Forums → WEPR → Define Respect in Your Culture/Country
| 36 | 17587 |
From what the title says, I just want to know what you would say is respectful and disrespectful. Whether it be from your point of view, or you culture and beliefs, your countries definition of respect. Is it behavior? Is it in actions? Is it in words? Does age matter?
Through what I've learned here in the Philippines, age is a huge part of respect. We hold our elder's hand to our forehead and say "Mano po" as a sign of respect. Though if age isn't too far apart, my generation believes that respect is earned. We don't like it when a kid acts rude towards their elders, we don't like it when people behave rudely.
There are a lot of cultures and different ideas, so I just wanted to ask.
- 36 Replies
Value = Authority => unquestionable authority.
Not worth the risk of the chance.
Respect, in most cultures, is partially dependent on age.
And I say that is a mistake.
And you create a false dichotomy. Noone said 8-years should be compared to fully grown adults.
The question was, fully grown, in their best people should be undervalued compared to potentially-senile fully grown adults over their prime.
tradition is just not something you should attach to unquestionably.
i agree with this line.
however do people sometimes question the tradition that they are not part of from the outside. they sometimes even try to stop a tradition after what they have learned about it. and i think that is a wrong thing.
so, yea you can/have to question traditions your part of too see if they still fit in the age we live. but we shouldn't do that with other traditions. because we don't know what it really is about. of it really is a wrong tradition for this age and culture. then it will end by itself as more and more people will stop doing it.
do we still sink woman by a large stone around the legs too see if they are a witch? or are we still going once a month with the whole family to the city center too watch execution?
Value = Authority => unquestionable authority.
That's the most absurd slippery-slope argument I've seen in years.
And you create a false dichotomy. Noone said 8-years should be compared to fully grown adults.
A false dichotomy would require the example to hinge upon it being an eight-year-old/adult comparison. It doesn't. Making an exception just for this case would be special pleading.
The question was, fully grown, in their best people should be undervalued compared to potentially-senile fully grown adults over their prime.
They aren't, so the question is irrelevant.
Respect in my culture is obeying orders from elders,respecting your parents and also other people even if you don't know them and finally respecting the opinion of other people.
Respect all! This doesn't mean that you should serve him or that he is your idol, but it means that you like some things that he/she has done. And we shoul respect those deads in people even if we don't like them.
As already stated, always respect your elders. Merely being older than you is something to be respected. They know more, have lived more, have survived through more and pretty much have done everything you've done many more times than you (life-related, not technology-related).
Respect in my country means not making jokes about the elders, always being careful of what you say to people more than 15 years older than you, regardless of how friendly they are to you and how much they joke around you.
Respect means taking their opinions and advice into consideration, regardless of how annoying it may seem. Respect is being with the people you respect, spending time with them and putting up with their flaws and their criticism
Yes, it is not an easy thing to manage for a long time. I am personally having trouble keeping it up with my own grandfather sometimes.
But it is what I have an obligation to do.
At least that's how it is here...
Sounds like a nice place, Doombreed. I've only visited Greece, so I haven't gotten to experience intimate aspects of the culture.
But I've noticed something about this thread. The title is pretty clear - define respect in your culture/country. And some of you have given some pretty neat example and explanations of how to show respect to others and things like that.
But notice that this isn't really a definition of respect - these are simply examples of respect. Don't get me wrong - I think they're really interesting. But maybe there's a much more difficult question lurking in the background. What is respect? This isn't a question that appears to have been answered.
Definitions are a funny thing. And one thing about them is that you can't define a word by using that very word to define it. As an example, suppose someone asked me to define roundness. I then answer by saying that roundness is something that has the property of being round. Not super helpful.
So we have 2 options:
1) Give a reductive account of respect (that is, one that defines respect in terms of other, more basic concepts).
2) Concede that respect is just a basic (what we in the 'biz' call a brute) term. It can't really be analysed. There are (arguably) other words/notions like this such as game, similar, and colour. Maybe respect is like those concepts.
Oh, and feel free to completely ignore this post. This was just something that crossed my mind.
Violating a queue in Britain is something that you just don't do.
@Moegreche Impossible to not mind what you had said.
Respect by dictionary definition means:
": a feeling of admiring someone or something that is good, valuable, important, etc.
: a feeling or understanding that someone or something is important, serious, etc., and should be treated in an appropriate way"
Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/respect
In America, there really isn't a tradition of respecting your elders anymore. I go to the grocery store and hear kids whining, being rude to their parents, and throwing tantrums when they don't get what they want. We cast this illusion upon ourselves that we are respecting others, but we don't. I respect my friends, but that's about it. We have this saying that respect is earned, not freely given, which is so self- absorbed that it's sickening.
We cast this illusion upon ourselves that we are respecting others, but we don't. I respect my friends, but that's about it. We have this saying that respect is earned, not freely given, which is so self- absorbed that it's sickening.
Age and superiority is earned so. I think people just don't understand the statement as a whole.
@Moegreche , as it happens every time you post, you have gotten me thinking.
Regardless of dictionary definitions, the title is pretty clear. It doesn't talk about what respect is, as this definition pretty much stays the same regardless of nationality. The difference is the way it is expressed. Shown if you prefer. So, what I understand is that, the thread may talk about the definition of respect, but the rest of the sentence changes the entire meaning of it. Which is why I began to talk with examples about how it is shown here.
At least that's how I get it. Maybe I am wrong...
We have this saying that respect is earned, not freely given,
Age and superiority is earned so
This is actually a new and very interesting way to think about this. Maybe you are right. I think it is what I've been trying to get through using examples in the previous posts. I've had many discussions with people here about respect and they kept telling me "respect is earned", not realising that age and knowledge is also earned.
We have this saying that respect is earned, not freely given, which is so self- absorbed that it's sickening.
So you've never met someone in a position of authority or an elder who very clearly didn't deserve to be respected? I can understand being offended by the indigo children who are simply spoiled rotten, but being sickened by people who refuse to "respect" everyone who demands it is a completely unwarranted response.
So far I've avoided posting in this thread because the U.S. is huge and means of showing respect varies depending on where you are and how big the local population is. There are areas of the Midwest so rural that respect is the same there as in the deep south (mostly that means referring to everyone as "sir" or "ma'am" and never arguing with someone even if they're wrong) while in big cities like Chicago you can get by simply by not wearing the wrong colors in the wrong neighborhood and avoiding saying anything racist. Just before I entered High School my parents moved to Arkansas. Within 6 months I had gotten detention for "talking back" to my principle when I was accused of doing something I didn't do and tried to defend myself, mostly because I didn't call her "ma'am" when I did so.
I'm also not sure real respect exists in the U.S. anymore. People generally get into positions of power by sucking up to their boss or buying a degree (I say buying because the biggest challenge of college isn't the work or the difficulty of the material, but having enough money to attend all the classes required) not by working for the position. Those people then use fearmongering to demand they get the "respect" they believe their position deserves. "I'm you're teacher, respect me or I'll give you detention." "I'm you're boss, respect me or I'll fire you." Even on the level of national politics, charisma and lies will get you a lot farther than actually working hard to do your job and make the country a better place.
In America, there really isn't a tradition of respecting your elders anymore. I go to the grocery store and hear kids whining, being rude to their parents, and throwing tantrums when they don't get what they want.
Yeah, just like small children in any region, period, or environment that doesn't enforce discipline through pain and/or severe fun-deprivation. This isn't a case of nation-wide disrespect; it's a symptom of ineffective parenting techniques.
We have this saying that respect is earned, not freely given, which is so self- absorbed that it's sickening.
The alternatives are "respect is inherited", "respect is arbitrarily assigned, regardless of merit", "respect can be bought off, just like everything else", and "respect is completely unattainable", so I'd say earning it is the least sickening approach.
The alternatives are "respect is inherited", "respect is arbitrarily assigned, regardless of merit", "respect can be bought off, just like everything else", and "respect is completely unattainable", so I'd say earning it is the least sickening approach.
How about we just respect everyone equally? regardless of age, merit, or assignment? I should not have to earn someones' respect just because they say so. I expect everyone to treat me the way they would want to be treated, and I treat people the way I want to be treated.
You must be logged in to post a reply!