Lookin' for Aretha

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To my way of thinking, respect is given in three different settings:

Gotta re-read this one. You should too.

• To the position

• To the person

• To both in whatever varying degrees

On the first a good example is the military. A private may have no clue about a general as a person, but the private has respect for the process by which the general achieved his rank. Ergo, the private respects the position of general. This respect is more or less automatic.

On the second, a person may have respect because of who he is, regardless of his position. This respect comes only with time and learning about the person whom respect is given. Can't be automatic.

Posting this will amuse someone. I have no idea why.

Those explained, the third should be pretty clear.

But, these examples also show respect as a one-way matter.  The person being respected had no obligation under these concepts to show respect. That's just the way it works.

In Case Number One, it does not matter. The general has no idea who the private is and really cannot take time to care about the private as an individual.

In Case Two, respect must eventually move into a two-way relationship of respect or it will degenerate. (See Machiavelli above).

All that being said, I now get to the point.

Shall we dance?

My friend and one of a very few lawyers whom I respect as a lawyer recently said she wished people would respect the president and the massively difficult job he has to do. I agree. Completely. Yes, I do.

She also said she does not expect to live long enough to see this happen. I fear I shan't see this either.

I have some respect these days for the person who happens to be the current president. Not a lot, but some. He's got a hard job to do and he was willing to try to do it. Gotta admire that. This does not mean I have to agree with everything, or even most, of what he does as president.

Because this president has continue to chip away at my rights as an individual, I have little respect for him. If he attempted to restore the rights taken from me and further preserve my remaining rights, my respect level would soar.

Look good at any cost.

These days I have pretty much no respect for the office of president, regardless of who sits there. Why should I? Our president is not selected based on his ability to do the job (as generals in the military are so chosen.) Rather, the president is selected based on nothing more than a homecoming court election.

In other words, it's a popularity contest based on hair styles. Substance is rejected. 

I should respect someone because they look good on a poster?

Why?

What's more important to you: A person's ability to do the job or how a person looks?

Don't answer that. I may be forced to take your answer, wrap it around your actions and actual decisions and beat you to death with it.

Paris Hilton for President because she can't do any worse.

Empirical evidence, going well beyond elections and into the private sector, prove most emphatically that good looks triumph over abilities when a person must decide between the two.

And you want me to respect that? If I do, what does that say about me?

More to the point what does it say about you?

Would you rather be respected for how you look or how well you use what abilities you have?

It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles.
Niccolo Machiavelli