There is one experience with tolerance that changed my attitude towardt this seemingly 100% positive human attitude. A post in a small Italian restaurant some 10 years ago saying: Smoking is tolerated but not appreciated.
Although I never smoked, I would have ceased to smoke after reading this immediatelly. After that encounter I do not want to be tolerated not even in my dreams.
Tolerance has ambiguous contextual heritage. Taken from evolutionists point of view, tolerance explains the fact, that there are at least two particles of life that differs. One cell has to differentiate from another. Tolerance is thus ultimate expression of selfishness. You can not have self without being selfish. Only after being selfish to the highest possible degree, you can start to appreciate onther entities - but again only to support your-selfe. Cells start to differentiate only to provide an environment that is evolutionary more stable (evolutionary stable strategies, ESS). From evolutionary point of view tolerance that enables apreciation that enables cooperation that enables responsibility is the lowest possible denominator of life. I do not want to worship the lowest possible denominator - and I fear to live in community that follows lowest possible denominator.
Tolerance is also technical term that defines the span within which two bodies interact safely. From this point of view it is quite clear that highest tollerance is not beneficial per se.
We should acknowledge that tolerance is a concept that has no positive or negative value neither for phisycal nor for human “particles”. Within certain tolerance there allways open questions like: do association with tolerated objects or humans benefit to my (our) evolutionary strategy? With mere tolerance we can never answer this question. That is why whole issue about tolerance is misleading.
