We Do Not Tolerate

The naming of what a body will not carry — because in living and social systems the quality of existence is largely determined by what gets tolerated.

Bodies define themselves far more by what they refuse than by what they affirm. Everyone affirms the good things; the difference between one body and another shows up in what is allowed to continue after it has been seen. A value that is never enforced is a preference, and the members learn quickly which is which (Values · Field of Agreements · Integrity).

The canon's formulation is specific: what is not tolerated is the manifestation and propagation of our anti-values. Two words are doing work there. Manifestation — the conduct itself, not the person, and not their opinions. Propagation — the spread of it, which is usually where the real damage is and where a body's silence is taken as agreement (The Anti-Patterns · Guard the Membrane · Selectively Permeable Membrane).

The practice this asks for is unglamorous. It is naming a small thing early, in the room, while it is still small — because tolerance is cumulative and a body slides one defensible allowance at a time (Drift · Mend a Tension · Having Difficult Conversations · Speaking Truth In Love · Quick Fixes). By the time something is obviously intolerable, it has usually been tolerated for a long while.

And it has to be bounded, or it becomes the thing it was guarding against. Three boundaries keep it honest. It applies to named conduct, written down in advance, not to a mood about someone (Rules of Participation · Agreement · We The People). It runs through due process — heard, answered, with recourse — rather than by exclusion on the spot (Recourse · Adjudication · Arbitration · Sanction). And it is held beside respect for the person, whose dignity does not depend on their conduct being acceptable (Dignity · Respect · Forgiveness · Reconciliation).

A list of what a body does not tolerate is therefore one of the more revealing documents it can write, and one of the more dangerous. Both are true, and both are reasons to write it carefully rather than not at all.

Also called: what we will not carry Stands on: Values · Field of Agreements · Quality Opens onto: Guard the Membrane · Selectively Permeable Membrane · Sanction · Recourse · Adjudication · The Anti-Patterns · Mend a Tension · Containment Of The Dangerous Sovereign · Pillar II — Sacred Governance and Stewardship In play: the door, where it is read before joining; and the table, the first time something small happens Sources: We Do Not Tolerate (root page, stub — the anti-values clause and the what-we-tolerate claim) · What We Tolerate (root page) · lionsberg.wiki: We Do Not Tolerate Open: The canon names Anti-Values as the thing not tolerated and no page lists them; without the list the rule cannot be applied. · Nothing in the canon connects this to the sanction and recourse pages, so the boundaries above are a reading rather than the canon's own.