Talk of The Villages Florida - View Single Post - Why do we become so intolerant as we age?
View Single Post
 
Old 02-15-2011, 01:01 PM
bandsdavis bandsdavis is offline
Veteran member
Join Date: Aug 2009
Posts: 681
Thanks: 1
Thanked 135 Times in 71 Posts
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by redwitch View Post
It's not the rudeness per se that bothers me. It's the absolute lack of tolerance for those that think, feel or act differently. I really don't get why it is that way. It would seem that it would be the exact opposite -- the older we get, the more accepting of others we get -- rather than the way it is.

Are we so afraid of change as we age? It is really because we've seen it happen over and over? I don't know. I just know that calling someone a name because they disagree with you is wrong. When you get upset because someone's nerves made them forget a line in a song just doesn't feel right to me. There just have been a lot of mean-spirited replies lately -- both here and in real life.

I just hope and pray I never get that way -- heck, I'm bad enough in my own way without having age make me worse.
Red, my old marketing professor told me many years ago that "An opinion firmly held is more important than facts any day." I think a lot of intolerance comes from people who hold opinions that they believe are facts. It is sometimes the expression of these "facts" around others who hold other "facts" equally as firmly that leads to negative feelings and intolerance. Many factors that others have mentioned can be the causes of this problem, but the problem is increased when we become older and have more and more of these "facts" in our minds.

B.