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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 May 2007
Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity andEmpire. By Wendy Brown. Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress, 2006. 282p. $29.95.
Globalization, population migration, multiculturalism, identitypolitics, 9/11, and the war on terror—if one thinks of tolerance asan art for reconciling differences, then the need for it would seemto be greater than ever. However, tolerance, as T. M. Scanlon argues(The Difficulty of Tolerance, 2003), is nevereasy. At the very least, it means acknowledging that other peoplewhom I dislike are entitled to the same legal protections as I amand should be equally free to decide how to live their lives. Askingme to avert my eyes or look away from those beliefs and ways of lifethat I find repugnant may mean that tolerance comes close to beingan “impossible virtue” (Bernard Williams, “Toleration: An ImpossibleVirtue?” in David Heyd, ed., Toleration: An ElusiveVirtue, 1996), but the alternative—intolerance—seems anonstarter. So for many of us the choice between tolerance andintolerance seems easy. Indeed, many liberals assume that toleranceis a defining feature of any decent society.
