Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
Furedi gives his readers an in-depth analysis and (hopefully) ultimate understanding of all things on the tolerance radar. --The Bookbag
Product Description
Outwardly, we live in an era that appears more open-minded, non-judgemental and tolerant than in any time in human history. The very term intolerant invokes moral condemnation. We are constantly reminded to understand the importance of respecting different cultures and diversities. In this pugnacious new book, Frank Furedi argues that despite the democratisation of public life and the expansion of freedom, society is dominated by a culture that not only tolerates but often encourages intolerance. Often the intolerance is directed at people who refuse to accept the conventional wisdom and who are stigmatised as 'deniers'. Frequently intolerance comes into its own in clashes over cultural values and lifestyles. People are condemned for the food they eat, how they parent and for wearing religious symbols in public. This book challenges the 'quiet mood of tolerance' towards morally stigmatised forms of behaviors. The author examines recent forms of 'unacceptable behaviour'. It will tease out the real motives and drivers of intolerance.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the most important book I've read for ages,
By
This review is from: On Tolerance: The Life Style Wars: A Defence of Moral Independence (Hardcover)
"One regrettable consequence of the belief that intolerance towards harmful speech is necessary to protect minorities and the vulnerable is that movements that have traditionally supported free speech have switched sides"When my sisters or I used to whinge about perceived slights and insults, my mother would soothe us with the mantra: "rise above it, dear". Furedi's book expresses the humane core at the heart of that remark. It's sad and telling that you never hear such an expression used today. On Tolerance is timely and important. As, it seems, with all Furedi's books, it's liberally peppered with typos and grammatical errors; but these irritating distractions aren't enough to spoil his argument. Furedi starts from the position that society has to allow people to make their own mistakes. Yes, we all make truly awful decisions sometimes; but without the moral autonomy to freely choose the path we want to take through life, we might as well be beasts. Notwithstanding the problems and heartbreak it causes, this independence is essential for us to become truly human. Yet today, we accept the view that humanity is in permanent need of protection from itself. We invite rules and regulations into our private lives that would have been unthinkable in the past. From parenting to sexual health to what we eat and drink to what we say, we willingly allow governments to step in and dictate how we should behave. Likewise, the old motto that `sticks and stones may break your bones, but words can never hurt you', has been well and truly abandoned. Today self-censorship is the norm, and the notion of `zero tolerance' for offensive speech or behaviour is mainstream. We shy away from voicing strong opinions and disagreements in case they offend someone. Nowadays we accept that an unkind word can hurt you as much as a blow to the head. Yet what's missing from this viewpoint is the notion that you have a choice in how you respond to an unpleasant remark. And how you respond is what matters; the words themselves are merely words. The fact that we can choose whether to be offended or not, that our response, rather than the words themselves, is a matter of free choice and the only thing that counts, has been forgotten. Furedi details the connection between bans on free speech and the loss of our moral independence. He takes up identity politics, hate speech, Holocaust denial, the Rushdie affair, evolutionary psychology, and umpteen weasel arguments for denying free speech to those whose views we detest in favour of some spurious notion about redefining tolerance to protect the vulnerable. Furedi shows that `tolerance' today has come to mean a refusal to have an opinion, a sort of self-muzzling of the mind. In fact, true tolerance means we have to make moral judgements; and the most difficult one is the one that accepts people's right to voice repellent opinions. He also makes an important point about how today we don't allow others the benefit of the doubt; if someone says something we find repulsive, we are much more ready nowadays to shun them as entirely beyond the pale, rather than to a) argue back b) give them the benefit of the doubt. But true tolerance does mean giving people the benefit of the doubt. This book should be required reading in schools, let alone public institutions and anywhere that unequal power relationships exist between people.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Truly tolerant societies allow the expression of intolerant speech,
By docread "drmagdi" (norwich) - See all my reviews
This review is from: On Tolerance: The Life Style Wars: A Defence of Moral Independence (Hardcover)
Tolerance has become a slippery notion full of paradoxes.It has mutated from a permission concept to a respect or esteem concept without discernment ,thus neutralizing any form of moral judgement.Furedi's task is to pare it down to it's essential core which is the promotion of freedom of speech.As a radical exponent of the libertarian ideal best articulated by J S Mill ,he upholds absolute freedom of speech without equivocation and rejects any form of censorship even of intolerant views and spiteful offensive speech as long as it doesn't lead to physical harm.He insists on the primacy of personal autonomy which he calls moral independence over and above any other sacred principles cherished by our unequal diverse societies particularly equity & security.The text contains a powerful indictment of identity politics and it's constant preoccupation with group injury.In a highly charged rhetoric the author exhorts us to eschew the vacuous expressions of "politically correct speech" and invites us to resist the continuous encroachment of Governments, with their therapeutic patronising efforts , to regulate private behaviour.One may not necessarily agree with all his views but his book is an important contribution to the contemporary debate about freedom of opinion starting with the strident freedom of the Press that allows it on the one hand to uncover and report the abuses and moral flaws of those who hold political or economic power, but at the same time advocates any means "to obtain a story" through intrusive harassment and callous trespass over private lives or the spreading of malevolent rumours.The author in this context would reject the drawing of any line and would vehemently object to any form of regulation. Furedi is a sociologist who is happy to live with unfettered dissent or social conflict as long as no voices are ever silenced and differences are always expressed freely.His trenchant cultural critique of our contemporary malaise is imbued with undoubted moral courage.This alone should make the reading of this book an urgent political duty.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
