War and Intolerance
Once lead this people into war and they’ll forget there ever was such a thing as tolerance – Woodrow Wilson
Orwell’s 1984 recognizes that a permanent state of war can keep the incumbent party in power. But if the incumbent’s party is energized by intolerance, then opposing the incumbent party becomes exponenially harder. If we still believe in tolerance, we can’t join hands with grossly intolerant people — people who come right out and say that intolerance is good and things would be better if we and our friends were gone — without first, second, and always standing up for human values and standing up against inhuman values.
It takes energy to overcome an incumbency based on intolerance. We’re in a fight for our country’s soul.
We have to re-instill the tolerance that used to be an essential part of our national character. We can’t do it without having some kind of influence, enough to percolate through a corporate media whose interests coincide with the interests of the power elites who depend on intolerance.
But this isn’t just a means to gain power ourselves. If we could make intolerance something to be ashamed of, I’m willing to take my chances on who gets elected to what.
Merely being liberal won’t be enough. Not any more. We have to do this issue by issue – homophobia, xenophobia, racism, misogyny – it’s intersectionality again. And we must never give up. Never. Never. Never.
H/T to Johns Hopkins Magazine for the quote.