fostel@ncsu.UUCP (07/22/83)
My own feelings on the "respect" issue are that one respects ones
superiors, while one is polite to everyone. (At least you should be.)
Thus I respect someones carpentry skills, or moral fibre, or knowledge
of UNIX, but that respect is distinct from politeness. I would go so
far as to say that it is possible to show respect without the need to
be polite. Silence for example is not necessarily a polite response,
but it might be an indication of respect -- e.g. a crook caught by a cop.
I would be willing to extent respect to peers, as well as superiors,
but think that would tend to dilute the distinction as well as the
significance of the respect. What value has respect if it is accorded
to too many people?
For those of you puzzled by this, the discussion started in net.lang,
where it does not belong, and is (hopefully) being moved to net.nlang,
where it does belong. Original question was something to the effect of
a request for definitions of "respect", with the issue of politeness
added by soemone else along the way.
----GaryFostel----