Vasily Ivanovich,

Oh, why are your socks dirtier than mine?

Well, Petka, I’m OLDER than YOU!

Often, when talking to elderly people, I showed some impatience, which might seem to them a slight deviation from the rules of politeness.

To which he received a mild rebuke:

Like, I’m older than you and you SHOULD SHOW MORE RESPECT FOR MY AGE!

Of course, in such cases, I immediately offered my sincere apologies and tried to more strictly control my norms of behavior and treatment of old people.

But the question remained:

WHY should I show respect for a person’s advanced age?

What is HIS special merit, which should be respected?

That he was able to live to that age? So, it’s not so much his merit as his genes and luck.

Should I have special respect for the person who won the lottery FOR THIS PRIZE? In my opinion, this is not his merit, and for this no respect, at least in my eyes, is not added to him at all!

Let’s get to the “bigger” question: Why should we show respect to each other at all?

For example, there is an idiotic and thoroughly false rule in court, when the judge enters, EVERYONE PRESENT MUST STAND up as a sign of respect for a person who, being bribed, following the instructions of his superiors or simply out of personal antipathy to the defendant. to pass the harshest sentence on him, KNOWING PERFECTLY WELL that he IS INNOCENT.

This rule was invented a long time ago by some rogue villain and, since it is clearly not unsuitable for the arbiters of human destinies, it is fixed in the judicial rules and protocols. Like another blatant scam: In a casino, gambling house, you have to be dressed almost like a royal reception. Women in special fan toilets, men in tailcoats, etc.

And what is it, a casino – a gambling house?

The most outright fraudulent rip-off of greedy fools, manipulating one of the oldest levers of the psychology of parasites: To get hold of a freebie!

Just like some long-standing unwritten rule: GAMBLING DEBTS should be paid OFF WITHOUT FAIL… or be shot himself.

Pushkin, by the way, never repaid these debts, and after his death, his wife’s sister Alexandrina and Emperor Nicholas I paid off Pushkin’s monstrous debts. Of course, for various reasons.

Alexandrina, to help her sister, the Emperor, to get this sister into his bed…

(For his possessive, selfish intransigence and non-compliance with the unwritten rule of the Court: No one ever refuses the Emperor anything! Pushkin paid with his life.)

For a long time now, like Don Quixote, I have been fighting the idiotic label “Genius”, which, if it is attached to someone by the upper class in the herd, immediately any of his thoughts and deeds are universally recognized as genius, including the products of his bladder and colon. And this is not my grotesque description of the situation, but a deplorable reality.

Pushkin viciously scolded and just as unconvincingly argued for just that:

“The crowd greedily reads confessions, notes, etc., because in their meanness they rejoice at the humiliation of the high, the weaknesses of the mighty. When it discovers every abomination, it is in awe. He’s small like us, he’s nasty like us!

You’re lying, you scoundrels: he’s both small and vile — not the way you are — otherwise.”

(From a letter to Prince Vyazemsky)

“In the wilderness, exhausted by a lenten life,

And tortured by the stomach,

I’m not soaring, I’m sitting like an eagle,

And am sick with diarrhea.

I’m saving a stock of paper,

To strain of inspiration being alien.

I rarely go to Parnassus,

But only for great need”

(From another letter to Vyazemsky.)

Does this mean that Pushkin, the “GENIUS”, has such a DIFFERENT PROCESS than any other ORDINARY, NON-brilliant person? A peasant, a prince or an emperor???

(Pushkin, unfortunately, did not reveal the meaning of his categorical statement that IT happens “DIFFERENTLY” for him!)

Respect should be SPECIFIC and WELL-DEFINED, and not “generally” vague.

If an individual has done a heroic or clever deed, or created something perfect: a theory, a painting, a piece of music, or shown intelligence or integrity, then yes, he deserves every respect FOR THIS!

If he cheated, denounced, betrayed someone, lied, in general, committed a heinous act or expressed abomination, then he does not deserve the slightest respect.. So, it turns out that one should be respected NOT IN GENERAL, but specifically, for something or NOT respected either.

I wrote recently that one of the difficult tasks in dealing with fools is precisely their categorical requirement to show respect for their stupid and ridiculous actions, but under the guise of respect for them as simply people worthy of it!

No, dear ones!

You will not get respect for the fact that you have two legs, two arms and one head – a STUPID one!

Summary: It is possible and necessary to respect someones for their actions, and not for the fact that someone looks just humanlike!

7 V 2025