Respecting your elders

I was taught at a young age to treat others the way I want to be treated but to respect my elders. What if those elders are not in any place to be given respect due to there actions? Like for instance, A former Nazi who was responsible for millions of innocent people's deaths? Should they be given respect for the horrible things they've done?

I personally respect people from the start, I don't go off and totally disregard what someone has to say due to age. I go out of my way to be respectful first to those I encounter in my life. Only when someone starts treating me like dirt when I've been nothing but nice do I lose respect for someone.

In my opinion respect is earned not given. You treat people the way you would want them to treat you. If you treat people like they are below you and don't deserve the time of day than you yourself do not deserve the time of day from anyone either.

What is your opinion?

Generally when i meet someone new i give them a blank slate. However if they start to act like a douche i will start to lose respect for them. This applies to older people too.

But for examples like the Nazi one, it would be hard for me to respect someone like that.

What he said. I think you should respect everybody, and that it should be lost, not earned.
It's always nice to be a pretty cool guy and raise money for cancer too though.

I think the whole "elder" thing came from when you were a kid and you were a total brat,
so your parents would say "respect your elders" because there wasn't anybody your age.

Kids have a thing for being annoying, disrespectful, and crazy.
Oh how I miss my youth.

Oh boy. Respect should be earned, as in you have to teach people how they should treat you. Hmm.

I always found the whole concept a little odd.
Perhaps it is simply a method of forcing control on the young.
Most societies now live with an aging population, as medical science continuously improves (ignoring recent misconceptions from doctors on what penicillin actually does) and birth rates decrease within educated populations.
Should one deserve respect simply for having lived longer than everyone else?

Elders, I think, deserve respect only if they have earned it during their lifetime.
A wealth of knowledge; a sacrifice for the greater good; a history of selflessness.
These things, more than age, (should) earn respect.
Most people that have made it beyond 60 tend to embody one or more of these elements anyway.

I give everyone I meet the same minimum level of respect. They have to earn the rest if they really want my respect and not me just being polite. But if I see you smoking a cig, you're starting in the negatives. I can't stand that stuff. In reality, I respect very few people. I'm still a very nice/polite person, and if you are too, well good. More "respect points" for you. I treat people the way I want to be treated.

Just cause you're old doesn't mean you get respect. Haven't you read Samurai's Tale?
"One of the soldiers took great pleasure in dealing out this punishment, darting in among the children and hitting them as hard as he could. He was a man older than the rest, but his age had gained him no respect, for the other soldiers treated him with contempt.

[color=#2e1a6b]I've had a few conflicts with older people that have caused me to feel disdain towards older people (I noticed that most of these old people are from up north). However, I've also met many old people that were very wise and/or nice. So, I treat old people just like I treat anyone. I act polite, see how they act, then determine what my attitude towards them is. I don't show respect for someone because they are older, but of who they are.

From what I've heard, most countries are very respectful to the elderly. I don't know if this is because of the cultural pressure, or just the fact that their old people are more respectable than American old people

Why should respect be earned? It should be given be default, then taken away if the person is an ass.

Can't you see it? The inherent contradiction of that stance? Earning YOUR respect would imply you are some hotshot person whose opinion matters. But then who the fuck are you? Why should anyone respect you? Have you earned any respect at all? Can you imagine people treating you with the level of respect you have earned, which is none at all?

This is why so many kids are fucking assholes. They go around running "Yo! You have to earn my respect, bitch!"




Yes. There is still a modicum level of respect to such a person, if only to show you are a better person. It is not their age that you are giving respect to, but to society itself.

To put it another way:

The Nazis were willing to slaughter jews because they saw them as animals.

Now, if you treat the Nazi as an animal, what does that make you? That just makes you the winner of the war, but not his better. He wold have done the exact same thing to you had his side won.

When you treat the nazi war criminal with respect, you are saying to the world "I am better than this maggot."




Quoted for truth.

I'm just gonna leave this here since i find this thread kind of funny and i wouldn't like to kill it ^^ :
(it's a message to everyone)

Respecting your elders

When you make a post like this you really should explain what you mean by it. Explaining helps the discussion along.



OT: I have a level of respect for everyone when I meet them. It's not particularly high, but it's still there. After that their actions determine what happens to my respect for them, whether I respect them more or less.

In certain cases , not taking part of a discussion is actualy helping the discussion , like i said , if i explain what i mean then i'm gonna kill the discussion ...

But i didn't post this for nothing , i want people to start thinking outside the box , which should in fact help the discussion ...

Ok, I can understand that.

I treat everyone I meet with respect until they do something that cause them to lose my respect. However the past Nazi would defiantly not have my respect.

And what if this nazi guy saved more life beign a doctor after the war than he actualy killed in the war ?

I don't think I could say it any better than Fatman said.
Respect should be the default position. You could have higher respect for other people, or lose it based on actions/etc.

Fuck, I treat others how I would like to be treated: With respect. Golden rule.

Hmm you're absolutly right. I guess you would have to look at everything first. There are the soldiers the were "just following orders."

Nothing demands respect, respect is your personal feelings as to the importance of a person to society.

Respect your elders is a terrible concept, it removes the concept of respect itself, after all if you respect all your elders (a fairly large amount of people, even if you're in your 30s) how are you making way to truly showing YOUR respect for a certain person older than you?