The myth of respect...

I really dislike words that act as vessels.  They simply take the meaning of whoever wants to fill it up with their own personal bullshit.  'Respect' is one of those words.

A black person living in da 'hood has a completely different meaning for the word than say some old Asian grandmother living in Japan.  The former could mean it to be looking at him/her the wrong way while the latter uses it as a means to prevent talk-back from their grandchildren.  But there is one consistent usage of the word's connotation: A double standard.

I'm not certain if there is any valid way to define the word because the word, like 'Love', takes on so many different meanings depending on its usage.  But like I said earlier, it is usually used to enforce some kind of double-standard, especially with regards to older people.

This idea of 'respect for elders' isn't just a first-generation immigrant concept that brings with it the traditions of the 'old-world.'  Many white people also feel the same way but I'm speaking purely anecdotally here.  But the idea here is if you talk back to your elders, it's disrespectful.  If you don't serve them food before yourself, it's disrespectful.  If you don't listen to them, it's disrespectful.  I call bullshit on all of it.

Simply living longer than your relatives does not give you a pass on being reasonable.  Nor does it give you carte-blanche to do whatever you want and think they must accept it.  The only reason why it's accepted at all is because society has enforced it.  Again, society has it backwards by enforcing an effect that assumes the cause already exists.  Let me explain.

If...a parent loves their child and raises them correctly, a child will naturally love the parent back and take care of them when the parent gets too old and lacks their independence.  What society assumes is the parents' love. So when a parent raises a child through force, usage of double standards and intimidation and as a result a child does not turn out the way society expects it should based on the assumption that the parent was a loving and understanding, they must find a way to force the child to take care of the unloving parent by using the word 'respect' and the rules that surround it.  It forces the child to be the kind of child the parents couldn't raise.  But whose fault is that?  It certainly cannot be the child's.  The child was forced into the relationship with the parents.  They couldn't choose to be born or select the parents it deserved to have.

The truth is old people, especially those who had children, do not deserve respect or any kind of special reverence simply as a function of time.  Until they can understand concepts of truth and consistency and the laws of nature, as it applies to everyday life (not necessarily as a physicist), with the motivation to achieve higher levels of understanding, old people are basically no different than young people.  Sure, they've lived longer and noticed longer-trending patterns but without understanding their causes, are incapable of passing down any real insight to any subsequent generations.

It still follows the same pattern:  What people do not understand, they make up in force.