You alluded to the different shades of respect, earned and implied. For the most part, true respect is earned. But, then, for example, giving up your seat so an older person may sit is a form of respect. And that person may have not one quality that deserves respect. Now why would one go ahead and show this respect? Is it not that ones respect for himself and the values he treasures? I know a man who, as a father, did not earn much respect. When I saw one of his almost grown children doing something very disrespectful to him, I had to hold back. A parent should be treated with respect, earned or not. It is a matter of principle of how a person should act.
And it is a matter of this principled respect that one would not retaliate in kind to disrespect. A persons honor and thus showing respect go hand in hand. So, I guess it comes down to that we show respect because it is either earned, of which we would feel from within, or it is obligated, of which may be very hard to do.
Why ?
A parent may be alcoholic, or a drug user Ultimately destructive to their child. One should assume others deserve respect unless, or until, proved otherwise Ultimately the most important job we have as humans is that we leave the world a better place for our kids, and teach them that the need to lead there kids to leave the world better for our grand kids.
For the record you are one of the many people on this site who has earned my respect. We may not agree on everything, though I suspect our differences are not that large,you clearly listen to the opinions of others.
Perhaps we define “respect” differently. When I say I respect someone I’m saying I’m positively giving them my endorsement. Which is different from I’m not saying “they are a dick”.
I try to live by that statement. Another rule I try to live by is to treat others as I would like them to treat me.
Perhaps there is another word for what I was trying to say when it comes to showing or treating others with respect, but I cannot think of any. I was trying to show that there are two sides, in my mind, of the one word. One that should always be done, and one that is earned and felt from the heart. I have known of people, who, by showing respect to one who does not deserve it, they have managed to improve things to where the person not deserving it has tried to change. And again, showing respect to such ones, for me, is being true to myself. It does not mean that I agree with them or will let them run me over or take advantage of me. It just means that I will treat them kindly and mannerly all the while trying to show patience. And, then, who knows, perhaps this situation and the person will think about how they have just been treated and how they have been behaving.
I do believe that we are probably thinking along the same lines, but it’s a communication disconnect, no doubt from my limited vocabulary.
[quote=“oldgeek, post:64, topic:2446”]
I do believe that we are probably thinking along the same lines, but it’s a communication disconnect, no doubt from my limited vocabulary.[/quote]
You have no need to apologise for limited vocabulary. I don’t know where you are from but given how well you write I would happily believe English is your first language.
I may have been overly pedantic last night regarding the meaning of the word “respect”. It does need to be earned but we both agree that we should all try to be decent with each other and show good manners.
To quote a very good philosophy, from a very dodgy film we should all
As you might have guessed, English is not my mother tongue. My mother tongue is pure Gibberish. Quite fluent in Gibberish I must say!
I just have a problem of getting my thoughts into words
Other words, in the subject at hand, that occured to me, that I would put under the heading of ‘shown respect’, would be ‘consideration’ and ‘due honor’. So, we were thinking along the same lines.
