Do you respect a lack of respect?

Has anyone noticed the lack of respect that people tend to have anymore? It’s everywhere. You can see it in children who don’t respect their parents, students who don’t respect their teachers, workers who don’t respect their bosses, and millions of others who don’t respect the authorities that have been put over them. It’s extremely annoying too. (I mean is it that hard to show a little respect?) Do these people who seem to lack respect ever wonder why those others were put in positions over them, or how they feel when they aren’t respected as they should be? After all there are reasons why there are others in authority over us. And very legitimate ones at that. Have you ever thought about what the world would be like without authorities or leaders? It would be utter Chaos! I mean sure there would be certain groups of people who could organize and govern themselves, but only by appointing leaders. And everywhere else would just be horrible. Without leaders and authorities everything that even hinted at order and functionality within groups of people would disappear. Maybe it would not be this extreme but it would still be pretty bad. So what does the concept of the absence of authorities have to do with the lack of respect for those authorities? Well, have you ever thought about what exactly a lack of respect for someone is? When someone shows a lack of respect, usually for someone else, they are really implying that they wish that other person didn’t exist. Let’s look at an illustration of this concept. Say Thomas, we’ll call him, doesn’t respect his local police officer, because Thomas drives just a little to fast the police officer always pulls him over and gives him a ticket. The truth of the matter is this: that the police officer is just doing his job, maybe a little over zealously, but doing it nonetheless; and Thomas really should drive at the speed limit, not above it. Thomas doesn’t respect the officer because Thomas really just wishes that the officer were gone, because Thomas really just wants to drive whatever speed he wants to. And if the officer wasn’t there, then Thomas could go whatever speed he wanted. But then again look at all the auto-accidents caused by people who don’t follow the speed limits. Overall the situation is that Thomas doesn’t want the police officer there so he can go any speed he wants to, so therefore Thomas doesn’t show any respect to the officer. This reason for disrespect is true in many other situations. For example: children often disrespect their parents because they set and enforce rules which the children don’t like. Students don’t respect their teachers because their teachers because they assign homework and enforce school rules. Workers don’t respect their bosses because they give out to much work or to short of deadlines. And so on. All most of these authorities are doing is their job, but because those under them don’t like the authorities job and wish these authorities gone, they disrespect them. Now don’t get me wrong here. This is not the only reason behind disrespect. There are as many good and valid reasons for disrespecting someone as there are bad and selfish ones. But this is one of the main causes of disrespect. This type of disrespect is so annoying for one main reason. In most of these situations, it’s not that hard to show some respect! Seriously! How hard is it to realize that those over you are only trying to do their jobs and disrespecting them only makes their life harder. Is it so hard to give them a break and show a little respect, regardless of your opinions of them? It might not be a bad thing to consider, especially as we head out into the world. For someday we will undoubtedly be in a situation were we have others under us, and quite likely one of them will not respect us. If we learn how to respect others now we will better know how to handle situations with the disrespectful in the future. And something else to consider: By showing respect to those in authority over you, you make their lives easier and they in turn, will make your life easier.