Respect

Respect is a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities or achievements. Much of the universal values and virtues that contribute to the good of the individual and society and affirm our human dignity are derived from the value of respect and the value of responsibility.

Sometimes I wonder if in today’s world there is any respect left in the human being. Now some of us have different views on respect. As an Indian, I was tough that you have to treat your elders and the like with respect. You probably end up calling everyone either uncle or aunty who are older to you. Maybe closer to your age you’d call them brother or sister. This leads me to a funny thought, if I were to start calling everyone uncle and aunty or brother or sister this would be one big incestuous world.

Moving on, talking about respect I think that the basic human feelings are involved. You choose who to respect and who not to. If someone is wrong, they are wrong, be it your boss, your elders (uncle or aunt) or even someone who is younger than you. You might chose to not respect them. Nothing wrong in that. But sometimes we don’t make it clear enough that we do not respect the person and for what reason. We fail to explain to the other person that their one mistake made you dis-respect (well, for the lack of a better word) them.

Money, power, stature does not really bring in respect. Now I’m not writing a moral lesson here which I hope to teach to my kids. But I do think that you should not be forcing someone to respect you or respect someone else just because they are older, more powerful or at a higher stature of society. Let your kids chose for themselves who they want to respect. They are humans too, not robots that you would teach them every lesson in life. Let them learn.

I did read somewhere that “education will bring respect to everyone”, which is also untrue according to me. Respect in my opinion doesn’t come with education, it comes with your life experiences and the actions of the other person.

In today’s world we often hear so much news about different people groups, races, religions, sexes, and ages. Somebody is always being offended and somebody is always being discriminated against. Is our world truly such a terrible place that human beings cannot respect each other and treat one another with kindness and dignity?

So many times groups are pitted against one another over trivial matters, petty excuses, and even insignificant issues. So what is the real problem? It is a lack of communication. We have lost the ability to talk to one another, to empathize with others, and to sympathize with those less fortunate than ourselves. As we explore these different groups and their issues, problems, backgrounds, and lifestyles we should all keep an open mind, open hearts, and remember that the people we are talking about are just that, they are people. It is someone’s father, mother, sister, brother, daughter, or son. These are people who are loved and valued and they should be treated that way.

Well before I go on about this moral integrity (which I should write another one page about) I think that each human/person thinks on his own and its up to them to make a conscientious decision on what they can do and what they can not do. Who to respect and who not to respect. Its their own values. We fight over abortion, homosexuality, war, poverty, wealth, debt, government, sex, drugs, immigration, and religion. The one thing we never fight about is promotion of self. There is no respect for others left; it is about self promotion and one’s own cause at the cost of anyone else and their beliefs or feelings. Tolerance is a word that is thrown around a great deal, but very rarely practiced.