Respect your elders?

There is a saying which gets pulled out of a hat now and again it is"respect your elders" and I will admit to disliking it to the point of vomiting. Respect is an odd concept. Because someone has a certain position in life it doesn't mean they should be given respect. There is for example a number of presidents in America who never had the respect of some of the public, or here, the Royal Family or even our own Prime Ministers. Because a certain office is held it doesn't mean the holder of said office should be given automatic respect. The same goes for age. I don't know why it was but I am sure this saying was said a number of times when growing up. In my real experience I have found older people as ignorant, racist and plain dumb as anyone else. Age should not confer an automatic status of respect. In fact such people who say these words do so in order to shut down a conversation or argument, as though they are magic words and to an extent rules. They are not. Hence it was with unsurprising when I saw a video of an elderly woman who was in dispute with a mother carrying her baby and didn't want her to sit on the seat next to her in a first class train department.


Mother and baby in first class row

The clip shows an elderly woman with the mistaken belief she can say what she likes to another person, additionally it shows snobbery if not racism. For in the early part of the video she says "you should respect your elders and betters" such a comment in certain circles would be like waving a red flag to a bull. What can certainly be said of the mother is how respectful she is to a bitter old goat who has spoken without thinking. The baby is the cutest little baby boy you could see, he is quiet and oblivious to what is going on around him. Had this mother been hysterical no doubt he would of taken on her feelings and felt afraid, in turn he would of cried and made the journey unpleasant for everyone. In my opinion this woman deserves a medal and the old girl should be fined for bad behaviour unbecoming of an individual who should know better. The mother kept calm and her behaviour was impeccable. The other odd thing which is noticeable from this video clip is when what appears to be an elderly man off camera interjects on behalf of the old woman. As though he has some business and say in the discussion. Again with dignity it is explained to him why the mother can take the seat. Unfortunately to say like the old woman he seemed to show an instance of stupidity and ignorance.

The word respect is used too much and should be banned from all use. Those who are old and would like this to be a baseball-bat-killer punch had better beware, because one thing for sure I have not and never will give anyone respect just down to their age. For there have been way too many instances I've encountered where elderly people don't deserve it and they certainly don't get it from me.