The Importance Of Respect

Often we stand amazed at the stabbings of young people by young people on our news bulletins. Too often are we shocked by the violent crimes committed by our youth upon our elderly. The perpetrators are becoming younger and younger and I am told that these young offenders have little regard for life and no ‘respect’ for age, gender or position. In a world where crime, violence, aggression and disrespect are rapidly growing, no one has stopped to ask what lies at the bottom of it all? What has brought to the forefront of our modern society a culture that borders on lawlessness?

I am fully convinced that these are happening because we have discarded the age old principles of ‘authority and submission’ that once assured us of law and order. I am not going to dwell on the subject of ‘authority and submission’ though. Instead I would like to focus on the lack of respect that exists in our modern world. It has become the ‘coolest’ and most praiseworthy thing to show contempt to anything and everything worthwhile.

What no one has bothered to determine is who orchestrated this culture of breaking down of authority or, as it is so graciously referred to, ‘challenging the establishment’. The people involved in this are always rock stars, film stars and students. They are all people that are either into some drug culture or that have a chip on their shoulders. The one thing they have in common is that they are in rebellion. This is so because they are too young, inexperienced or uneducated to know better.

We were all young once and therefore familiar with the feelings of admiration that are bestowed upon those who have the courage to oppose those in authority. Most of us fought for some ill-deserved cause or another in our lives, perhaps at high school and most probably at university. Every generation has had its causes to fight for and rights to stand for. Then, at one point or another, we choose a career, take a job, marry the college sweetheart, buy a car, a house and have some little ones of our own. When these events take place in our lives, we suddenly change our priorities and our causes are diminished by the responsibilities of adulthood. In other words we ‘grow up’, face reality and change our priorities.

I am not going to enter into a discussion that revolves around conspiracy theories. My personal experience has however revealed that professors at universities and film and record producers promote these causes with the younger generation. Perhaps they are those who never took on the responsibility of a spouse and children. The sad thing is that the current generation has not advanced to that position of responsibility. As such they cannot understand the importance of love, peace, order and stability. At the same time that everyone is challenging the establishment, they are all demanding respect.

Respect is esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excellence of, a person, a personal quality, ability, or a manifestation of a personal quality or ability. As such respect has great importance in everyday life. As children we were taught to respect our parents, teachers, and elders, school rules and traffic laws, family and cultural traditions, other people's feelings and rights, our country's flag and leaders, the truth and people's differences of opinion. We came to value respect for these things as we matured and accepted responsibilities in life.

Most of us develop great respect for people we consider exemplary and lose respect for those we discover to be clay-footed. As such we may try to respect only those who are truly worthy of our respect. Some of us have come to believe that, at some level, all people are worthy of respect. We may learn that jobs and relationships become unbearable if we receive no respect in them. In certain social structures we may painfully learn the price of disrespect if we violate the street law.

Calls to respect form a part of public life. Environmentalists encourage us to respect nature, enemies of abortion and capital punishment insist on respect for human life, members of racial and ethnic minorities and those discriminated against because of their gender, sexual orientation, age, religious beliefs, or economic status demand respect both as social and moral equals. It is also widely accepted that public debates about these demands should take place under terms of mutual respect. We should learn that our lives together are better when we respect the things that deserve to be respected. There are certain principles that we should respect without considering how they affect our lives.

It is important that we also learn that how our lives prosper or progress depends very much on whether we respect ourselves. The value of self-respect is something we too often take for granted. Until we discover its importance when our self-respect is threatened, or we lose it and have to work to regain it, or we have to struggle to develop or maintain it in a hostile environment. Some people find that finally being able to respect themselves is what matters most about getting off welfare, kicking a disgusting habit, or defending something they value. Others, sadly, discover that life is no longer worth living if self-respect is irretrievably lost!

It is part of everyday wisdom that respect and self-respect are deeply connected. It is difficult if not impossible both to respect others if we do not respect ourselves and to respect ourselves if others do not respect us. It is a part of political wisdom that unjust social institutions can devastatingly damage self-respect. So also politicians have learned that robust self-respect can be a potent force in struggles against injustice.

The significance of respect and self-respect in everyday life explains why philosophers of moral principles, religion and politics have been interested in these two concepts. They are mentioned in numerous philosophical contexts, including discussions of justice and equality, moral and political rights and duties, cultural diversity and toleration.

The concepts of respect and self-respect are also incorporated into environmental ethics, business ethics, workplace ethics and many others. Although a wide variety of things are said to deserve respect, respect has overwhelmingly been focused on people. The idea being that all persons should be treated with respect simply because they are people. In recent years though many have argued that respect should also be extended to things other than people, the natural environment for instance.

In spite of the widespread acknowledgement of the importance of respect and self-respect in religious, moral and political life, there is no agreement on how to understand the concepts. It appears that philosophers find it difficult to determine what the objects of respect are and what is involved in respecting these objects. They have also not agreed on what the conditions are for self-respect, or the moral requirements for respect and self-respect.

Perhaps the fact that the great philosophers of our day cannot agree, on what should be respected or on the moral prerequisites for respect or self-respect, is the very reason why nothing is respected in our day and age. There is no doubt that our modern civilisation is quickly turning into disrespectful and violent communities that are bordering on lawlessness. Our young people are confused because of a lack of decent role-models. How can they have self-respect when they are taught to respect no one and nothing? There lies an immense task ahead of church, state and social-political organisations if this tide is going to be turned.

Confusion reigns on the concept of respect and it appears that everything that is wrong, bad, vulgar and unjust is considered worthy of respect. On the other hand everything that is pure, kind, gentle, tender or loving is to be scoffed at. If the issues of respect and self-respect are not addressed, especially in the areas of the moral requirements and conditions of these concepts, we are in for a rough ride!