A Critique of Tolerance in the Age of Identity (2)

Tolerance, once something of an awkward supplement to liberalism, reemerged at liberalism’s center in the late twentieth century. In nations and regions saturated with “difference”- ethnic, racial, religious, sexual – tolerance has been promulgated as an individual virtue, a group ethos, and a state policy. It is advocated for situations as disparate as war-torn Bosnia, racially diverse elementary schools in the United States, and European nations coping with recent waves of African and Asian immigration. Talk given