Respect Has Many Faces

May 27, 2018 Morality No Comments

which are all related to a sense of morality: respect for the group, for authority, for human suffering… and also respect for ‘me’ which can be ego or total self.

Delving towards ‘oneness’

The more one delves into human issues, the more one gets the feeling that everything is related. The deeper one goes, the more there is ‘oneness’… If you like, call it ‘soul’.

One can see this also in the case of respect. In depth, it unites the domain of morality, drawing one’s caring for only the closest towards caring for many until reaching ‘all sentient beings’… which doesn’t mean caring less for anyone nearby.

Caring is NOT a zero sum game!

This is not evident to many (most?) people.

Caring doesn’t mean dividing all your resources. It doesn’t mean feeling bad for the suffering of all ‘sentient beings’. It doesn’t mean altruism in the sense of forgetting your own needs and happiness.

Caring is about not closing your eyes and looking the other way. It is daring to see and to respect reality. This is at the same time also the most scientific stance and the most re-ligious (‘spiritual’) one (see also Science = Re-ligion). Talking about oneness?

Respecting in-group, respecting out-group

Here also: no zero sum game. One can respect the in-group very much and even more in seeing this in-group caring for the out-group. This kind of caring may be an end-value of the in-group itself.

Is this still a natural, spontaneously ‘Darwinian’ striving? Does the in-group not jeopardize itself this way? Not in the sense of caring as explained in the previous paragraph. Concretely, the in-group may take care of itself even more in order to take care in a much broader sense. This may go deep and thus deeply unite the individuals of the in-group.

This may strengthen the in-group in the most powerful and durable way

thus unifying an etiological, ‘Darwinian’ natural drive with a teleological (goal-oriented) drive that doesn’t float away in distant space but is equally concrete: people are very sensitive to having a deep and worthy goal and to ‘giving oneself’ to such a goal. It is related to feeling the ultimate meaning of one’s life. Without it, people are prone to wither away. So, is it important? Yes, thus:

the many faces of respect are all important at the same time.

When ‘ego’ enters the scene, things get more complicated, since in a way ego lives by distinction and comparison. Thus, it will also readily make distinction as: “I demand respect!” And cursed be you if you don’t give it to me… says the nascent narcist (living a bit in all of us, doesn’t it?). Unfortunately, this also engulfs the distinction between

respect for ego >< respect for total self.

What appears respectful to one can be very similar to what appears respectless to another person and vice versa. A source of possibly huge misunderstandings. It would be easier if a proper insight into human being (about existence and importance of ‘deeper self’) would be culturally ingrained and, well, respected. Let’s hope humanity can progress in that direction. In the meantime, it’s something that needs to be taken care of each time you want to ‘transcend ego’ at yourself or others.

Not easy at all, see The Distinction Between ‘Ego’ and ‘Total Self’ is Difficult to Grasp.

Respect, openness, depth, freedom, trustworthiness.

are the five AURELIS moral values. You need all five to fully grasp any one of them. See also Five Aurelian Values.

Respect here has the face of going inward and then right through and very much outward. For instance: respect for nature as seen through the eyes of a total person. It’s the seeing that demands the respect. Thus, it’s at first place the seeing that needs quality of attention. In order to give respect to anything, you need to take care of the quality of your seeing.

AURELIS as a whole is an endeavor towards this, in respect also to ego as part of total self.