what an nice poll - and interesting views posted so far!
as many opinions have been gathered here, already, there's not much more
for me to say. kon-tiki diplayed my view on this topic quite well, but with my
english skills i would never have been able to express it in such simple yet
clear words like he did!
anyway, i'd like to tell you about how i think about respect.
first of all, i voted for the option, that you first have to be repectful towards others
before you are able to receive it...
however, i think that there's another important point which might be considerable
in this discussion: self-respect.
it's not possible to show appropriate repect for your fellow human beings without
respecting yourself. of course this might easily be confused with vanity but i'm sure
we all know the difference (although the border between these two aspects can be
thin).
if you pretend to be respecting others without having a certain level of self-
consciousness, your behaviour could turn out to be more hypocritical than
respectful, imo! if you're honest and critical enough to appraise your own character
and your deeds properly, without hyping or dumping yourself falsely, then you
will come to see where your position towards yourself is ranked. according to this
sort of "evaluation" you will develop a certain level of self-respect.
from this position you will define your way of dealing with others. a decent level
of self-respect and a stable and healthy sense of moral, interaction with ppl around
you more or less automatically leads to social interaction basing on respectful terms.
of course, there are still other factors which have to be included such as hierarchical
structures or cultural differences which are strong dynamics in today's society.
but despite these aspects, it's always possible and required to uphold the respect
anyone deserves - it simply is a matter of insight, self-reflection, honesty and morality...
i hope my explanation was not too confusing.
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