Prime
Intolerance is a value of the past
Raymond Mujuni
What you need to know:
- For the extremely pressed, the advance in society, also comes with an understanding that not every one, everywhere will believe the same things you believe, worship the way you do and behave the way you do.
The past is a glorious place to hang on to for many people. It is certain, unchangeable and more often incontestable. The past represents, for the old today, a victory of their youth, a reminder of their hard work. It also represents tradition.
But there’s a firm reason it is the past.
The future, often, is harder to confront.
In my column last week, I spoke to the split divide between the ‘conservative majority’ and the ‘liberal minority’.
These two shades of Ugandans have emerged from decades long of history, culture, governance and policies. The free market, for example, produced a majority of people locked out of the economy and a minority of wealthy and classed Ugandans. Our century-long religious evangelism has produced a majority of Christians and a minority of other religions and non-believers in the country.
The glue that has held these majorities and minorities together has been tolerance and respect.
The margins of society are held firm by understanding even the things that we don’t believe. Many people are tempted when they fall in the majority to use the tyranny of numbers and sentiment to lord their opinions over others. To use the coercive arm of the state and it’s institutions to achieve a ‘perfect majority’ where worship of their ideas and single vision prevail. But that’s truly dangerous!
Shelve, right now, the debate on sexuality, and enter religion.
What’s to stop a Muslim from detaining a Christian who eats pork, if they achieve the ‘perfect majority’?
What’s to stop the illiterate [those who can’t read] from throwing the key of your cell away, dear reader, you that can read through these words?
What’s to stop the rich from sending you to Kitalya for your inability to afford flowers on February 14th?
The advance in society comes with an added burden of tolerance and respect of divergence in opinions and even in base identities. For the extremely pressed, the advance in society, also comes with an understanding that not every one, everywhere will believe the same things you believe, worship the way you do and behave the way you do.
The state has built capacity to defend individual liberties that no one can harm another without legal redress – if the actions of another person cause you – you individually, that is! – no harm, then those actions are protected. They may not be promoted but they are protected.
That opens society up to the power of ideas. Tolerance is an in-built feature in the operating system of liberalism that we aim to practice and have aimed to practice for centuries. Buganda, the oldest traditional outfit in the Ugandan ensemble should teach us this. Despite the early arrival of Islam, Ganda kings didn’t close the doors to Anglicans and Catholics. Even when two fought themselves bloodletting, they were both tolerated.
Intolerance is a value of the past. To not see that is to walk into a constant stream of frustration in this new world.
