Tolerance

Tolerance is the essence of good communication. We have to be tolerant towards other peoples' believes and point of views in order to have reasonable communication and thus be able to benefit from each others' creative ideas and work together as a strong group.

Tolerance is accepting your communicators point of view, even though you might not agree with the person. An example of tolerance can be to agree to disagree in an intense political or religious discussion. According to Karl Popper, there is a certain extent to which we should not tolerate each others actions. When tolerance allows intolerance to have its way, we are undermining the whole concept of tolerance. If intolerance can suppress the idea of tolerance then we cannot protect a tolerant society and we then have to claim, in the name of tolerance, not to accept intolerance.

When we are travelling abroad we might encounter people who don't share our point of view and who might have the opposite opinion as us. An example could be the concept of polygamy, which many western people would find inappropriate. If you live in a culture that proclaims concepts and ideas you don't agree upon, you may have to use certain tools to stay tolerant toward the culture. One solution to stay tolerant can be to take a short trip away from the place where you feel stressed, to a hotel where you can recharge and later return with renewed energy.

It is not necessarily the culture in which you find yourself in who's politics, religions or rituals are odd. When you find it difficult to understand a certain ritual, point of view or action you have to ask yourself why you find it strange. How does it differ from your own culture and in what way could it be interpreted differently. A kiss on the cheek from a Spanish person may be a breach of the comfort zone to a Danish person who would prefer a handshake, but we then have to ask ourselves. Why am I not comfortable with this? Maybe Danish people are to uncomfortable about touching and should loosen up a bit.