I’m sure we all know what Respect is but I just want us have a vivid clarification because it is still a problem in the society. Understanding respect is a huge responsibility in creating harmony in a society. Respect is a positive feeling of esteem for a person, a nation or a religion, and also specific actions and conduct representative of that esteem. Respect can be a specific feeling of regard for the actual qualities of the one respected (e.g., “I have great respect for his attitude”). It can also be conduct in accord with a specific ethic of respect.
Respect can be both given and/or received. Depending on an individual’s cultural reference frame, respect can be something that is earned. Respect is often thought of as earned or built over time. Often, continued caring interactions are required to maintain or increase feelings of respect among individuals. Respect should not be confused with tolerance, that’s why understanding respect is a gradual process.
Some people earn the respect of individuals by assisting others or playing important social roles. In many cultures, individuals are considered to be worthy of respect until they prove otherwise. Courtesies that show respect include simple words and phrases like “thank you” in the West, simple physical gestures like a slight bow in the East, a smile or direct eye contact, in the Yoruba land, the young men prostrate for their elders and the ladies courtesy or kneel.
Now, you can also see respect as a feeling or understanding that someone or something is important, serious, etc., and should be treated in an appropriate way. Respect is reciprocal and shouldn’t be shown to only elders. Everyone deserves to be respected; young and old respectively.
Respect is a two-way thing, to get it you have to give it.
It has great importance in everyday life. As children we are taught (one hopes) to respect our parents, teachers, and elders, school rules and traffic laws, family and cultural traditions, other people’s feelings and rights, our country’s flag and leaders, the truth and people’s differing opinions. And we come to value respect for such things; when we’re older, we may shake our heads (or fists) at people who seem not to have learned to respect them. We develop great respect for people we consider exemplary and lose respect for those we discover to be clay-footed, and so we may try to show regard to only those who are truly worthy of our respect. We may also come to believe that, at some level, all people are worthy of respect.
We may learn that jobs and relationships become unbearable if we receive no respect in them; in certain social milieus we may learn the price of disrespect if we violate the street law: “Diss me, and you die.” Calls to respect this or that are increasingly part of public life: environmentalists exhort us to respect nature, foes of abortion and capital punishment insist on respect for human life, members of racial and ethnic minorities and those discriminated against because of their gender, sexual orientation, age, religious beliefs, or economic status demand respect both as social and moral equals and for their cultural differences. And it is widely acknowledged that public debates about such demands should take place under terms of mutual respect.
Also in understanding respect we may also learn that how our lives go depends every bit as much on whether we have regard for ourselves. The value of self-respect may be something we can take for granted, or we may discover how very important it is when it is threatened, or we lose it and have to work to regain it, or we have to struggle to develop or maintain it in a hostile environment.
Some people find that finally being able to respect themselves is what matters most about getting off welfare, kicking a disgusting habit, or defending something they value; others, sadly, discover that life is no longer worth living if self-respect is irretrievably lost. It is part of everyday wisdom that respect and self-respect are deeply connected, that it is difficult if not impossible both to respect others if we don’t respect ourselves and to respect ourselves if others don’t respect us. It is increasingly part of political wisdom both that unjust social institutions can devastatingly damage self-respect and that robust and resilient self-respect can be a potent force in struggles against injustice.
Also bear in mind that it has to do with;
- Treating others the way you want to be treated.
- Showing kindness and consideration.
- Liking yourself enough to be yourself.
- Accepting others for who they are.
- If people respect you, do same and if they disrespect you, still respect them back.They represent your ideology and you represent yours. Even if it means nothing to you it might mean everything to them.
As much as beauty remains, the most beautiful people in this world are not those with the pretty faces and skinny bodies, nah! It is those who know how to respect the beauty of others.
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