According to most teens, anything they aren't interested in is "lame."
That's the consensus at least among the ones that feel they absolutely must post on every topic under the sun.
How can we ever expect to have true tolerance of other races, religions and cultures if our youth have no tolerance of another person's interests? Why do they feel the need to "put down" and mock other people who have different hobbies, interests, etc?
While I don't believe we need to go all the way back to the times when children were meant to be seen and not heard, I do think a happy medium is long overdue.
Actually, I know a few adults who have the same problem. Their hobbies are outright ridiculous to me, but I never say anything like "grow up already," which is what I'm thinking.
Yet they have no problem expressing the "lameness" of other people's hobbies, even being so rude as to laugh at people who are interested in things they don't understand.
Yep, we are certainly lacking tolerance - and wisdom - among all age groups.
As much as I hate to say it but tolerance has pretty much died. Many people today who don't show tolerance towards others probably do it because it was never taught them. Then they keep this tradition going by not teaching it to their own children.
ReplyDeleteI can say that my parents never stressed this issue on me and I had to learn to tolerate others on my own. I see a lot of people who engage or believe in things that I do not but I still respect them.
All we can really hope for is that these same people will come to realize that they should be more understanding and tolerable towards people who are different.
Interesting thoughts. Someone could also argue that you are intolerant of intolerant people. Ha! :)
ReplyDeleteYou are right though, we need to be more tolerant of people. I think part of the teenager "lame" stuff is that they just don't understand and they feel insecure. Computer geeks used to (maybe still do?) get made fun of because people are intimidated by what they can do with a computer. Student athletes are made fun of for being "jocks" because they are much stronger, faster, whatever, than most other people. People use the term band geek when they don't understand the amount of time and effort that goes into marching and playing an instrument at the same time. I could go on with all kinds of examples. The same goes for race relations and language barriers. Are those people making fun of me? It's a defense mechanism to strike first.
My point is that a lot of it has to do with insecurity. Wisdom, as you say, is the cure for that. Unfortunately, wisdom is difficult to teach.
Thanks for making me laugh Paul. I definitely AM intolerant of intolerant people so I guess I'm no better than they are. But at least I don't insult them personally, I just insult the whole group here on my blog. That's makes me at least a "polite" intolerant person, I hope.
ReplyDeleteI once heard someone say that "wisdom is the correct application of knowlege." So I guess that leads us back to the simple task of teaching good manners, politeness, and maybe a little compassion. Hmmm, not too sure how you teach that either. You can't teach a person to have a kind heart... I'll have to post about that some time! Thanks for visiting.