Just read an article on Sott called "the 8 Habits of intolerant people" and thought it was interesting, relevant and might be useful for some people here, either to understand themselves or others better.
I then found a text (further below) that briefly analyses the "safe vs dangerous world" idea. (It's from a life coach's site and was the only thing of interest I found there) _http://courageousauthenticity.com/do-you-live-in-a-safe-or-a-dangerous-world/
I then found a text (further below) that briefly analyses the "safe vs dangerous world" idea. (It's from a life coach's site and was the only thing of interest I found there) _http://courageousauthenticity.com/do-you-live-in-a-safe-or-a-dangerous-world/
1. They are often fanatical. They don’t just believe in something deeply, they believe in something narrowly without room for other interpretations. They believe their view is the only view, and that anything even slightly different is wrong and is the enemy. There is a difference between being devout—in which you deeply believe in something—and being fanatic—in which you're on the attack against those who don’t agree or just see things differently from you.
2. They are usually psychologically rigid. Any other way of looking at things causes them great anxiety, and they will fight with all their will to get others to agree with them. Down deep they are much more concerned with self-preservation and see "different" as a threat to their identity. They view their actions as being in self-defense of what they view as an assault by others with a different POV.
3. They are know-it-alls. They know a lot about a very narrow aspect of life that has possibly provided them with success and they believe it can be applied to everything in life. When challenged they retreat and revisualize how their approach works in that narrow area, and come back at the challenger with even more aggression.
4. They are terrible listeners. Duh! That should be obvious. Rarely do people around them feel listened to, heard, understood or valued for anything that in any way differs from this person’s viewpoint.
5. They often have tension in their relationships. That should come as little surprise, since their having to be in control means they can only be in a relationship with people who obey, agree and are submissive. This often means they have volcanic relationships with their teenage children.
6. They believe you're either in control or out of control. They are black-and-white thinkers with no room for gray. They will not accept that we are not in control of most areas of our lives. For instance, we have some control over what we say and do and write,but we have little control over how it is heard, seen or read. They frequently come from families that were either highly controlling or chaotic. If their parents were highly controlling, they came to believe that was the only way you can and should live your life, and they have “paid it forward” into their own lives. If their parents and families were chaotic, they vowed that when they grew up, there would be much more order to their lives and they have now gone too far.
7. They can’t leave anything to chance. They have a deep-seated belief that if you leave anything to chance, something awful will happen. Albert Einstein said, “The most important decision you will ever make is whether you live in a safe or a dangerous world.” For whatever reason, these individuals believe they live in a dangerous world which justifies their preemptive aggression and hostility toward others because they believe others are primed to attack them (sound like any foreign policy you know?).
8. They are frequently jealous deep-down. This is the most interesting observation. Being envious means wanting what another person has; being jealous means being angry with the person for having it. I think they feel jealous because they are not particularly happy individuals who are frustrated for believing they are following all the rules, yet they are not at peace. So when they see a couple who is willing to defy so many rules and conventions to find true love and be happy, they are not only envious, but are jealous.
What Did Albert Think?
Albert Einstein, (a relatively bright guy, just in case you haven’t heard of him) said, “the most important decision you will ever make is whether you live in a safe or a dangerous world.” Why do you think he felt so strongly about it? I believe he realized each of us create our personal reality out of our beliefs and expectations. What that means is that in life, we filter our experiences based on our pre-frame about what we expect to see. If our expectation is that the world is dangerous, something from which we must be protected, than our primary stance will be defensive one. And so it is with much of the world. From their perspective, trust is a sign of naivety, so they keep their guard up and their welcome sign down. But at what cost?
Media and Fear Machine
Here is a fact. People consume more news when it focuses on that which we fear. If your headline article says, “Prepare for the Storm of the Century,” you will outsell your competitor who says, “Everything is Coming Uo Roses.” Recognize that media is in the business of selling advertising. Sharing the “news” is merely the method they have chosen to attempt to do the former. That being said, it is understandable that many in our society live in fear and defensiveness. The media seeks out and amplifies every act of destruction, while remaining silent about the millions of acts of random kindness that occur everyday. Being fed “reality” by a market driven media provides a picture of reality greatly distorted. This distortion benefits no one as it serves to build fear based barriers between the very people with whom collaboration is our life’s purpose.
It’s Not About Blind Trust
While it can be argued that blindly endowing trust on everyone might lead to catastrophe, this exaggerated position is the result of a false choice. Simply choosing to be more trusting doesn’t mean that we no longer trust our intuition, nor that we fail to do due diligence. It merely means that those actions are taken from a place of hopefulness, rather than cynicism. And while the larger filter may on occasion allow a committed deceiver to slip under our radar, it also means it is far more likely we are attracting into our lives those people and circumstances that will enable us to create the lives of our dreams.
Cynicism Disconnects Us from our Source
Cynicism emanates from a worldly perspective based on fear and separation. When we buy into such a belief, we unconsciously choose to sacrifice the joy of aligning with possibility for the opportunity to “prove that we are right.” That is a huge price to pay. Living in the habit of saying “no” ensures that much of the fruits of the world will remain unharvested. By choosing instead to see the beauty and love that surround us, we are in a position to attract that which we most desire and build partnerships based on mutual benefit.
Challenge the Stories that Rob Us of Our Joy
So what do we do if we find ourselves living out of fear, limiting our life energy flow and settling for far less in life that we were intended? Begin by challenging our assumptions that brought us here by challenging the assumptions that underlie the beliefs:
How do we know that we live in a dangerous world?
What proof do we have that the assumptions underlying this are true?
Is it possible that our interpretation of that data is flawed?
What would be a more empowering way to frame our reality?
What would be possible for us if we could knew we lived in a safe world?
How might it serve us to open up to new people and circumstances by first saying “yes?”
What Will We Gain?
By asking these and similar questions, whenever we find ourselves closed down to new possibilities, we release within ourselves the human energy necessary to turn those mere possibilities into our new reality. As we open up to new relationships, and courageously engage the gifts with which we have been endowed, we move beyond the restrictive and safe artificial boundaries we had ignorantly constructed for our “safety” and tap into unlimited possibilities that lay before us. We were not created to live independent of the contributions of others, not were we meant to horde our gifts for ourselves. The universe works on the flow of giving and receiving and we become an active part of that world, we begin to value the diversity we once feared.
