" fundamentalist preachers or politicians who were found to have been involved in certain sexual behaviors they opened campaigned to condemn and vilify as sinful. The louder they shout, the more one may be hiding so to speak about a part of themselves they secretly wish they could get rid of.
Intolerant people rarely make good psychotherapy candidates because of there rigidity of thought and there arrogant self righteousness. They generally have to experience a earth shuddering life crisis for them to even be open to considering another view. In personal relationships, they are apt to be extremely vocal about their diverse opinions and will quickly try to question and openly denounce conflictual perspectives of others. They are very defensive of their positions and will fight you to the nail . Extreme criticalists that they are, they will often want to bait you to belate and negate your different views under the disguise of their righteousness . They are excellent twisters of word and like to undermine opposing views with sarcasm and belittlement. Underlying this is of course is a great amount of aggression, stemming from their own feelings of powerlessness, about a part of themselves. Not the kind of person you would want to hang around with unless you share their views to a tee, and slither in your own intolerant ways.