Compromise, respect and tolerance require humility

I refer to the letter “Community interest should not become tyranny of the majority” (Nov 28). “Compromise” is easier said than done.

To consider an issue outside Singapore, to allow for some distance and, perhaps, objectivity, let us take a hot issue in the West, specifically the United States: Abortion. One who is pro-life believes that life begins at conception, or very soon after, and abortion is murder.

One who is pro-choice believes that a woman has full autonomy over her person and should have the right to control what happens to herself. Forcing a woman to have a child against her will is a form of subjugation.

How does one arrive at a compromise? For pro-lifers to compromise, it is to allow murder. For those who are pro-choice to compromise, it is to surrender their autonomy and personhood, and allow others to dictate their lives.

The point is that as long as values — and morality is a set of values — inform one’s position on issues, how does one compromise them? If they are easily compromised, does one really value them?

Or does compromise mean that the other person compromises his heathen values because one’s own values are true and divinely informed?

How do you tolerate other values when they are misinformed and wrong? For if they are not wrong, it would mean that you may be wrong.

How do you respect other values, when they are clearly pagan or simply superstitions masquerading as religious values? For if their values are based on truth, then yours may not be.

“Tolerance, respect and compromise” are indeed easier said than done, and rest on two other virtues.

First, to respect others requires humility. To tolerate other values requires humility and the niggling suspicion that you might be wrong. To compromise requires an acceptance that your solution may be wrong.

That brings us to the virtue of fallibility or uncertainty. Self-confidence is not the unshakeable faith in one’s infallibility, but a personal commitment to do what is right when one learns what is right.

This was first posted on http://www.todayonline.com/voices