Tolerance

So I'm reading "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" by Harriet Jacobs.  And reflecting upon my own nature.

In the book, as in other slave narratives, slaves are treated like shit.  I'm going to assume at this point that whoever is reading this understands how utterly sickening slavery was, because that's not what I'm writing about.  What has caught my mind is how the slaves react to their treatment.  Or rather the range of reactions.  Some resist to the death, and some endure it.  And I cant help but put myself into these positions, and what scares me is how I know how I would react to it.

Id put up with it, until it killed me.

That's how I deal with a lot of things.  I'm a very tolerant person.  But I have always regarded this as a beneficial trait.  I'm not hot headed, I'm rational, etc.  But then I realised just what the implications of this would be.  I could see myself submitting in a position of slavery.  and not because I fear punishment, or because I would think that I belong there.  Its almost like I would be too nice to want to go against the grain.  I can endure things, sure, why not?  Its not that bad.

If I'm ever in a situation that sucks Ill just remove myself from it.  mentally.  Ill get lost in my own little wonderland and suddenly be able to put up with anything that is thrown at me.  And I'm starting to think that that's a very dangerous thing to do.

There's tolerance, as in tolerating diversity or tolerating other people using their freedoms in ways you find annoying.  but then there is tolerance, as in just letting every atrocity in the world float by without a glance.  And we have to find the line between the two, because the latter leads down a harmful self-destructive road.

There's something to be said about getting fired up.  If you see something happen right in front of you and you KNOW it is wrong, speak up.  do more than speak up.  And I'm not talking about cussing up a storm and deliberately pissing people off, I mean look everyone else in the eye and tell them, "you know this is wrong.  You know this shouldn't be happening, but you are just standing there letting it happen."

So quickly can we be conditioned into thinking everything is OK.  after all, there is always someone out there ready to fix things for us.  we don't have to worry about jack squat because we have ourselves to look after, common good be damned.  But we all know that this world isn't perfect.  Hell, we live in the "greatest nation on earth" and we can see that we are no where near perfect.  

Do not excuse imperfections.  Do not let yourself rationalize that things will get better on their own.  Do not let someone else take the first stand.