False tolerance - Truth first!

Tolerance! What a praiseworthy, what a high value?! Who could ever be against it? Who could dare to criticize this great value? Well, I can and I will. Not tolerance per se, but tolerance without intelligence, without reason is what I do criticize! We always have to consider what is the base of our tolerance. From the outside it may look very beautiful, but viewed from the inside, tolerance can be a result of weakness or ignorance. Many people are tolerant because they think that if you do not attack someone else’s position, the person will not attack yours. People may be tolerant out of fear, out of a lack of strong character. Such a tolerance may lead to an outside peace, but it destroys your own soul, it destroys what should be stable inside of you, what is the solid rock in a stormy ocean. Tolerance can never mean to give up your own character, to violate your own boundaries, so that you do not have any conflict with other people.

Tolerance has its place, of course. But if tolerance means to give up truth, not to say what you mean, because it could harm someone and it could make someone feel bad, then it is false tolerance. You are not on earth to have a good understanding with other human beings. It is nice to have it, but it is not necessary. Your job in life is to fulfil your mission, to spread truth on earth and to prepare for the life after life. May the world hate you or not. There is nothing bad about being hated. Being hated for truth is sweet, very sweet. Think of the great Greek philosopher Socrates. He died for truth, also he could have avoided to drink the mug of poison. But his love for truth was bigger than fear of death. What a great person!

A world community, where absolute values are given up, because of harmony and understanding of human beings, is a big lie. It would be better if the world lives in a permanent state of war, than giving up truth! This is a hard saying, I know, but it is rightful and therefore I do not fear to make it public. We see in our world too many compromises, too much of false tolerance. We have to change! And we have to change quickly! Otherwise we will end up in a world of outside peace, but inside terror.

Imagine a world, where people live like the old hippies thought: Love and peace and understanding, no hunger, no war, no terrorism. Again who could not want this? What an evil person someone must be not to love such a “paradise”? But what is the price for such a world? Ignorance of basic principles! It would mean giving up the absolute values, of truth! Such a world would be possible, but it would be an evil world inside, a world without real principles, a world without the complete guidance of the creator! It is a world that is very seductive, it looks so nice and seems to fulfil all the wishes of human beings. The heart of such a world is devilish, is governed by the Antichrist. But it would be too late for the people who glorify this world. The moment they find out what really is set up in the heart of such a world (evil), they are all going to lose their freedom and end up in the worst nightmare imaginable. Evil very often comes disguised by beautiful masks. Or as the old saying goes: The devil is dressed in an angel’s gown and is carrying a bible in his hand to approach a poor soul.

Beware of the nice one, of the people who demand tolerance, harmony, peace and understanding! They are people who want you to give up you character, to give up your (absolute) values. Truth is absolute and it is as hard as a diamond, nothing can split it off. Whoever wants to tell you about moral relativism, who wants to tell you that good and evil are relative and dependent on the situation or time, is not a friend of you, but someone who wants to take what is yours, like a thief in the night. Therefore the only thing, which really counts is: TRUTH, not tolerance! Let truth, and only truth, be your guiding light! That is the only way to end up at the place that is set up for you long before you where born.

The positive side of globalization

Talking about globalization, very quickly leads to strong controversies among people. What the media is presenting us, is mostly the negative side (bad news is good news). And the meaning of the globalization is everything else then good, that is the way it looks for many. Therefore I want to write a little bit about the positive side, which is, what I believe, not covered enough. I only write about aspects which are visible now, I do not speculate about what is or could be coming or what expectations people have. It is definitely true, that a big part of disappointment about globalization is caused by propaganda (economic and political) which has not been fulfilled, as well as wishes people had, projections of one’s own interests.

The first aspect I want to cover is an economic one. Barriers of commerce have been decreased, international standards have been established and a mutual competition among companies has led to the optimized use of capital, workforce and know how. Crops and commodities are available in nearly any quantity and at any time. The liquidity of financial markets is providing enough capital for national and international growth. International credit standards and accounting standards make companies more transparent and enable people to compare companies of different countries with each other. That was a big problem for many years for capital administrators, when looking for foreign investments. One thing should be mentioned here: Globalization is nothing new in the world of economics. Before World War I. the international trade volume among different nations has been nearly as high as today (in relation to the size of nations, population etc. of that time of course). Barriers where build up during the first half of the 20. Century and it took many decades to get rid of them. Internationalization and globalization are everything else but knew.

Democracy is spreading around the world. Even if many nations resists this development (at least until now – look at Northern Africa, I am sure in the near future we are going to see some major changes there!), more and more people become aware of their human rights. The idea that there are human rights which are given to everybody, not by the government, but by nature of human beings itself, is becoming well know to a big part of mankind. An easy and transparent legal system which guarantees private property to people and secures personal values, is necessary for economic growth, as well as the freedom of conscious. This becomes common knowledge around the planet. Even totalitarian regimes are not able to control the information their people get nowadays. We have seen this impressively in the last years. And a few courageous companies, who have a strong backbone, show us how not to give in “the evil”.

People speak at least one foreign language, apart form their mother tongue, and the understanding of foreign cultures and civilizations gets improved. Means of communication are very quick and everywhere available, so what was exclusive and very expensive decades ago and only possible for a small elite, became part of every person’s daily life. The internet is the symbol of globalization of communication. Of course, most of what can be found in the net, is of low or very low value, but let us not forget the pearls which exist and which can be found. We have an enormous amount of information but what is mostly missing is a strategy to cope with it. Communication takes too much of our short time and the personal and/or economic value we get out of it, is quiet low. I am sure we will learn to cope with information in a way that provides better results in the future. The increase of the productivity of mental work of work based on knowledge, is one of the big tasks management is given in the 21th century.

Culture: We also see a better understanding of others cultures in most parts of the world. We watch the same movies, read the same bestselling books. Actors, writers, artists are know throughout the world. Many think that this global unity would destroy the local character of culture. That was true for the beginning of this development, but the more people are globalizes, the more they ask themselves about their own roots. There is a rising awareness of the culture you come from. The farer the branches reach out into the world, the more the roots get strengthened. That is the new human of the 21th century. You do not push aside your home, your origins, you live them more consciously, the farer away you are form your home.

Religion: For most big religions, globalization is nothing new. Most of them offer solutions for all human beings and they are represented all over the globe not only for years but for centuries. There knowledge could be very valuable in the ethical and moral development of the world. But there has to be paid attention to the theological depth of the belief. There is a big danger in staying on the surface, of presenting a religion “light”, which is nothing more than a lifestyle, which changes very quickly. Religions are fundaments, are solid rocks, in an ever changing world. The highly moral demands of the religions must stay as they are completely and unchangeable! There cannot be any change in questions of belief itself. Religions are more demanding than most of the other “systems” we know in the world. But if rightly understood, they have an enormous potential for the good. They fulfil the most demanding need of human beings: the need for sense in life. So religions could really become the “salvation” for the world.

These are just a few aspects of the positive side of globalization. There are many more and I do not claim to have covered the topic in its wholeness. That would not be the sense of a short article, written on a private blog. But I hope I could make sure, that globalization is not something negative per se. We have concentrated too much on the economic development and have very often let aside the other parts (social, political, ethical and most important the moral side!). It will be the job of the next years and decades to develop a complete globalization which includes all aspects of human life. Well, there is a big job to be done.

The goal and the way

Viktor E. Frankly (1905–1997), the great Austrian psychiatrist and founder of the Logo-Therapy, once said that there are two kinds of people in the world. On the one hand, there are the ones who think that reaching a goal, justify any means, which are necessary therefore. On the other hand, there are the ones who believe, that the way of reaching a goal is equally important than reaching the goal itself. But how do we decide? How do we make valuable decisions? How do we really come to a judgement which has its roots in moral and ethics?

Many people in our times think that what counts in the end is what feels good for them. I have written about the feel-good society in a previous post (If it feels good, do it!). The lack of moral standards has become a disease of our times. People have become very suspicious when it comes to the decision of right and wrong. We have seen throughout history that a legion of different systems claimed to have the absolute truth. In different countries and times, right and wrong was what authority claimed to be right or wrong. That has led, in the course of liberation of men, to a position of uncertainty, a kind of moral vacuum which could not be filled. And whoever claimed to be able to fill this vacuum, did not get the support of the majority of the people. What stays left, are a moral relativism and a huge amount of cynicism, which is always the result of uncertainty and anxiety underneath. People crave for clear standards, but it seems that nobody can provide such standards and declare its usefulness. Scientists expand the relativity of their own business onto ethics and moral. In the end right and wrong are subjective and depend on circumstances, persons, society, politics and a lot more. Nobody is completely satisfied, but we are told, it is the best we can get. The hunger for sense und direction stays, but we have to hold it out and stay unsatisfied. At least the human ego can celebrate itself as a modern hero, who goes through a senseless life but shoulders the heavy burden with pride. After centuries of being guided and controlled by someone else, human beings crave for freedom, freedom of men, freedom of systems, freedom of ideology and indoctrination. But in many cases the pendulum has swung too much into the other direction. More and more people see, that freedom can never mean living without rules. As well is it can never mean to deny all rules coming from outside.

But true freedom is a process which always puts the ego into the second row and let something greater than human rule the life. It takes humbleness to accept such a rule of “the father”, as Christian, for example, would call. The reign of “the father” makes free, but the reign of human beings puts you into bondage. This paradoxical fact is everything else than easy to be understood and it takes emotional, intellectual and spiritual maturity to reach at such an insight. And it can never come solely from outside. Nobody can be made to act morally, the light of insight must shine from within and the ignition is always a kind of grace, nothing human being could completely reach by himself.

We definitely live in more complex times, than any generation, who lived before us. Moral questions have never been more difficult to be answered. What is lacking is a solid rock in the stormy sea, the one thing we can rely on. It is easy to see, that nobody can make complete and wise decision who has not found himself. A person, without complete knowledge of his or her own values, is unable to stay “on course” during hardship and turmoil. Emotional balance is crucial to decision making. The power to make decisions is one of the characteristics of a complete mature person. Opportunism is immaturity as well as anybody is not a complete person who uses other human beings as tools for his own fulfilment and joy or reaching his goals. For a wise person it is never true that sweet fruits come out of evil deeds – never! Nobody does a crime and gets away with it – never! Also many people nowadays believe that being smart hides the evil intention and action. An immature person will believe so, but the wise one knows: The reaction will come, sooner or later, with certainty! Look at all the white collar crime. For many years people are heroes of the masses, the media, but in the end they fall deep, deeper than anyone could have imagined. Nothing stays hidden forever; everything gets disclosed in the end.

That brings us back to the beginning of this article: The way is equally important, than the goal, the end! The end depends on the beginning. In our times, where society is split up into more groups than ever before, the potential for conflict is even bigger than ever before. Many groups try to wipe out others and deny their right to exist. The “majority” is ever changing and people will learn than in most cases they will be part of a minority. Being a member of the minority becomes completely normal! That is a situation most people are no used to. And the consequences are enormous. The security of the group is gone and individuals will be confronted more and more with a strong wind blowing into his face. Without personal values and boundaries, one will be blown through life like a leaf in the wind. The permanent self-betrayal will lead to depression, senselessness and tragedy in life. The world will not help you, for nobody is interested in your good but yourself (and your creator of course). Mature people will conclude that the only way to guarantee peace in modern society is by having a few basic principles on which a people is built. We need a real respect for the other ones as human beings. If respect depends on a certain worldview, political opinion, religion or the like, an understanding is impossible. Imagine an atheist and an evangelical preacher. Without accepting each other as human beings, one side will always believe in superiority. Superiority and inferiority thinking poisons every social climate and by the way are never justified at all!

Never before, ethical and moral values have had a bigger impact on politics, whether it is national or international, economy and society as a whole. After the times of crises there is always a time of new clarity. After this time of common relativism we will see a time of new orientation and clarity. When people of good heart stand as a moral example and act by it, how much resistance they may every face, people will start trusting and learn that trust is better than mistrust. Without a basic optimism, no society can exist for long. If human beings do not trust east other, if society is divided it must be doomed to fall. If a house fights against itself the result will be ruin. If the devil fights against himself, he cannot prevail. Lucky is who possesses a strong moral code of ethics, by which his feet are guided. America is rooted in Christendom. The founding fathers always prayed and quoted the bible more often than any other works of philosophers and thinkers. Also Europe can find its eternal moral values in its history if it is ready to reconcile with its history and origin. As for the individual the task is the reconciliation with the source – so salvation, moral action and wise decision will be the prosperous harvest!