The difference between being respectable and being respected

A lot of respect goes to those who don’t deserve it. A lot of people who deserve respect don’t get it. When people show respect to others, respectability is usually not a factor.

To me, being respectable is about being a good person. If you show respect, you are more worthy of respect. If you’re making the world a better place, you’re worthy of respect.

Unfortunately, most people no longer care about worthy people being able to earn respect. To figure out who to respect, they turn to others such as the media, the schools, the government, friends, and even advertisements (companies like Apple gaining respect by telling you to respect them).

Take a look at athletes sometime. The most respectable are humble team-players who don’t view themselves as above their teams. They do not promote themselves. Take a look at the Sedin twins sometime for an incredible example of respectable athletes. By comparison, there are a lot of athletes who are in love with themselves. These are the athletes a lot of people are drawn to, and the athletes that generally get the most respect and admiration. Michael Jordan was highly respected as a basketball player, but not even remotely respectable.

I also have to bring up the teaching profession. This is perhaps the most respected and least respectable profession in existence. These people engage in mental genocide, but people never hesitate to defend them regardless of their actions. They are destroying this world while everyone insists that the world would collapse without them.

Part of the problem is mass mindlessness. We are in an era when people don’t bother to form their own thoughts, beliefs, and opinions. I would prefer that respect is earned. Instead, we let people tell us to respect them.