The Necessity of Intolerance
If “tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions,” as G.K. Chesterton put it, a question suggests itself:
Is intolerance the virtue of the principled man?
Literally speaking, neither tolerance nor intolerance is a “virtue”; that is, one of those defined “objectively good moral habits.” Exhibiting each, however, in its proper context, can be virtuous. Even more significantly, wisely applied intolerance is certainly this: necessary for the preservation of virtue in civilization. This task is of the utmost importance, too, as the Founders well understood, Benjamin Franklin among them. “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom,” he observed. “As nations become more corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” Thus do we need “A Plea for Intolerance” — and, thankfully, we have one, in the form of a book chapter by that very title penned by legendary Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen in 1931.
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