Respect and Disrespect

Political Disrespect and Degeneracy

Disrespect can take many forms. We saw in Northern Ireland how disrespect turns to hostility; hostility turns to violence and violence turns to murder. In such situations we need a cultural, philosophical and legal framework to control aggressive disrespect. Basing the way we treat others on a principle of respect is not a bad starting point for any culture. Notice that I am not arguing for universal harmony and agreement merely for a basic and fundamental respect and cooperation to be at the basis of our culture.

Land Grabbing

Think of the land grabbing as a form of political disrespect. At one level of analysis it can be thought of as part of the evolutionary struggle for dominance and survival and in that sense can be construed as perfectly natural. As territorial animals we dispute for territory. When population density reaches a certain level territorial thinking will lead to aggression. However in the case of humans this can also be so extreme that it should be considered as an evolutionary survival strategy gone awry. In Scotland we can see how the former clan chiefs dispossessed the people of their land during the Highland Clearances and then had the audacity to celebrate the fact by building themselves stupendous castles. Take for example the activities of the Duke of Sutherland which culminated in the building of Dunrobin Castle (A Scottish friend Glenn Telfer, the author, poet and school teacher, has pointed out that to Scottish ears Dunrobin sounds like done robbin' and adds that in the case of Sutherland, when he was finished, there was no one left to rob). Like so many of our activities as thinking creatures we go beyond merely surviving in a Darwinian sense by becoming engaged into a furious energy driven pursuit of secondary goals. The wikipedia article on the Highland Clearances exemplifies this well by quoting Elizabeth Gordon, 19th Countess of Sutherland, as saying of her husband "he is seized as much as I am with the rage of improvements, and we both turn our attention with the greatest of energy to turnips ". Turnips you will note, not people. Consider other land grabs outwith Scotland that we have seen or are currently witnessing: the British in Ireland, the Europeans in North America, Australia and Southern Africa, and the most militant Zionists in the occupied Arab land of today. There were clearly survival benefits for the descendants of the dispossessors despite the tragedies that struck the dispossessed. Surely that can not be the only criteria by which we live.

It also pays to examine disrespect at its most extreme, ignominious and barbaric. Think of how the Nazi's treated the Jewish peoples of Europe during the holocaust and how that later resulted in the militant Zionism of today. By acting on their degrading political beliefs and inflicting a sadism of the worst kind, the Nazi's have forever left a stain on their memory. If the Nazi's achieved any good it is forever lost from our collective consciousness. By attempting to degrade believers of particular faiths and cultures they debased themselves. As Britons however we need to ask ourselves did we, in the terrible fire storms of Dresden, loose our respect by replying to the Nazi's in the way that we did?

Disrespect and Intolerance in Religion

In matters of religion similar attitudes of disrespect have long been common. Religious 'believers' from time to time treat fellow believers with appalling barbarity and even treat those who they would regard as 'non-believers' as less than citizens. Take for example the comments in 1987 of George Bush Senior, vice president of the USA, "I don't know that atheists should be regarded as citizens" (see the quotations page).

We need not venture out of Scotland however to see the effects of this kind of world view in operation. Consider the pointless barbarity between catholics and protestants during the Scottish Reformation. In 1528, to take just one example, Patrick Hamilton was the first protestant be burned at the stake for heresy, in Saint Andrews. This psychopathology was followed in that same town by the religiously inspired murder of others such as George Wishart and Cardinal David Beaton. Can any of us today respect the perpetrators of these acts? It is a particular irony that the town of St Andrews still houses one of Scotland's ancient medieval Universities. It is perhaps also a lesson in the virtue or scholarly reason.

Inevitability and Reciprocity

Is the corruption of power so often practiced in political or religious spheres inevitable? When disrespect for fellow beings creeps in to our culture the answer would seem to be yes. When respect evaporates we erode our sense of justice and of reciprocity.

Rarely does it seem to occur to politicians that as they demean others and deliberately foster disrespect for their opponents this has the effect of demeaning the whole political class to which they belong. The contagion of disrespect is then spread to the electorate and is in part responsible for the political disconnection between the elected and electors that has weakened British democracy.

Populations operating in a climate of disrespect will allow the perpetration of great wrong on others as we have seen many times throughout our imperial history. Consider the activities of war criminal Blair and his co-conspiritor Bush. What respect did they have for domestic political opinion, the welfare of UK and US citizens involved in the fighting or the lives, well being and property of the Iraqi people? With heartless and indifferent arrogance Blair merely suggests that he got it wrong and that he had made an honest mistake. It will be a mark of Iraqi self-respect and political maturity if one day he and Bush are tried (probably in absentia) as war criminals. Such a process may be along time in coming. However before they die it would be desirable that Blair, Bush and the sadists who supported them will be held accountable. If you are hostile to the idea of a trial in Baghdad or at the Hague for Blair and Bush ask yourself a series of questions:

A) What would your response be if London or Washington were bombed like Baghdad and hundreds of thousands of our people died as a consequence of war visited on us by a country which we had in no way threatened.
B) If the situation had been reversed and the psychopathic Saddam Hussein had declared war on our countries because we actually do possess massive and mobilized weapons of mass destruction, how would we stand on the issue of his criminal trial?
C) How many of us in Britain and the US have lost even one night's sleep over the deaths of our soldiers and the people of Iraq?
D) Why are we so indifferent to the suffering that our nations have imposed directly or by recklessly destabilizing that country?
E) Are we exempt from the 'golden rule' or 'ethic of reciprocity' in international affairs?
F) And on a purely technical point is there a prima fascia case for the arrest of Blair and Bush?

[For more information on Iraq War deaths go to the following sources of information the wikipedia article or iraqbodycount.org. To understand that others including US Congressmen and British MP's have related views to the ones expressed here see Movement to impeach George W. Bush and Impeach Blair campaign].

Even when politicians appear to start out with ideals that appear to give them the desire not to engage in such debasing activities, the struggle for authority seems to override this consideration. In the British parliament and in public comments by politicians, expression of disrespect for the abilities of political opponents is treated as an art form instead of being thought of as self-degrading. This is a great pity for it is possibly one of many catalysts that eventually drive these people into to a state of mind where they feel that they can take actions, which in other circumstances, we would regard as a breach of the criminal law.

Despite our evolutionary programming we can and should learn to moderate our disrespect. Religious institutions and political parties know well how to play this card when they are socially weak and will ask that we respect their most outlandish beliefs and practices. When they become stronger and more established and are in a position to abuse power they inevitably devise ways of turning the thumbscrews. Only by continuing to challenge and change social norms and power structures can we maintain an acceptable balance of competing interests and so lead to better more fulfilling lives.

Next >

On the Nature of Belief

Respect and Disrespect

Political Disrespect and Degeneracy

Disrespect and Intolerance in Religion

Inevitability and Reciprocity