CHAPTER SUMMARY
Lesson 15 — Tolerance
The Importance of Tolerance
TOLERANCE will teach you how to avoid the disastrous effects of racial and religious prejudices which mean defeat for millions of people who permit themselves to become entangled in foolish argument over these subjects. This lesson goes hand in hand with the one on ACCURATE THOUGHT, for the reason that no one may become an Accurate Thinker without practicing tolerance. Intolerance closes the book of Knowledge and writes on the cover, “Finally! I have learned it all!”.
The Prevalence of Intolerance
Intolerance has two significant features.
- First, Intolerance is a form of ignorance. It makes enemies of others and causes unnecessary wars. It dethrones reason and substitutes mob psychology in its place.
- Second, Intolerance is the chief force of organized religions and cults of the world. These organizations break society in smaller pieces and make us look past our commonalities whilst pitting us against each other.
We must understand that anything which impedes the progress of civilization stands, also, as a barrier to each individual; and, stating it conversely, anything that beclouds the mind of the individual and retards his mental, moral and spiritual development, also retards the progress of civilization.
The Chief Governing Forces of Society
The beginning of this section deals with two important factors which constitute the chief controlling forces of civilization. One is physical heredity and the other is social heredity.
Physical heredity is static and fixed. Social heredity comes from the effects of our environment and early training. Social heredity is malleable and has a greater controlling force on human progress.
The Effects of Social Heredity
We often hold opinions that are based upon other peoples opinions. For this reason, I believe it’s fair to say that we are often who we are because we have no choice of becoming anything else, For our opinions are not based on fundamental reasoning but more so on “That’s what he said”.
We have our general inclinations of truth and we latch onto anyone who voices or agrees with them. Consequently, we believe anything that they say without proper inspection of their ideology as they accept what we believe and we must do likewise.
The three great organized forces through which social heredity operates are the schools, the churches and the public press. Any ideal that has the active co-operation of these three forces may, during the brief period of one generation, be forced upon the minds of the young so effectively that they cannot resist it.
The outstanding and most prominent of man’s beliefs are those which were forced upon him, or which he absorbed of his own volition, under highly emotionalized conditions when his mind was receptive. Under such conditions, the evangelist can plant the idea of religion(A placeholder for any other ideology) more deeply and permanently during an hour’s revival service than he could through years of training under ordinary conditions, when the mind was not in an emotionalized state.
The Origin of War and It’s Abolition
War grows out of the desire of the individual/group to gain an advantage at the expense of his fellow men. War cannot be stopped suddenly! It can be eliminated only by education, through the aid of the principle of subordination of the individual interests to the broader interests of the human race as a whole. Man’s tendencies and activities, as we have already stated, grow out of two great forces. One is physical heredity, and the other is social heredity. Through physical heredity, man inherits those early tendencies to destroy his fellow man out of self-protection. This Practice is a remnant from the age when the struggle for existence was so great that only the physically strong could survive. Gradually men began to learn that the individual could survive under more favourable circumstances by allying himself with others, and out of that discovery grew our modern society, through which groups of people have formed states, and these groups, in turn, have formed nations. There is but little tendency toward warfare between the individuals of a particular group or nation, for they have learned, through the principle of social heredity, that they can best survive by subordinating the interest of the individual to that of the group.
Now, the problem is to extend this principle of grouping so that the nations of the world will subordinate their interests to those of the human race as a whole. This can be brought about only through the principle of social heredity. By forcing upon the minds of the young of all races the fact that war is horrible and does not serve either the interest of the individual engaging in it or the group to which the individual belongs.
No person with an Idle mind is ever safe, whether he be rich or poor, white or black, educated or illiterate.
Social Heredity in Business
Let us now proceed to apply the principle of social heredity to the subject of business economy, and ascertain whether or not it can be made of practical benefit in the attainment of material wealth.
- If I were a banker I would procure a list of all the births in the families within a given distance of my place of business, and every child would receive an appropriate letter, congratulating it on its arrival in the world at such an opportune time, in such a favourable community; and from that time on it would receive from my bank a birthday reminder of an appropriate nature. When it arrived at the story-book age, it would receive from my bank an interesting storybook in which the advantages of saving would be told in story form. One of the most important floors (or even a whole, near-by building) of my banking house would be set aside as a children’s play-room with a competent supervisor in charge to give the kiddies a good time. I would let that play-room become the popular habitat of the children of the community, where mothers might leave their youngsters in safety while shopping or visiting. I would entertain those youngsters so royally that when they grew up and became bank depositors, whose accounts were worthwhile, they would be inseparably bound to my bank; and, meanwhile, I would, in no way, be lessening my chances of making depositors of the fathers and mothers of those children.
- If I were a national advertiser, I would find appropriate ways and means of establishing a point of contact with the children of the country; for, let me repeat, there is no better way of influencing the parent than that of “capturing” the child. If I were a barber, I would have a room equipped exclusively for children, for this would bring me the patronage of both the children and their parents.
- In the outskirts of every city, there is an opportunity for a flourishing business for someone who will operate a restaurant and serve meals of the better “home-cooked” quality, and cater to families who wish to take the children and dine out occasionally. I would have the place equipped with well-stocked fishing ponds, and ponies, and all sorts of animals and birds in which children are interested, if I were operating it, and induce the children to come out regularly and spend the entire day.
These are but a few of how the principle of social heredity might be used to advantage in business, Attract the children and you attract the parents! If nations can build soldiers of war to order, by bending the minds of their young in the direction of the war, businessmen can build customers to order through the same principle.
We learned from the world war and civil unrest that we cannot destroy a part without weakening the whole; that when one nation or group of people is reduced to poverty and want, the remainder of the world suffers, also. Stated conversely, we learned from the world war and civil unrest that co-operation and tolerance are the very foundation of enduring success.
UNFORTUNATE, indeed, is the man who becomes so used to evil that it no longer appears to be horrible.
