RESPECT

This is another installment of reality from your friendly neighborhood critical thinker. Nathaniel was asking me about RESPECT and I realized that this is a topic that I have always wanted to write about as a humanist. Time to get started….
As with many things in life, most of us would have trouble defining respect poignantly. And yet we use it quite commonly. One of the most common confusions lies in mixing up ‘respect’ with ‘being impressed’. We often do this is our daily lives. ‘Wah…he run 2.4km so fast…respect sia.’ This cheapens the meaning of respect. You are merely impressed with his speed. You can however respect the work that he puts in to achieve that speed. The work which he would have put in to achieve that speed is worthy of respect because it speaks of nobility in action, namely discipline and mental fortitude.
When I deconstruct the concept of respect, I find that it comes in two main forms of which I will discuss below- inter-personal respect and humanist respect.

Inter-personal respect is not a given nor can it be forced. Anybody who demands respect from you and/or uses a position of authority to make you conform to respecting them often are motivated by vanity, egotism and insecurity. Respect should only be earned through noble actions in particular fields and/or character and this happens through social intercourse. Thus inter-personal respect is subjective and not all-encompassing of an individual. The reality is that an individual may be worthy of respect in one field of life but not others.

The above however does not reduce in any way humanist rights [which are universally given and an increasingly institutionalized form/s of respect] that we accord to each other as fellow equal members of the human family. We should also accord this respect to animals as humanists given that we are equal living creatures with no biological or moral superiority.
Institutionalized ‘respect’ is another facet of ‘respect’ that is a reality in everyday life. It is put in place by institutions and enforced with sanctions. Therefore it is not genuine respect. It is merely a façade and an act of submission/subjugation of one’s will in the presence and knowledge of an unequal power nexus. Therefore I did not place institutionalized respect in my conceptual understanding of ‘respect’.
In summary, we accord humanist respect to all because we acknowledge our equality. Interpersonal respect however is earned through demonstrating nobility in action and/or character. And everyday heroes who are indeed worthy of our respect are everywhere if only we carefully looked.