The other day, an acquaintance told me that they deserved respect because they treat other people with respect.
However, people should earn respect, and they should not be granted respect just because they desire it.
Personally, I do not respect child molesters, petty thieves, or leaders who lie to the public for their own political careers.
In fact, even tolerating such individuals is something which comes very hard for me, perhaps you disagree, and think that every individual should be tolerated, and besides those few categories I listed above, everyone deserves respect.
Well, they don't.
We agree as a society to tolerate people of different religions, ethnic backgrounds, age groups, and all of their cultural differences.
We also agree that everyone should be equal under the law, but I have to ask; what does that have to do with respect? Many groups of folks get together and they demand respect.
However if they had earned the respect, they wouldn't need to demand it because people would automatically respect them.
Expecting people to respect you is similar to believing you are entitled to something - indeed in this case you believe you are entitled to respect.
But are you? One thing I find fascinating is someone who disrespects others of a different political persuasion, religion, socioeconomic class, or even a race, creed, or culture and yet, demands respect for their own grouping or the categories which they find themselves identifying with.
That sure sounds like a lot of hypocrisy to me.
We should all tolerate each other, but respect is much more sincere and real when it is earned.
If it has not been earned and it is granted to all comers then it is meaningless anyway.
This is similar to a mother who tells their kids they are special, and then a neighbor kid comes along, and the mother tells them they are special.
Then, their own children ask "how come my friend is special, you said I was special.
" The mother might say something like; "you are special, they are special, and everyone is special.
" Of course a young and active mind would report; "if everyone is special, then no one is.
" Likewise, if we give respect to those who haven't earned it, then those that have will see it as a meaningless facade of society.
That it is of no value, and at that point respect is nothing more than tolerance, and we are rewarding bad behavior and giving people a certificate for that which they have not earned.
Then they feel entitled to something they don't deserve, and we as a society are no better for it.
I believe that is what's happening right now in the United States as we speak, and I thought you should know about it.
Please consider all this and think on it.