Download
1 / 84
840 likes | 847 Views
Charms and Challenges of Otherness: How Tolerance and Security Make a Difference in the World. Mikhail Epstein mikhail.epstein@durham.ac.uk.
E N D
Charms and Challengesof Otherness:How Tolerance and Security Makea Difference in the World Mikhail Epstein mikhail.epstein@durham.ac.uk
Mikhail Epstein is Professor of Russian and Cultural Theory and Director of Centre for Humanities Innovation at Durham University (Durham, UK); Professor of Cultural Theory and Russian literature at Emory University (Atlanta, USA). • The lecture was presented at University College School in London on 20th of January, 2015.
Gratitude • I am grateful to the headmaster of your school Mr. Mark Beard for the opportunity to share my views on one of the most debatable issues essential both for politics and morality: the relationship between tolerance and security. • It is for the first time in my life that I amgiving atalk at a British high school. It is not a coincidence that this schoolis famous for promoting liberal values and the spirit of tolerance which is so resonant with the topic of my presentation.
Approaches • Mr. Moshe Kantor has worked productively on social and political aspects of tolerance and security, both theoretically and practically, making an important contribution to European understanding of these concepts in their connection. • I am grateful to Mr. Kantor for the intellectual stimulus I received from his work. • I am not a politician or sociologist, and I will continue to discuss these concepts of tolerance and security mostly in a humanistic and ethical framework.
Tolerance in politics and everyday life • The recent terrorist attack in France has underscored once again that the values of tolerance and security are crucial for the survival of Europe and of the entire world. • Tolerance is not limited to grave political matters. Our everyday life requires it. • Where does tolerance begin? In your family, in your school. Here and now, while I speaking to you with a Russian accent and you are kindly prepared to listen to me. • Our discussion on tolerance today can be regarded also as a practical experiment in tolerance.
Is tolerance good or bad? • Is it good or bad to be tolerant? • Of course, it is much better to be tolerant than to be intolerant, for example, to others’ opinions. • From a general moral perspective, it is insufficient to be tolerant. • “I tolerate him” presupposes that “he“ isapain, harm or trouble that I am ready to tolerate. • “Tolerance“ indicates an acceptance of something that may be perceived as negative.
Why tolerance is insufficient • For many of my students at Durham University, “tolerance” sounds rather as a negative term though it intends to be positive attitude. • Tolerance is only a step to higher values: sympathy, empathy and cooperation. • I will talk about the values that are based on tolerance and security, but are not limited to them.
Tolerance and security 1 • Tolerance has to be measured by the criteria of security, and security includes the value of tolerance. • Our tolerance of others protects their security, while their tolerance towardsus protects our security. • Thus tolerance and security are in fact interchangeable values.
Tolerance and Security 2 • To be tolerant towards somebody means to make him/her secure. • In the situation where A and B are acting: A is tolerant towards BB is secure. B is tolerant towards AA is secure.
Tolerance and security are complementary • There are actions that make a pair. In trading, selling and buying; in a game, winning and losing. • These actions mutually define each other and constitute one interaction. • “Tolerance” and “security” are such complementary actions or conditions.
Tolerance + security What is the unifying concept for which tolerance and security are complementary? Buy + sell = trading Win + lose = a game Tolerance + security = ?
The answer is: PEACE
Tolerance without security? • Peace is the condition when tolerance towards others and security foroneself are mutually balanced. • They are complementary but cannot replace each other. • Tolerance without security = permissiveness. • Security without tolerance = repression.
Is hell other people? • Tolerance is the art of living with others. • The philosopher Jean–Paul Sartre famously said: "Hell is other people”. • They are hellish, because they are different from us, disturbing, defying, destabilizing. • It would be better to be alone, with no resistance or aggression from others, from the external world. • This is a very pessimistic and misanthropic concept of otherness.
Tolerance and paradise • Tolerance allows us to look at others differently and to turn “hell” into a pleasant place for living, if not a paradise. • There are as many forms of tolerance as there are forms of difference.
Variety of social tolerance Difference of ethnicity requires racial tolerance (its opposite: racism). Difference of nations national tolerance (intolerance: chauvinism) Difference of religions religious tolerance (intolerance: fanaticism) Difference of political views ideological tolerance (intolerance: bigotry).
Personal tolerance • Difference in appearances – aesthetic tolerance. Many people find it virtually impossible to tolerate different types of clothes, makeup, tattoos, etc. Therefore we need tolerance of taste. • Difference in characters – psychological tolerance. • There are many types of characters that we may find difficult to communicate with: introverts (Darwin, Gandhi, Bill Gates) and extraverts (Columbus, Einstein); sanguinic (Napoleon, Bill Clinton) and melancholic (Newton, Tchaikovsky).
professional and Educational tolerance • Scientists, engineers, artists, doctors and politicians have different professional attitudes and modes of thinking. • Without tolerance, civilization would be impossible. • Instructors and students. Some people have to be tolerant of the ignorance, others of the control and repetition.
Pedagogical tolerance • Jacob Barnett, who was diagnosed with moderate to severe autism when he was 2 years old, is now, at the age of 14, studying for a master's degree in quantum physics. • Experts say the 14-year-old Indiana prodigy has an IQ (170) higher than Einstein’s and is on the road to winning a Nobel Prize. • The key, according to his mother, was letting Jacob be himself — by helping him study the world with wide-eyed wonder instead of focusing on a list of things he couldn’t do.
Tolerance and imagination. Harry Potter • Imagination is important for nurturing the capacity for tolerance as it allows us to feel what it is like to be a member of another group, of a different nation, gender or age or even different biological identity. • Harry Potter and other young wizards stand up for minority groups, whether they are house elves kept as servants or persecuted ‘mud-blood’ wizards.
Changing attitudes • The researchers from British and Italian universities recently explored the fifth grade Italian students’ attitudes to minority groups. • They found that after reading “Harry Potter” the students showed more tolerance and empathy towards immigrants and refugees.
The roots of intolerance • There are many roots of intolerance. It is easier to eradicate the mental ones. • Intolerant thinking operates with the categories of identities and oppositions. • Tolerant thinking uses the categories of difference and diversity.
Opposition is an abstraction • Often we identify ourselves as members of one group in opposition to another group. One religion, nation or class in opposition to another religion, nation or class. • The category of opposition is abstract and artificial. We can oppose abstract qualities, such as black and white, or solid and liquid, or young and old. But when it comes to individuals, the oppositional thinking fails.
A more complex, mediated opposition, grey color, Mixture, hybridity
No opposition between individuals • Two people, A and B, may differ in skin-colour, but each of these individuals still possesses many other qualities: one is forty-five year old, the other is fifty; one likes cinema, the other likes literature; one is a Liberal, the other is not a member of any party; one prefers meat, the other is a vegetarian. • Any of these qualities in their abstractness can be opposed to another: younger/older, literature/cinema, meat /vegetables… • The individuals bearing these qualities, A and B, do not constitute opposites—they are simply different.
Intolerance is oppositional • There are no oppositions between individuals, unless they deliberately oppose themselves to each other. • In this case, they are intolerant precisely because they are thinking in terms of opposition.
An anecdote about identity and opposition 1 • One day I was walking across a bridge, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. • I immediately ran over and said "Stop! Don't do it!” • "Why shouldn't I?" he said. • I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" • "Like what?" • "Well ... are you religious or atheist?" • "Religious." – "Me too!” • Are you Christian or Jewish?" • "Christian." – "Me too!”
Anecdote 2 • Are you Catholic or Protestant?" "Protestant." "Me too! • Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?" "Baptist." "Wow! Me too! • Are you Original Baptist or are you Reformed Baptist?" • "Reformed Baptist." "Me too!” • Are you Church reformation of 1879 or of 1915?" • “Reformation of 1915!" • To which I said, "Die, heretic scum!" and pushed him off.
Identity and opposition • At which moment does this dialogue take a wrong direction? • In the very end, when the rescuer enters in confrontation with the suicidal man and pushes him off? • Or in the very beginning, when he bases his entire persuasion on the category of identity. “Who are you?” – “Me too”. • Thinking in terms of identities leads to oppositional thinking.
Identity and opposition • Where there are strict identities, there are stark oppositions. • If I identify myself only with a certain nation, race, religion, class, political party, football club, I inevitably oppose myself to others who partake of other identities.
Multividual • A human being has many different qualities and identities. • Françoisde La Rochefoucauld. “We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others”. • Even a saint and a criminal can be as different from themselves as they are from each other. A saint can have sinful thoughts at those very moments when a criminal may feel somewhat repentent.
“We are sometimes as different from ourselves as we are from others”. La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“I am large, I contain multitudes.” Walt Whitman. “Song of Myself”(1855)
I contain multitudes • I have dozens and hundreds of identities, characters, personalities, gifts, perceptions, etc. • Therefore I am never opposed to anybody but only different from everybody else. • A good rule to consider: oppose yourself to nobody, identify yourself with nothing. Be simply different.
Scale of tolerance • It is useful to build a scale of the attitudes towards strangers according to the degrees of their rejection /acception: from aggression to assimilation. • Then we will see how the lack of tolerance is related to the excess of tolerance and where is the right measure.
1. Aggression • Aggressiverejection, including useofviolenceagainstforeigners,immigrants, newcomers.Xenophobia. • Expressed in such a way: "Ihateyou". “Go away”.
2. Segregation • Moral segregation and alienation. Hostility, resistance, establishment of barriers. • “I tolerate you as an inevitable evil. You are free to live on this territory but don't cross its borders".
3. Passive tolerance Acceptanceofstrangersandof theirwayoflife. Respect but no real interest or participation. "I don't mind you being here and doing what you are doing, I accept this, but I have nothing to do with this".
4. Active tolerance • Interest in strangers, attempt of understanding and growth of empathy. • Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another and feeling with the heart of another. • Dialogue. • "I would like to know more about your culture (ethnicity, religion). I feel this is important and may have an impact on my own attitudes".
