Earlier this morning I was on a gaming site that includes a chat function thats continuous with game play. As I joined the game, it was obvious that I'd stumbled into the middle of a mild discussion regarding other peoples beliefs in general.
The mein of the group, et al, was that simply being accepting of other peoples beliefs was the most virtuous act of all.
Immediately I thought of the news last night. In Afghanistan, President Karzai signed into law yesterday, a religious edict that degrades the rights of women in that country in keeping with Islamic law. Along with the newscasters voice-over, they showed live action scenes of Islamic men pushing and shoving women dressed from head to toe in cloaks. My first impression when watching these scenes was to wonder ( absently ) 'why those guys hated those women so much?'.
To me, being accepting of other peoples beliefs means exactly that so this would mean that while I don't have to like what I saw, it would be virtuous of me to accept that it is what it is and carry on my merry way.
Fuck that.
Too often, acceptance is simply a cloak hiding a will to inaction. It's another branch of that old saying - "All it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing".
