Respect Your Elders

Just because they're elders?? Shouldn't we evaluate someone purely on the soundness of their reasoning?

It's all too common for people with a significant age gap to have the elder pull it out as a trump card. If you can't articulate your reasons for a belief, in all likelihood you don't have good reasons for that belief. This is why debate is so effective, it forces one to take the listener through the logical steps that lead to a strong conclusion. I find the intellectual laziness of people who use age as an indicator of their correctness troubling to say the least. If you do your best to remove all potential for cognitive bias, you will see reality with exquisite clarity.

 

You should respect all people and their opinions.

 

HEY!! WATCH IT YOUNGIN!!! I'm old. Therefore ---I'm right. (Actually left.)

 

Get off'a my lawn!

 

We don't respect people's beliefs or opinions.

We respect their REASONS for their beliefs.

We respect people who believe Elvis is still alive less than we respect Zeus worshipers less than we respect Christians.

We evaluate reasons to the extent with which they can be supported by evidence.

Respect the person, not the idea. It's incredibly important to uphold that distinction. If we start respecting maladaptive ideas, we're in trouble.

 

People of any age need to earn my respect.....everyone starts out with a blank canvas with me....not prejudged at all......on any level.....they begin to paint who they are on the canvas to me.....and sometimes...they win my respect...other times, not so.

 

Of course, if I do not respect someone, I can always be cordial, still....but need to dance away from them as much as possible.

I remember someone came at me once for not liking George Bush because he was the President....and i said no way.....he needs to earn my respect like everyone else, and he does not....but they argued it was the position I needed to respect. Bull shit. I noticed how they disrespected obama after he became president, and I wanted to throw their own words back at them,...but did not...i let it all go.

 

It all depends upon the person. Some quirky old gal might believe Elvis is still alive and be sweet as pie. Some nasty old bitch might believe in Christ. It's not so black and white.

It all depends upon how a person carries their beliefs. But I agree the elderly are not to be respected just because they're elderly. But it is good to make a general rule of respecting the elderly until they say something completely horrible. I do reserve a different kind of respect for the elderly.

I think a worse problem in this world than elderly getting undeserved respect is the lack of respect they are given. In some cultures the elderly are respected. In our culture they're seen as being all washed up. I reject ageism completely.

 

One of my previous managers DEMANDED respect from people. I told her if you tell people to respect you, you don't deserve it.

 

Your scenario is quite vague. Are we talking about business? Family? Social situations? Public political debate? How young are the individuals involved? What kinds of subjects? It all matters. It's a social structure question, so context is everything.

How do you still have a job? I would have fired you on the spot. Actually, that proves she DOESN'T deserve respect.

 

She wouldnt dare fire me. Why should someone automatically deserve respect from everyone else? Especially when everything they do is the opposite of respectful.

 

Job title, for starters. Insubordination is grounds for immediate dismissal in every company, nonprofit organization, and government agency, anywhere. Even unionized employees can't say to the boss, "You don't deserve my respect." without consequences.

Your boss isn't accountable to you, partly because of federal law. If you think he/she handled a situation with another employee poorly, employment privacy laws may prevent you from receiving a full explanation of what really happened. You may not be familiar with those labor laws, but your employer is. Also, you boss' boss may tell them not to divulge some facts to people below a certain level.

Free market competition is another factor. If one of my employees starts acting like an asshole, I don't have to deal with it. There are plenty of qualified people out there who want a job who are not assholes at work. I'd be better off hiring one of them.

 

George W. Bush, president of the United States deserved the most respect of anyone in the country.

War criminals were wary of disobeying orders from the top of the pyramid. Obedience is not philosophically sound. I'm with Stoned, act like a **** get treated like a ****. Stand your ground lest we all surrender to psycopaths pulling the strings behind the scenes.

 

Enjoy your time in the unemployment line, and living in your parents' basement. Your life is going nowhere.

 

When it's not been earned, it's not respect that you're showing. It's subservience.

I have, at various times in my life, been subservient. It was common during childhood, less so as a young adult, and by now is completely absent. It might temporarily return if I find myself sitting too near the front of a courtroom, but otherwise any who demands subservience from me is going to receive my absence instead. And perhaps an earful of derision before I go, depending upon how they present that unreasonable demand.

I may be entirely too independent for my own good, but it pays well and I don't have to feign self respect.

 

seems fair to me, but then i'm also on the side of merit based pay rather than paying twice as much to the shitty employee who never bothered to advance in their career than to the new person who is actually performing well and making money for the company.

 

If there is an elder person I don't respect, I take into consideration the day and time in which they were raised. I find if I don't respect them I can usually be considerate of them.

If they are a really nasty and mean old person, I still try to consider what is going on in their life, or what has gone on in their life to make them that way. I may not necessarily respect them but I can usually find a reason to feel some compassion toward them.

 

[SIZE=medium]James Burke [/SIZE]

[SIZE=medium]I watched every episode of Connections² back in the 1990’s[/SIZE]



[SIZE=medium]Hotwater[/SIZE]

 

I won't respect every body. Nah give them the benefit of the doubt, but that's hardly respect.

As for the elders, well to a point I must look at an elderly person and if they're in good shape etc. respect that they've lived that log I suppose, they must have been doing something right.

I'm always spending time with people older than myself and in many cases a lot older than myself, the pub folk. There's a few there I have zero time for and no respect but a lot that is the opposite.

I respect people for trying to make a difference in their life. If something needs to be changed and you sought out to achieve this then much earned respect is given. But I can't respect someone that just complains and does nothing about it. You won't get any respect for that, no matter your age.