Intolerance expressed through the need to control.

Suppose you thought of people as being like a box of kittens. If you let kittens run around your bedroom, they can get into all kinds of trouble: breaking lamps, tearing curtains, chewing up plants. However, if you keep them all in a box, all of the time, then you would not have to worry about them trashing your room. Of course neither would the kittens get the exercise and experience they need to grow up.

Sometimes some people feel the need to classify groups of other people as good, bad, dangerous, helpful, etc. This is like putting people into boxes. This is done so a person might quickly determine how to keep control of their lives by controlling the lives of others around them. And like the kittens, who then do not get the exercise and experience they need to grow, can put some people into a similar position. This is called intolerance expressed by the need to control.

This sort of intolerance can be tricky, because some people do it out of apparently good motives. They may be out to "help" people who are different in a certain way, but by putting them into a defining box, are unable to help the individuals within that box, much less the whole group of people. We all need the space to grow and be ourselves.

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