Ignorance vs. Tolerance

Ignorance is the root of many problems in today’s society. This topic is discussed throughout the article, “The Challenge of Cultural Relativism”. People think that their approach on things is the right one and that everyone else who has a different approach is wrong. People think they always have the right solution, but in reality there isn’t always a right and wrong solution. There can be multiple solutions, and multiple ways to reaching a solution.  However, many people are so thick headed that they are unable to see that there are more ways to do things, other than their own. People do not care about anything besides what affects them, or what their opinion is.  These differences come into play when different cultures mesh together in one area.

            Each culture brings its own morals. These morals are important to the people of this culture, but people outside the culture don’t respect the morals. The reasoning behind this is that it is an instinct to human nature to reject something that is unfamiliar.  This disrespect or ignorance is what creates many issues in society today.  An example from this article would be the Eskimos. In their culture, it is normal to do things such as leave elderly feeble people out in the snow, killing female babies with parents’ discretion, and the head of their tribe was able to “get regular sexual access to other men’s wives.”  The people outside of the culture did not look upon these things fondly.

            These traditions lead into the classic novel Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.  In this novel the missionaries come to Onkonkwo’s village and try to take over with their Christianity, schools, etc. However, Onkonkwo does not allow this to happen willingly. This is an example of how conflict occurs when multiple cultures collide.  Because the missionaries were forcing what they viewed as “right” upon Onkonkwo’s people, conflicts arose.

            If people would not force their opinions and such upon others then the world would be more peaceful. I personally don’t like to be ignorant toward things, which are unfamiliar to me. I like to embrace newness with open arms, as I see change in a positive light as opposed to change being bad. If we never allow change to happen then we will never be able to make the world a better place.  I found this article incredibly interesting because on a daily basis I see cultural differences and how people deal with them. With the new year approaching I hope that the amount of tolerance people have out numbers the amount of ignorance.