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Nona the brit Posted 20 years ago
Culture

Respect for those in authority and 'important' people

We've been debating the issue of respect for teachers in another thread and I think this makes an interesting topic for discussion.

It seems to me that there are two types of society.

Those whose members automatically respect people because of their position/situation, whether they be teachers, older people, men, from a certain family or background, royalty, employers, members of a certain profession, caste/class/whatever.

Those whose members don't automatically respect people because of these things but work out whether they respect someone or not on a personal level because of their achievements and personality.

I can see that there are advantages and disadvantages to both types of culture.

In the UK I'd say that most of us fall into the second category these days, but were historically in the first.

Which do you think is better? Or should we try to find some sort of 'middle ground' between the two attitudes?
  

Top answer

We here in China still fall into the first category these days with our respects to teachers. And people tend not to trust doctors any more. (I don't know what will happen in the following years.

  • We here in China still fall into the first category these days with our respects to teachers.
  • And people tend not to trust doctors any more.
  • (I don't know what will happen in the following years.
  • Something must be done to convert this abnormal phenomenon.
  • ) I'm not very sure about the trends of the attitudes towards other positions/situations.
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6 Answers
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We here in China still fall into the first category these days with our respects to teachers.

And people tend not to trust doctors any more. (I don't know what will happen in the following years. Something must be done to convert this abnormal phenomenon. )

I'm not very sure about the trends of the attitudes towards other positions/situations. We are still advocating the respects
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Hmm. Perhaps a combination. These days, more "positions" are earned rather than being hereditary. I don't think that I would feel any automatic respect for someone who was simply born into a position. However, people who have earned their position through study and hard work, I am inclined to feel automatic respect as my "default." But I can easily lose respect for them if they don't demonstrate w
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Our society (in Ukraine) struggled for equality for a while (but some of us appeared to be ‘more equal than the others’ ((C) Orwell) in the end. In schools we were taught to respect common people, the most honorable were professions of workers, miners, drivers and collective-farmers and so on. The profession of teacher was highly respectable, too (especially in villages). So it seemed to be the fi
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When I was a child I learned form my parents that one should respect elderpersons and teachers etc.But as a mature person I think that these things should be followed to some extent but not blindly because I met some teachers and elderly persons who didn't behave repectably.I personally feel that as the younger should respect the elders, elders should also be respectable, otherwise it becomes ju
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you're right Jhumjhum: unfortunately I've often been insulted by old people just because I was younger than them, so I agree when you say that they should also be respectable!
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Agree with everybody, the second attitude is right because it's a real freedom of feeling to respect anybody. But for my attitude, I think we should respect to everybody : younger, elder, high or low status anything even a poor beggar because everybody has his equal chance to get a higher status one day.

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