Respect or Fear

I have often seen scenes on TV or in the movies where a gangster or a bully announce that they want someone’s respect and then shoot or beat them up because they didn’t get it. I would like to have the courage, in a circumstance where I am confronted by a tough guy demanding my respect, to say: “You don’t really want my respect, you want my fear. To gain my respect, or for that matter anyone else’s, you need to have demonstrated a level of nobility, either through your actions or lifestyle, which to my knowledge you have not. So yes, I do fear you but have not seen any reason to respect you” Recently I have exchanged a few emails with a friend regarding the Iran Nuclear Deal and a foreign leader working our system to blow it up. In one response my friend mentioned that our president has no respect from the international community. I have also heard and read comments from our brethren on the right bemoaning the fact that we have lost the respect of the world because of our president’s weakness in dealing with our foes. Presidential candidates are proclaiming that if elected, under their leadership we will regain the respect we have lost during this administration. Like in the case above, here also I think they don’t understand the word respect. What they want is not for the world to respect us but to fear us and through this fear allow us to pursue our goals, noble or otherwise. We have by far the strongest military and one of the largest economies and I am sure we are adequately feared. Over the last several decades however, the respect, in the true sense of the word, has dwindled. In the middle of the last century we were setting the standards for governance, labor practices, law, medicine, education and infrastructure. Countries were struggling to rise to our level. Toward the end of last century and into the beginning of this, our infrastructure has crumbled, the health of our population has declined, we have one of the poorer primary education systems among the developed nations, we are allowing ourselves to be dragged down to the least common denominator in our labor practices and our governance is being questioned. (Though I must say our military has remained strong.) Yes, the world may fear us less, though I doubt it. But during Obama’s presidency we have regained some of the respect lost during the last few administrations. For us to get back to being the “gold standard” of the world will take more than just the skills of a president, though that’s crucial, it will take our collective will and the wisdom of our elected officials driving policies that get us back to being the most respected (I didn’t say feared) nation in the world.