Intolerance?

I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer - and, in fact, the only point of surprising unanimity in my friends is that I really have no competition in being the dullest knife - but I do have some ideas. You know what, I really think that I know the reason for increasing intolerance in Society.

You see, all people have certain ideals to which they expect other people to adhere (note that they are never stupid enough to try to adhere to those ideals themselves). In the past, when others fell short of these ideals, people sort of took it in their stride because they have had experience of people being less than perfect in most things.

Just as you think of life as a bed of roses, a whiff of hydrogen sulfide from someone's armpits puts paid to the notion. So, when you run your finger over someone's skin, you are willing to accept it as soft as long as it is not sand-papery enough to draw blood from your fingers. Now, you not only want the armpits to smell good but also are very particular about what sort of good smell you prefer, failing which the person just fades away. And as for skin, it just cannot fall even a wee bit short of velvet, 24x7. When your levels of tolerance as so low in these things, how do you expect them to be any higher in others - be it scores in exams or the deities you worship or whatever?

Time was when you used to see only two options in hair - present or absent. Now, so nitpicking have you become that you see five problems in them, all of which the poor cosmetic industry has to rush to address. So much more nitpicking have you become about the face that there are TEN different problems for the soap and face cream guys to solve. As for aging, it has ceased to be a problem caused by time and has become a problem that, again, the cosmetic industry (not the pharma guys, as you think) to correct, and no less than seven signs of aging to rub out. The way you guys keep at it, it seems like you consider yourself to be some sort of examiner setting various problems for the cosmetic industry to solve.

Above all else, I cannot understand your total intolerance of anything less than fair skin everywhere over the body. First you just wanted it on the face, next you wanted it on all exposed parts of the body AND, then, you started thinking of all parts of the body that you could possibly expose in various activities and wanted every single micrometer rendered fair. NOW, you want the whole thing to not only be whitewashed but you also want the whitewash to stay on all day. You are so intolerant of the color black on your skin, that it would be a wonder if you can ever be tolerant of anything in life.

Women of my times also dreamed of tall, dark and handsome men riding white chargers and sweeping them off their feet. Men of my times also dreamed of doe-eyed damsels with hour-glass figures swooning over them. It is just that both sexes used to wake up from their dreams and realize that (a) the man was more likely to be short, balding and not particularly ugly (if you were lucky), and come riding on a second-hand Bajaj Chetak and (b) the woman was more likely to be....(In the interests of my health I will leave this blank for you to fill). NOW, it seems like people never wake up, and feel that they can complain to the Consumer Court if their dream wish-list does not get filled.

There is no harm in trying to be perfect. To expect your version of perfection in others is what breeds intolerance.