The Paradox of Russian Tolerance. Why Are We Unhappy?

Yesterday I bumped my nose against the glass in a bus and thought about the people who have had the strongest influence on my life. What unites them? What did they teach me? What did I learn from them?

Each of them, amusingly, essentially taught me only one thing — tolerance. Each of them did this to the extent that tolerance was present in themselves, but did so with full confidence that they were teaching me to be happy.

And they were right.

In the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance, adopted in 1996 by the UN, there is a wonderful phrase: "Tolerance is harmony in diversity".

And in the Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary it is said: "Tolerance is a sign of self-confidence and awareness of the reliability of one's own positions, a sign of an open ideological current that is not afraid of comparison with other points of view and does not avoid spiritual competition."

Our society has been deprived of all harmony of diversity. They placed before us the letters H, A, P, P, I, N, E, S and said to form the word "HAPPINESS".

And what did we do?

We diligently started forming. Because we almost always assume that there is some other possibility to become happy, we allow experiments.

We are a sufficiently developed society. We perfectly understand that in a world where there is universal morality as a compass and a correction tool called conscience, the concept of sin is a rudiment. Moreover, not like male nipples, but a harmful one.

But we sit over icy fragments, assume that the word HAPPINESS will still come together, or, finally, spring will come, the ice cubes will melt to hell, and we will be sent to form happiness from something else.

Because spring always comes. We know that for sure. Just like what we need to form the word from. Just like that we will continue to allow experiments in forming from unsuitable materials.

This is the paradox of Russian tolerance. In which I myself am stuck.

By the way, spring has come.