Then **beep** off.

Yeah, I went there.  Because there should, in no part of the world, be a people who single-handedly oppress those who offend others.  Now let’s just get a few things straight.  First of all, I'd want to draw the line between offence and inciting hatred.  Example - "Jesus was a loon" - offensive - "We should ship all the immigrants home" - inciting hatred (unless you're a BNP party conference speaker, in which case it's called "key-notes speech".)

But what on earth is the problem with a little bit of tolerance, you may well ask... along with thousands of other people, bleating out the same tune (yes, I am being deliberately offensive here, get over it).  And you'd be right to ask such a question, and it deserves an answer.  But let's get one thing straight before we bother sabre rattling.

tol⋅er⋅ance  /ˈtɒlərəns/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [tol-er-uhns] Show IPA –noun   (dictionary.com)

Now I don't know about you, but I think that fair, objective and permissive are all good ideals to strive towards, as long as they don't contravene a higher moral code.  By which I mean, I'll be fair objective and permissive of you as long as you don't go killing people, or anything equally retarded, because then the only objective decision I'll be making is how long to look you up and whether or not to throw away the key.

But take, for example, a seasoned drummer coming across a newbie, arms flailing, sticks flying and the only job he's doing well is destroying his drum kit.  Would you prevent the drummer from explaining to the newbie why his technique was all wrong on the grounds it might offend him?  Surely it would be far better for the newbie to swallow the bitter pill and move on, improving the technique and himself as a player.  Was the seasoned pro being fair and objective?  Of course he was, but it didn't stop a situation arising from which someone could have been offended.  But taking offense here gets you nowhere other than to the drum shop having to buy a new kit.

But let’s replay that scenario once again
"Say son, that's not a very sensible way to drum!"
"Yeah?  But my teacher taught me to play like this."
"Well then, if that's true, your teacher is either misguided or an idiot."

This situation could bring offence to the teacher, although surely it would be right to criticise him if he's teaching other people to drum like a seal on a river bank.  But the student shouldn't really be taking offence, surely.  I suppose he could have you-tubed, seen concerts and realised he was doing it wrong, but some teachers are pretty strict, and, sadly, that can go hand in hand with being wrong.  After all, you wouldn't want your student more enlightened in the ways of drumming than you, right?  But in any case, offense would have to be actively taken, and that means, as it always does, people who are offended are putting effort into doing it.

I have no right to live my life free from being offended.  In fact, a situation that arises where I could take offense generally means I can also go the other way and improve things.  The student above would be a wiser drummer to listen and improve, but if he only takes offense at some point he'll have to square with the fact he's a worse drummer than Meg White.  Putting his hands over his ears and screaming to himself will get him nowhere at all.

It seems to me that society has reverted to the infantile age of a human, running round screaming about what is "mine" and how "I'm right" and not allowing a foothold for criticism.  But criticism is the very catalyst for progress, and we should embrace it wherever we can.  Of course there are nice and horrible ways to be criticised, but of what use is if we all just pretend everything is fine and then wonder why nothing works.

So why, instead of going round trying our best to ban criticism on the grounds it might cause offense, can't we just ban taking offense on the grounds it achieves nothing but halting progress.  If you read here often, you'll know I'm a Christian, but I'd be an idiot if I didn't listen to the criticism of my faith to see if it has any grounds, and if so, perhaps there should be some time to figure out whether it's the human interpretation of the message that's causing the criticism, or the message itself.  Because if it’s the message, then there's something wrong with my faith.

Saying that you don't want your religion to be offended, in my eyes, is pretty much saying you have no answers to the criticism levelled against you, so why not dig deeper into your religion, learn about it, become able to think for yourself, and either refute with learning, believe that there are answers that you don't understand, admit changes need to be made, or get yourself a new religion.

To see the article that prompted this tangled mess of thoughts the author calls a blog, click here - http://www.slate.com/id/2212662